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By Amy Houston, Senior Reporter

March 20, 2023 | 5 min read

Diageo wants to reach one billion consumers with a message of moderation.

Rum brand Captain Morgan has unveiled its biggest responsible drinking campaign to date with an ad featuring a slowed-down version of a hit 90s song that has been reimaged by British-Ghanian singer and rapper Bree Runway.

In a spot encouraging drinkers to ‘Enjoy Slow’, Runway reworked the classic dance tune Rhythm of the Night but slowed the tempo down to coincide with the campaign premise.

Diageo hopes to reach one billion people with moderation messages by 2030 as part of its Spirit of Progress program. On the push, global brand director Samori Gambrah told The Drum: “We want to contribute to making moderation a social and cultural norm - using the power of our marketing and sponsorships to engage consumers at scale.

“With ‘Enjoy Slow’, we wanted to take this one step further, building on the vibe of our Spice On campaign launched last summer and making moderation a celebration. Championing moderation in the way we are doing with ‘Enjoy Slow’ is a central part of our vision for how Captain Morgan is evolving.”

To coincide with the launch, the brand is strengthening its long-standing relationships with US sports associations to help encourage the consumption of water and has recently partnered with Think in the UK to tackle drink-and-driving.

Jocelyn Anquetil directed the spot, with the concept developed by Virtue Worldwide, the creative agency powered by Vice Media Group, and was produced by Pulse Films. “We briefed Virtue for a campaign that contributes to making moderation a social and cultural norm and does it in a way that’s true to Captain Morgan’s tone of voice,” continued Gamrah.

“We learned early on from consumer testing, that to do moderation work well, we had to make the campaign fun, celebratory, and culturally relevant. We tested multiple messages with consumers in key markets – and ‘Enjoy Slow’ was one that really resonated as a responsible drinking message that was well understood and realistic.”

The team knew that they would have to bring an added level of authenticity and impact to the campaign to get its message to cut through. “We couldn’t think of anyone more perfect than Bree Runway,” he adds. “Working with credible voices is important to get this crucial message across and we believe Bree will really help us achieve this.”

It’s a sentiment backed by the campaign’s lead creative director, Nate Woodhead of Virtue. “We learned from consumer testing that to create an effective responsible drinking campaign, we needed it to be fun and land in a way that feels positive.

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Music is an incredibly impactful tool for storytelling and the lyrics in Rhythm of the Night worked perfectly to share our important message about moderation. Pairing that song with Bree’s laid-back, mellow vibes really brought to life the creative vision of the campaign."

From today, the project will be rolled out across TV, video-on-demand, digital and radio. It will initially launch in the UK and South Africa, promo will begin in Eastern Europe followed by additional countries across the globe later in the year. This first wave of media plans is expected to gain 163m impressions.

“As with all our campaigns, we’ll be measuring brand meaning, vibrancy, talkability and saliency, and using our Catalyst tool to measure marketing effectiveness with a high level of precision,” concludes the marketer.

“The campaign is designed to remind Captain Morgan drinkers that they will have a better night if they drink in moderation.”

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