ANA Winners Series: Pernod Ricard’s Blaine Rueber
How are today’s leading marketers redefining connection, creativity, and competitive advantage?
In the rapidly evolving world of marketing, bold ideas and brave execution are what separate the memorable from the forgettable. As we gear up for the 2026 ANA REGGIE Brand Catalyst Awards, we’re taking a moment to celebrate the campaigns that didn’t just win trophies — they sparked conversations, shifted culture, and redefined what brand bravery looks like.
This special Q+A series shines a light on select winners from the 2025 ANA Awards, offering a behind-the-scenes look at the creative risks, strategic pivots, and unexpected moments that made their work stand out.
In this segment, Denise McDevitt, SVP of award programmes at ANA connects with Blaine Rueber, director of strategic brand communications at Pernod Ricard to discuss their REGGIE award winning work, ‘St. Patrick’s Eve’ to learn the details of Jameson’s breakthrough activation that reimagined how and when America celebrates St. Patrick’s Day.
Q> What was the moment you realised that Leap Year’s shift of St. Patrick’s Day to a Sunday could be turned into a brand-defining opportunity?
Pernod> We waited seven years for St. Patrick’s Day to fall on a Saturday and 2024 was supposed to be our year, but Leap Year had other plans. So, when we saw the calendar skip a Saturday St. Patrick’s Day after years of waiting, we knew we couldn’t let a calendar glitch get in the way of a good time and had to step in. We thought, “why not start the party the night before and create a new tradition, St. Patrick's Eve (SPE)?”
We wanted to make it clear that the calendar shouldn’t dictate how to celebrate. To warm Americans up to the idea of moving the holiday up a day earlier, we engaged talent who know how to make Saturday night special, Michael Che and Colin Jost from Saturday Night Live. The campaign not only brought friends and family together sooner and got them to raise glasses earlier but also positioned Jameson at the heart of nationwide celebrations with a countdown and a lighthearted new tradition.
Q> Creating a new holiday is no small feat. What inspired the concept of ‘St. Patrick’s Eve,’ and how did you ensure it felt authentic and celebratory?
Pernod> Riffing on New Year’s Eve, we put a Jameson twist on the traditions that Americans know and love. From SPE fashion with the creation of a limited-edition letter jacket to SPE drinks and party favours distributed to hundreds of bars across the country, we launched a month-long, nationwide countdown that culminated in a Jameson ball drop in New York’s Times Square. As we turned the iconic NYE ball green, Jameson brought thousands of fans together to celebrate the new holiday together, and in a way that only a Jameson could.
Q> From Colin Jost and Michael Che to The Sphere in Las Vegas, the campaign was packed with high-profile activations. Which one had the greatest cultural impact?
Pernod> The combination of programme touchpoints from top-tier talent access to a month-long runway for earned media to local market activations and more helped generate massive buzz and reach. We ultimately secured 932 earned pieces of coverage highlighting Jameson’s St. Patrick’s Eve campaign with 93% including branded assets – so all-around it was a success for driving cultural resonance and raising brand awareness timed to a key holiday moment.
Q> What role did social media and influencer partnerships play in building anticipation and driving engagement for St. Patrick’s Eve?
Pernod> In addition to our talent partners, who helped amplify the campaign and drive awareness for our new holiday, we also enlisted comedic lifestyle influencers and local cultural platforms to spread the word of SPE and drive consumers to our activations on social. We saw 50 pieces of content from six paid influencer partners, as well as 48 pieces of added value content from 17 earned influencers who attended our SPE event.
Q> How did you balance the boldness of creating a new tradition with the need to respect and elevate existing St. Patrick’s Day rituals?
Pernod> For Jameson, St. Patrick’s Day is not just a day – it’s a four-week “season” that defines one of the brand’s most critical business periods for the year. We feel that St. Patrick’s Eve paid respect to St. Patrick’s Day rituals and maintained its authenticity by encouraging people to celebrate on the day the holiday should have fallen, before Leap Year intervened. So, while bold, with a softening category and Sunday – a historically lighter day for alcohol sales – the programme actually helped fuel Jameson’s sales ecosystem and position the brand as the drink of St. Patrick’s Day season more broadly.
Q> Jameson’s presence across cities like NYC, Chicago, and Vegas was immersive. How did local activations contribute to national buzz?
Pernod> Across the United States, excitement for SPE soared. We gave 350 bars their own countdown clocks and SPE merchandise including limited-edition jackets to mark the occasion. In Chicago, we took over ferries on the river during the annual green river dyeing. In Times Square in NYC, we hosted a blowout SPE celebration with Che and Jost that yielded 5,000 fan RSVPs. As St. Patrick’s Day (Sunday) dawned, thousands of fans decked in Jameson swag, joined us in Times Square to count down as the green ball dropped.
These local activities helped to sustain national buzz throughout the monthlong St. Patrick’s Day season, provide in-market opportunities for consumer engagement and also had positive sales implications. We credit local market activity for contributing to the 7.8 percent increase in week-over-week sales during the week of St. Patrick’s Day in the off-premise. We saw increases week-over-week for Jameson Original in key markets where we activated, including 33 percent in Chicago, 10.9 percent in Las Vegas, 5.6 percent in New York, and 2.6 percent in Los Angeles.
Q> What was the most memorable moment for you and your team during the execution of “St. Patrick’s Eve?”
Pernod> While we are extremely proud of St. Patrick’s Eve and its results, the fact that we were the first spirit brand ever to orchestrate the iconic Waterford Crystal ball drop-in Times Square on a day other than New Year’s Eve is a moment that all of us at Jameson will never forget.
Q> If you could redo or change one thing from the experience, what would it be?
Pernod> The Jameson St. Patrick’s Eve campaign was an incredible success. We wouldn’t change a thing.
Q> From strategy to execution, impactful work depends on collaboration. Can you share how different departments or agency partners contributed to achieving such results?
Pernod> Our agency partners were instrumental in bringing Jameson St. Patrick’s Eve to life. There would not have been a programme without the thoughtful and collaborative work from Weber Shandwick, United Entertainment Group, Publicis Collective, 160, Debrain, and A2i.
Q> Looking ahead, how will the success of St. Patrick’s Eve shape Jameson’s future seasonal campaigns?
Pernod> St. Patrick’s Day will always be important to Jameson from both a cultural and business perspective, so future-forward, we will continue to seek out opportunities to engage and excite our fans, media and influencers alike. St. Patrick’s Eve was an opening to have fun with an uncontrollable circumstance as the result of 2024’s Leap Year, and we hope to have other chances in the future to elevate how people celebrate St. Patrick’s Day all season long, for many years to come.
The ANA REGGIE Brand Catalyst Awards honour the ideas, strategies, and activations that move brands — and the industry — forward. Evolving from the historic REGGIE Awards established in 1983, the programme recognises work that catalyses growth across four dimensions of brand impact: Brand Belief, Brand Equity, Brand Activation, and Brand Measurement. Celebrating creativity, data, and purpose working in harmony to drive measurable business outcomes, the REGGIE Brand Catalyst Awards reflect the ANA’s mission to power the marketing agenda and champion work that drives meaningful brand and business growth.
The final deadline to submit work into the 2026 REGGIE Brand Catalyst Awards is February 27, 2026.
The REGGIE Brand Catalyst Awards Gala and celebration of the best brand marketing will take place at a special evening dinner event on May 19, 2026, at the 2026 ANA Brand Masters Conference, in Los Angeles, CA. Awards will be presented to top brands and agencies for the top brand marketing campaigns of 2025 across 30 different categories. The event culminates with the Best in Show Award announcement, honouring the overall top campaign of the competition chosen from the Category Grand Prize winners.
To view the full portfolio of ANA Awards, visit here.
