Ben Lomond Gin has built one of the more coherent and authentic spirits sponsorships in British sport.
As the Official Gin of The Open since 2023, the brand has consistently moved beyond logo placement to create participatory campaigns that connect fans, trade professionals, and the Championship itself.
The “Serve of The Open” competition is the centerpiece of that strategy — a platform that asks the public and bartending community to become co-creators of the event experience rather than passive consumers.
Now in its third year, the 2026 edition arrives at a pivotal moment. The campaign has matured, the formula is established, and for the first time, it has opened its doors to amateur mixologists — a meaningful evolution.
But Year 3 is also where brand activations face their greatest test: can they remain fresh, or do they become predictable?
This review assesses the campaign’s attractiveness and effectiveness, drawing on publicly announced information, and offers concrete recommendations on how Ben Lomond can sharpen its approach.
What Works Well
- Ownable Brand Territory: The campaign carves out a genuinely distinctive space. Ben Lomond and The Open share a deep Scottish heritage — a small cairn on the west side of Prestwick Golf Club marks the spot where the first Open tee shot was struck, giving the partnership authentic roots beyond mere logo placement.
- Smart Democratization Move in Year 3. For the first time, the campaign has been extended beyond professional bartenders to include amateur mixologists. This is a textbook lifecycle move — Year 1 establishes credibility with trade professionals, Year 3 opens the funnel to mass participation. It meaningfully expands reach and press angles.
- Multi-Criteria Judging Creates Better Content. Cocktails are judged on taste, creativity, the story behind the serve, and scalability for a major international event. The “story” criterion in particular is smart — last year’s winner, Scott Dunlop, created a “Brambles in the Rough” cocktail inspired by his grandmother Helen, who lives with Alzheimer’s, giving the campaign emotional depth and media-friendly human-interest content.
- Tangible, High-Status Prize: VIP tickets, accommodation, a hamper, and a cash prize tied to a genuine public placement of the winning recipe make for a strong offer. The winning cocktail will be served at the Ben Lomond Gin Garden, the Loch Lomond Whiskies bar, and selected R&A stands, with real visibility at a major event, not a consolation gift.
- Live Finale Creates Event Marketing Selected finalists will be invited to compete at a dedicated judging event at the newly opened Luss Distillery, where they will present their creations to a panel of expert judges. This generates a second wave of content and PR beyond the initial launch.
Weaknesses & Areas to Improve
- The Campaign Formula is aging. This is Year 3 with essentially the same mechanics. The press coverage, while present in trade outlets, shows diminishing novelty. The language (“hugely successful in the past”) reads as backward-looking. Without a meaningful creative twist each year, the campaign risks becoming wallpaper.
Tip: Introduce a rotating annual challenge layer — e.g., in 2026, entries must incorporate a botanical native to the Lancashire coast near Royal Birkdale. This ties the creative brief to the specific host venue each year, which also makes the serve feel truly “of” that year’s Open rather than generically “of The Open.”
- Royal Birkdale Is Underused in the brief. The campaign encourages inspiration from “links heritage and Championship atmosphere,” but the brief given to participants doesn’t strongly anchor to Royal Birkdale specifically — its Southport coastline, Lancashire character, dune landscape, or local flavors. Previous years leaned more explicitly into host-town identity (the Troon campaign was literally called “What Makes Troon, Troon”).
Tip: Give entrants a specific creative brief tied to Birkdale — the salt air, the dunes, Lancashire botanicals, the seaside town of Southport. This produces more distinctive, venue-specific serves and stronger storytelling.
- The Timeline is Very Tight for Public Participants. Public entrants will be notified by Monday, 4 May, if they have secured a place in the final round. With The Open running 12–19 July, this is a reasonable runway for professionals, but amateur entrants need time to source ingredients, develop recipes, and prepare a presentation. Tight timelines disadvantage the very audience they’ve just invited.
Tip: Launch the public-facing competition at least 8–10 weeks earlier in the calendar, or create a simplified entry pathway for amateurs (e.g., a concept submission with a recipe, rather than a fully developed serve) with a later development stage.
- Weak Social/Digital Amplification Mechanics. The campaign, as described, is largely a submission portal — there’s no structured social-sharing mechanism, hashtag activation, or UGC loop visible in the materials. Participants create serves, but there’s no obvious incentive to share their entry or the brand’s content publicly while the competition runs.
Tip: Add a public voting element (even for a “People’s Choice” secondary prize) to drive social sharing and recruit non-participants as engaged fans. A challenge mechanic — “share your home attempt at a Ben Lomond serve for The Open” — could generate a parallel wave of organic content.
- The Spokesperson Opportunity is Underexploited. The campaign quote comes from the Drinks Development Lead, which is appropriate, but misses an opportunity to co-opt a golfer, a golf commentator, or a well-known figure in the golf/hospitality world as a named judge to amplify reach.
Tip: Recruit one recognizable golf or lifestyle personality as a named judge. This gives media a better hook, extends organic reach to their audience, and elevates the perceived prestige of winning.
- No Visible Responsible Drinking Integration. For a campaign explicitly targeting a broad public audience at a major sporting event, there’s no visible responsible drinking messaging in any of the materials reviewed.
Tip: Weave in a visible, non-preachy responsibility message — it protects the brand, is expected by regulators for public-facing alcohol campaigns, and can be done elegantly (e.g., “Made to be savored, one great serve at a time”).
My Verdict
This is a well-executed, authentic sponsorship activation that has built genuine equity over three years. The risk now is complacency.
The single most impactful change for 2027 would be building a real digital amplification engine around the campaign so the competition itself becomes a social moment, not just a trade PR story.