The Drum Awards for Marketing - Extended Deadline

-d -h -min -sec

Author

By Rebecca Stewart, Trends Editor

August 21, 2019 | 3 min read

Bacardi-owned gin Bombay Sapphire has enlisted a glass sculptor, a paper artist and a visual designer to create and front a $20m global campaign highlighting its commitment to nurturing creativity.

The fully integrated push supports the brand’s long-running worldwide ‘Stir Creativity’ platform, which seeks to increase the brand’s cultural relevance by highlighting how there’s an artist in everyone.

Under the strapline ‘Discover the Possibilities Within,’ the through-the-line work is underpinned by a film from ManvsMachine which shows three artists bringing their masterpieces to life in a colourful, hyperreal representation of the creative process.

“We’re a brand with a long connection to creativity,” said Victoria Morris, global vice-president of Bombay Sapphire.

“We’re now taking it up a level by inspiring people to embrace their own creative self-expression. It was really important we didn’t use actors, which is why we used creatives."

Each of the artworks in the ad was created using the raw materials of Bombay Sapphire’s blue-hued bottle (glass, paper and light) to highlight the creative potential within every bottle.

Featured artists include glass sculptor Amber Cowan, paper artist Maud Vantours and Gmunk, who uses light to create mutli-platform visuals.

The brand will be running the campaign across digital, OOH, video-on-demand and broadcast in markets across the US, EMEA and APAC. Experiential activations will also take place in cities like London, New York and Milan, and Bombay Sapphire has signed up as a global partner to Frieze Art Fairs in LA and New York.

Morris said visually led platforms like Instagram and Pinterest will be pivotal to the “highly targeted” campaign, as the company continues to increase its overall investment in digital.

Bombay Sapphire, which has previously worked with local artists around the world to encourage people to customise their gin and tonics with colours and flavours, will be hoping its focus on creativity will help it stand out in the crowded gin market.

Barcardi rivals Pernod Rircard and Diageo have been investing heavily in the space – with the former recently launching Beefeater Orange and the latter launching a multi-million push to extol the “distinctive” taste of its flagship brand Tanqueray. Elsewhere independent distillers like Sipsmith have been targeting craft-loving consumers in a market currently valued at $2bn and expected to be worth $3bn by the end of 2020.

As part of ‘Discover the Possibilities Within,’ Bombay Sapphire has also commissioned a partnership between Global Street Art (GSA) and Hypebeast to produce and release four vibrant murals across London, Manchester, Brighton and Edinburgh throughout the summer.

Bacardi will measure the campaign based on whether it's efficient in its reach and how it builds brand equity, said Morris.

"As a softer metric, I also hope the work also inspires our consumers to reconnect with their creative side," she added.

AMV BBDO devised the campaign, with media buying from OMD.

Creative Bombay Sapphire

Content created with:

Bacardi

Bacardi Limited, the world’s largest privately held international spirits company, produces, markets, and distributes spirits and wines. The Bacardi Limited portfolio...

Find out more

More from Creative

View all