Dive Brief:
- Bacardi's CMO Mauricio Vergara is moving the spirit brand away from traditional TV and banner advertising to a model that is more integrated with its customers’ lifestyles through experiential efforts and cause marketing, according to an article from Campaign.
- Vergara has been shifting 20% to 30% of Bacardi’s marketing budget year-over-year from TV to consumer data and social media while increasing the overall budget 121% to almost $30 million in the first half of 2016.
- Vergara explained that the company still buys traditional media because of its mass brands, but the focus on digital is “a huge shift.”
Dive Insight:
Barcardi's evolving marketing strategy underscores not just the move the digital, but the need to test new approaches and to have an always-on approaching for connecting with younger consumers.
Brands like Bacardi are discovering how to breakthrough on digital. Vergara told Campaign that he can’t remember the last “breakthrough” TV commercial he had seen while pointing to some of Bacardi’s more experimental efforts like a Chrome extension for Bombay Sapphire Artifier that is essentially an ad-blocker that turns competitors’ banner ads into works of art.
Bacardi also exemplifies the need to approach different social media platforms with distinct strategies. Last month the spirit company launched an Instagram Stories campaign in conjunction with Swizz Beatz that allowed ad viewers to play with a virtual DJ deck. That effort initially went to Bacardi’s Instagram followers for 24 hours before rolling out across all of Bacardi’s social media accounts.
Digital enables brands to become a part of customers' lifestyle, something Bacardi is accomplishing by focusing on being always on rather than on spirit-specific events like New Year’s Eve and other holidays.
