Country star Dierks Bentley promotes whiskey — as a hologram
Travelers at Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport can receive advice on where to find limited-edition whiskey products – from a virtual music celebrity.
PriceWeber, a Kentucky advertising and marketing agency, has created a hologram activation for Row 94, the star country music performer Dierks Bentley’s Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey brand. Through the end of October 2025, a life-sized Dierks Bentley hologram will greet passengers.
The hologram, created by holographic communication platform Proto Hologram, shares the story of Row 94 and directs passing consumers to signed bottles and limited offerings available at the airport’s spirits retailers.
“Row 94 was born from Dierks’ dream to create a bourbon that amplifies the country within every American - this goes even deeper than country music,” said Robert Trinkle, senior VP at PriceWeber. “But the brand also faced a unique marketing challenge: how can Dierks connect with bourbon drinkers outside the concert experience or meet and greets? By using hologram technology, we were able to deliver a more personal and memorable interaction than traditional point-of-sale ever could.”
As part of the activation, Row 94 hosted sampling events in the airport’s rotunda. Additional sampling will take place throughout the fall as the hologram remains on display. According to Row 94, it moved three months' inventory in the first two hours of the initial tasting event.
Row 94 is also giving away a signed Dierks Bentley guitar to one airport traveler, which the company says is an additional strategy to capture consumer data during the airport activation.
Previously, South Korean fashion retailer Matin Kim installed Proto Hologram’s virtual reality hologram technology at five of its Matin Kim and Hago Haus stores.
The hologram models from Los Angeles-based Proto can move and turn 360 degrees to show outfits to shoppers and have built-in cameras, microphones, speakers and touchscreens, as well as AI capabilities. The hologram avatars can also be activated to answer questions for shoppers about products, in any language, using Proto AI tools.
In the future, Matin Kim intends to be able to beam hologram versions of live special guests into its stores with the ability to see, hear and interact with shoppers in real time.
[READ MORE: How immersive technology can make stores more personalized]
"Proto Hologram makes it possible for people to beam themselves anywhere in the world to connect in real time," said David Nussbaum, founder and chairman of Proto Inc. "Bringing Dierks Bentley to Louisville travelers through hologram technology is exactly the type of innovative experience our platform was built to deliver. It’s a powerful example of how holograms can amplify both human connection and brand storytelling."
