World Class Bartender of the Year Global Final 2021

Client: Diageo

Every year, the Diageo-run World Class Bartender of the Year Global Final brings together national winners from all over the world to compete for the title.

Amidst the pandemic, and the cancellation of the 2020 competition, plans were forged to move the 2021 event from Sydney to Madrid, but as this became more challenging, and with health and safety a top priority, the decision was made to make the event completely virtual. Chorus worked alongside technical partner, Anna Valley to realise a ‘first-of-its-kind’ virtual solution to the challenging multi-continent brief. Together, they delivered what has been described as one of the most innovative and creative virtual competitions ever seen, which has helped shape the future of the event. A staggering 50 finalists were brought together via live video links from as far afield as the US, Canada, Nigeria, and the Czech Republic. The challenges were edited together with live presenter links, expert interviews, and brand content to create an 8-hour daily show which was live streamed from 4th-8th July via the Diageo Bar Academy website, on YouTube, and Facebook – with ground-breaking results. The results for the five-day event exceeded all expectations, with the World Class Global Bartender of the Year 2021 Finals reaching more bartenders and consumers than all previous global finals combined. As Cocktail Lovers’ Magazine described the competition, “This wasn’t your bog standard Zoom call, it was a full-on production with 50 bartenders, two MTV-style presenters and a plethora of star tenders in the mix for good measure. Little wonder why the five-day event notched up a whopping 21 million views with an impressive 81.3% engagement rate.”