thebar.com: Conversational Interaction + Brand Platform
Pioneering conversational and voice UX through typed questions and recorded video responses
thebar.com became a place where Diageo’s brands connected with people during important moments like choosing, making, and sharing a drink. Jack Parker, our virtual bartender, gave the site a friendly face. Visitors could ask questions, get video answers, browse recipes, and explore brands, all in a space that remembered them. At Arc Worldwide, I worked to link that interaction to a bigger system of content, promotions, registration, and rich media, making sure every part had a purpose. I always focused on connecting the personality people met with the structure that made the experience truly useful.
I approached the platform through a practical question: what would make a visitor’s next interaction worth having? Conversation, drink discovery, registration, and seasonal content needed to work as parts of one experience. I worked with design, copy, client, and technology colleagues to make the paths between them clear, then carried that direction into content reviews and new brand requests. That gave the team a coherent way to extend the experience as the platform grew.
Give people a reason to become regulars.
Diageo’s brands appealed to people with many different tastes. Someone might choose one spirit for a party and another for a gift, with each brand having its own connection to the customer. The real opportunity was to create a place that brought these choices together and built a lasting relationship.
The main idea was simple: offer people something valuable in return for their attention. Drink knowledge, entertainment, recipes, and timely offers gave visitors a reason to join. Registration allowed for personalization and future conversations. I saw the experience as a bridge between what the brand represented and what people actually needed. Every interaction had to be worth the information we requested.
Make a recorded host feel responsive.
Jack brought the welcome, humor, and personality that set the tone for the site. Visitors could ask questions in their own words and receive responses from a library of recorded video clips. An Accenture engine selected and ordered the clips, while Flash Media Server and a mix of streaming and progressive download handled playback. The result brought typed questions and spoken answers into an interaction that felt alive.
The experience anticipated the core loop of voice UX: understand a question, select a useful answer, and deliver it conversationally. People typed their questions to Jack, whose recorded voice and video carried the response. Speech recognition would change how the question entered the system; the work already connected intent, response logic, content, and personality. Each answer and next step needed to feel like one smooth experience. Drink discovery and registration became part of that flow, giving Jack a practical role beyond the welcome. My creative direction kept the personality, content, and interface behavior connected with the team building the video system.
Build usefulness beyond the first conversation.
The drink library and brand galleries gave people different ways to explore. Recipes helped with specific choices, brand pages made the portfolio easy to browse, and saved drinks gave visitors a personal collection to revisit. Consistent navigation connected these experiences. Saving a drink made the relationship useful beyond the first conversation: someone could return to a recipe they had chosen and pick up where they left off.
Seasonal content made the experience fit real moments. For the Winter Holidays, I focused on get-togethers, events, and desserts, adjusting visuals and copy to make each occasion more helpful and practical. Understanding the audience changed the content. A seasonal visit became a chance to help someone plan a gathering or find the right drink or gift.
Connect brand content to the occasion.
Connections Music added interviews, concerts, ticket offers, and artist partnerships. John Legend and Barenaked Ladies brought a cultural spark to the content, while registration connected exclusive material to an ongoing relationship. Regional concert information made the experience feel local and personal.
Content needed to stay useful as promotions changed. We designed paths for registered and unregistered visitors, a limited music-download offer, and an interview route for the period after the tracks were gone. I worked with the client, creative, and delivery teams as the content and promotion states took shape. The reviews covered entry points, registration, approvals, and what people would see when an offer ended. My focus was keeping eligibility, next steps, and the promise clear throughout the experience.
Give an expanding platform workable boundaries.
As new brand experiences were added to thebar.com, I turned requests into practical interaction and production decisions. For Zwack, I suggested reusing the John Legend and Barenaked Ladies player and moving it lower to keep the tabs visible. When personalized e-cards were suggested, I asked for a separate discussion and estimate, since that feature required extra design and development. These recommendations helped the team add new brand content without losing track of navigation or letting scope creep go unnoticed.
Technical choices shaped the experience as much as design did. I contributed revisions to a delivery-options point of view that weighed renegotiating the existing video-hosting agreement, moving to dedicated servers, and changing providers. Jack’s mix of streaming and progressive video made reliable playback central to that decision. The options carried different balances of implementation effort, recurring cost, and capacity to handle a traffic spike. That made hosting a decision about both the operating model and the experience people would receive.
Turn a memorable experience into a durable relationship.
The finished platform gave Diageo a destination with a memorable host, practical drink discovery, registration, and a foundation for ongoing content. Repeat visits and time spent on the site exceeded the goals Diageo had set. The value came from these parts working together: visitors could come for entertainment, find something useful, and build a relationship with the wider brand portfolio. My work helped connect that promise to an experience the team could extend and maintain.
We were later awarded the Captain Morgan work without a pitch, as a direct result of this project. For me, thebar.com is an early example of a principle I use in every leadership role: a compelling interaction becomes meaningful when content, customer relationships, and delivery models are aligned, and the creative relationship is clear enough for a team to build and maintain.
Role and collaboration
- Creative Director, Rich Media · Arc Worldwide
- JT Anderson
- Visual design and copy collaboration
- Julie Adams and Susie Weiner
- Client collaboration
- Rhiannon Berenbaum and the Diageo team
- Platform and production
- Arc Worldwide Rich Media Group, with Accenture supporting the platform and video-response engine.