Long associated with music and entertainment, premium rum brand Bacardi took this to a new level recently with the help of global event and brand experience outfit Broadwick Live. The campaign – Barcardi’s most successful earned-media campaign to date – featured at its core a bespoke music festival held on a desert island in the Caribbean, around which was spun TV, radio, digital and PR activity that engaged billions of people worldwide. And as far asBroadwick Live director Bradley Thompson is concerned, Bacardi Triangle broke new ground from a marketing perspective.
“We were briefed to come up with a big idea to deliver global impact for Bacardi, forcing massive reappraisal of the brand internationally,” he says. “A traditional campaign would not deliver the level of engagement and cut-through that the brief demanded. The Bacardi Triangle was designed to go all out and engage a global audience through their shared passion for music and adventure. We pushed the boundaries of the traditional festival brand experience and transformed it into a music travel adventure.
“We generated an earned reach of 6.7 billion globally and achieved this with less than 10% of our reach delivered by paid-for media. The momentum was driven by user-generated amplification, broadcast and PR off the back of the experience, which meant it wasn’t just a numbers game, we delivered genuine brand engagement.”
An extension of the rum brand’s Bacardi – Untamable since 1862 campaign, the Barcardi Triangle multichannel branded entertainment concept kicked off with strategic talent and media partnerships and a competition for consumers to win tickets to the experience, delivered through the personal fan networks of three artists (Calvin Harris, Ellie Goulding and Kendrick Lamar). Each performer also hosted specially chartered flights from London, LA and New York, pushing the boundaries of talent rights acquisition and celebrity endorsement. Overall there were 1,862 guests, comprising influencers, VIPs, press and competition winners.
“Throughout the 1920s prohibition era, Bacardi hosted some of the most legendary weekend-long parties in history, with people travelling from all over the US to Cuba. Almost a century on, we wanted to use this heritage to reignite that passion in the brand by rooting the activity firmly within Barcardi’s Untameable positioning,” explains Gareth Cooper, Director of Broadwick Live. “We knew we couldn’t just say we were untameable and be convincing. We needed to behave and actually be untameable by doing something big and disruptive. We chose a remote and stunning Caribbean island located seven miles out to sea from mainland Puerto Rico, right in the heart of the infamous Bermuda Triangle, tapping into one of nature’s most untameable forces, on the most untameable weekend of the year, Halloween.
“We also negotiated and managed a global syndicated broadcast partnership with Viacom that saw us produce content for an hour-long dedicated TV show, which was aired through the MTV and VH1 networks into over 195 million homes globally.”
The Bacardi Triangle audience was immersed in the experience from the outset, with airport takeovers and branded planes. The three days of experiences featured 150 of some of the world’s best bar tenders, along with bespoke stage design. Maximising the exposure of the live experience, Broadwick Live also produced over 20 satellite events in four countries.
“The Bacardi Triangle was a major achievement for everyone involved,” says John Rash, former Bacardi global passion point director – strategy and music, who drove the project client side. “The corporate, timing, legal, licensing, budget and logistical challenges that had to be overcome, meant it should never have worked. The fact that it delivered way beyond expectations was an incredible testament to the vision, creativity, hard work, dedication and sheer bravery of the Bacardi and Broadwick Live teams involved.”
Originally posted Brand-e.biz 2 June 2015