2018 Bronze Best design or art direction
14 Dec 2018
Agency: Proximity London
Client: Bacardi Rebel Brands
Campaign name: Bacardi William Lawson's Illusions
Campaign overview
Meaningful engagement trumps buying attention
The brief
How do you break the rules to win over a highly sceptical audience of whisky drinkers?
That was the challenge faced by William Lawson’s (WL), a Bacardi group owned whisky brand whose overriding brand attitude is “no rules, great scotch”.
WL takes a stand against modern social conventions and the pretentiousness of the wider whisky category.
To convey this brand attitude it was necessary to establish the “bar call” of a WL and coke, with a target audience of young whisky drinkers, with little or no awareness of WL.
While conventional rules of media dictate that brands must pay for reach, research showed social media algorithms were displaying content based on “meaningful social interactions”.
So the strategy focused on well-crafted, quality content for the audience, relying on users tagging, sharing and commenting to drive “meaningful engagement” instead of buying attention.
However there were other challenges too, and the campaign called for the creation of a story of a little-known brand with a “no rules” approach that could still drive genuine thumb stopping behaviour.
Creativity
The work broke the rules of perspective, space and gravity to craft drink-making illusions.
Six films were specifically crafted for small spaces and were delivered in less than 15 seconds.
And in a category saturated with glossy over-produced digital content, WL wanted to ensure their work stood out.
So the illusions were created in-camera as much as possible, with very minimal post-production.
Real sets were built, and the work embraced old-school filmmaking techniques, with hundreds of takes made to ensure the illusions were as “real” and convincing as possible.
The campaign built unique “served content” that broke conventional rules, and engagement records as well.
Results
The illusions content soared above the industry average on Facebook of 0.24% engagement, achieving 5.4% – more than 2,150% higher.
Figures on Instagram achieved an average of 7.3% engagement, 310% over the industry average.
The illusions series across both Facebook and Instagram channels together achieved 1,230% above the industry average, resonating with the specific niche audience targeted.
The campaign proved to the wider Bacardi business that their brands could play against the norms and conventions of social media, and break the biggest rule of them all: that all brands must pay for any effectiveness on key social channels.
This approach kickstarted Bacardi’s Rebel Base: a collective of content creators who develop ground-breaking social content, distributed only through organic posting.
This approach re-kindled fan relationships with Bacardi brands and resulted in a 222% increase in daily engaged users.
Team
Proximity London - Han-Son Lee, Strategy Lead - Ben Sawyer, Creative - Robert Morris - Creative - Alice Frawley, Senior Account Director - Anna-Maria Teemant, Senior Account Manager - John Treacy, Executive Creative Director - Tom King, Business Director - Scott Walker, Creative Director
Bacardi Rebel Brands - Ricc Webb, Global Creative Manager
Contributors
Bootleg Films