In short: what’s always been done, isn’t always what’s best.

It’s as if Blake Lively knows that intrinsically and decided to take the standard “launch” script and throw it out the window.

And as if she couldn’t be cool enough already, she recently broke onto the scene with “not another celebrity alcohol” per se, but instead – “sparkling non-alcoholic mixers crafted for your favorite spirits but tasty enough to fly solo.”

(Which as one commenter pointed out, is also a well-played reference to her husband Ryan Reynolds. Their hilarious online trolling of one another continues!)

First of all, the playful, casual, clear, yet almost sarcastic voice of that one-liner already had me like “Color me intrigued…”

As I tapped through her Story, announcing the launch of Betty Buzz, I found myself smirking at her clever, nonchalant approach and wanting to click right over to the website and buy.

So for our first blog edition of The Uncorked Case Files, let’s take a closer look at why I think Blake’s approach to intro’ing her new brand + product worked so well.

Obviously, Blake is stunning so this image caught my eye and almosttt even reminded me of our shadowy brand shoot this past spring with Arielle Levey. ? But aside from that, I loved how this first slide in her Story served as “the hook” as she questions the norm and pokes fun at what other celebrities typically do.

She tells us we won’t find that here. So what will we find? WHAT WILL WE FIND, BLAKE!?

Next, she “disguises” so-to-speak a desirable feature of her product (perfect, tightly explosive pops) explained in an almost humorous way and calls herself out for spending the past 3 years obsessing over it.

Who doesn’t love a passionate founder? Not to mention, wanting everything to be perfect for launch is something I think any entrepreneur can relate to.

She really wanted us to know how much time went into Betty Buzz. She essentially says, “No, guys, this didn’t happen overnight, okay? No one did this all for me. I was involved! Like really, really involved!”

It’s funny, relatable ’cause don’t we all struggle with bandwidth management, and also admirable because she reiterates how much she cares about the perfect pour.

She’s built up the value in such a subtle way, but at this point, I gotta have it…

But oh no, she’s not done. She wants us to hear more about the behind-the-scenes of the process and the intentionality that went into “lightly balancing the real fruit juice in each flavor […] because there was no way our @bettybuzz SPARKLING MIXERS could have crap flavors or sweeteners.”

How much more fun is that to read than something that follows the norm and comes at it from the angle of the drinks being ‘skinny’ or ‘healthy’ or ‘all-natural and organic.’ That’s great and all but come on, most of us just want to know that what we’re drinking isn’t a bunch of crap.

Check and check on that. Now that she’s aligned her brand + audience’s values…

She brings further personality into it by focusing on connection and even a splash (see what I did there?) of self-proclaimed credibility by saying “I should also mention I’m a mixologist. Says me.”

But rather than being prescriptive and telling her audience what to do, she recognizes them as the individuals they are and reminds them, hey, it’s your choice to drink or not. “It’s your mouth.”

Not it’s your body, or it’s your personal choice to decide whether you imbibe or not…no. Just “It’s your mouth.”

As if I couldn’t love her more at this point, she starts to bring her Story to a close with a little humility and acknowledgments of her team.

She wanted us to know she’s involved (she’s not just the face of a brand that was fully created for her) BUT she also knows she didn’t and couldn’t have done it alone.

So she subtly jabs at what other celebrities might say when they state, “It’s the best thing I’ve ever done.” But Blake puts her “I’ve” in quotes ’cause hey, there’s no ‘I’ in team, right?

And finally, she closes it out with a textbook call-to-action and another on-brand image with a nostalgic pop culture reference that makes you laugh and love her even more.

Obviously, I headed right over to the link in her profile to visit the website.

Yup. Just as pleased to see how ‘buzz’ and ‘small fizzy bubbles’ were played out in her branding with an old school airplane as part of the logo and balloons to show just how light and fizzy it really is.

The copy is super minimal but manages to tell a story and lead into…

This clear headline takes the phrase “sparkling non-alcoholic mixers” and breaks it into 3 sentences to list them as individual features. It’s a perfect execution of their casual, punchy, playful brand voice.

And naturally, I love the secondary use of “buzz” to say “See what the buzz is about…”

After shopping around, I headed back to Instagram to read more of the captions…

I don’t know what it is about the “No typos in this caption.” but it had me almost losing my sip of wine. Maybe because it almost sounds too good to be true and they practically just say nope, nah, it’s legit. Don’t cha want it?

And you’re reminded of how much time Blake spent perfecting each flavor all over again.

I’ll close with this sensory one-sentence caption that did in fact make me wish I was sipping a Betty Buzz Sparkling Lemon Lime and being transported beach-side with a warm ocean breeze.

The takeaway?

Launching can be fun. You can toss the script. Play up and play into your brand voice to entertain, create intrigue and level with your audience.

Bravo, Blake. BRA-VO. ??

Cheers,

Kaitlyn