When Jack Daniel’s partnered with Small Batch Learning to launch a new learner incentive, the aim was to boost lesson completions and revisions on its product training.

Over five weeks, the results went way beyond expectations: engagements climbed to levels almost nine times higher than the month before, a 780% increase.

The challenge

The Old No.7 lesson was already live on the Small Batch Learning platform, but Jack Daniel’s wanted to ensure store teams were actively engaging with the content. The timing was important:

• The lesson had just been renewed and refreshed as part of its annual subscription cycle. Jack Daniel’s wanted to use the moment to encourage both first-time completions and revisions from learners who had taken the lesson previously.
• At the same time, Jack Daniel’s was running a shopper incentive in BWS stores – giving customers who purchased Old No.7 the chance to win gift cards. To make the campaign truly effective, Jack Daniel’s needed to get staff excited about promoting it in store too.

The solution: Pick Jack’s Pocket incentive

To include and motivate store teams, Jack Daniel’s launched a parallel learner incentive on Small Batch Learning.

Over a five-week campaign, learners who completed the renewed Old No.7 training were entered into a prize draw to win one of 25 $50 BWS gift cards.

This mirrored the shopper incentive already running in store and created a clear link between what staff were learning on the platform and what customers were seeing on the shelf.

The mechanic was simple, easy to communicate and designed to encourage participation without adding complexity.

The results

The impact was immediate: user engagement increased by 780% month-on-month during the main incentive period, with levels remaining almost double the pre-incentive average even after the campaign ended.

These results demonstrate how a targeted learner incentive can deliver sustained improvements in engagement – not only during the campaign but also in the weeks that follow.

"It’s the first time we’ve seen such a strong link between consumer activation and learning engagement.”

The impact for Jack Daniel’s

For Jack Daniel’s, the learner incentive delivered three key benefits:

1. Higher engagement with training content – significantly more staff accessed and engaged with the Old No.7 lesson, improving product knowledge and sales confidence.
2. Reinforced lesson renewal – the incentive encouraged learners to revisit a refreshed module, ensuring the updated content reached a wide audience.
3. Greater in-store alignment – by mirroring the shopper promotion, the learner incentive helped store teams feel part of the campaign and more motivated to promote it.

It also showed that a modest prize pool can deliver outsized training results when supported by good timing and clear alignment with in-store activity.

“Pick Jack’s Pocket brought our shopper campaign full circle,” says Malcolm Gandar from Brown-Forman Australia. “Customers had a reason to buy, and store teams had a reason to champion the brand. It’s the first time we’ve seen such a strong link between consumer activation and learning engagement.”

Looking ahead

The Pick Jack’s Pocket campaign highlights how incentives can be a powerful lever to increase user engagement and improve training ROI. For Jack Daniel’s, it translated into more engaged learners and greater knowledge penetration across a key retail partner.

At Small Batch Learning, we see incentives as one of several tools brands can use to maximise training engagement. With results like these, they’re set to play a bigger role in future campaigns.