Bacardi Targets Moviegoers With Shazam-Enabled Content
Until August 8, consumers in front of 100,000 U.S. movie screens will see a Bacardi-sponsored "film" during previews and will be able to access additional content with their mobile devices.
Rum brand Bacardi is targeting male Millennial moviegoers with Shazam-accessible content in a sponsored film that will air during previews on over 100,000 movie screens across the country until August 8.
Part of the Vivimos campaign, the brand is making a bet that the content – which celebrates Bacardi’s history – is so engaging that these viewers will remember to access it after the movie ends and they return to their mobile devices.
Vivimos launched on Cuban Independence Day in May with a television spot by director Jake Scott, son of director Ridley Scott, on the history of the Cuba Libre, or rum and cola.
This spot takes place during a time of political unrest in Cuba in the late 19th century. As of Thursday, Cuba Libre had 41,000 views on YouTube.
“He created a film inspired by that story, but we wanted to go deeper and tell the courageous story of the founders,” a Bacardi rep says.
Ergo, Scott created a second film, “The People Take Arms,” which also focuses on the fight for Cuban independence from Spain but ties in Bacardi’s history as well and will play in movie theaters through a partnership with cinema advertising firm Screenvision. (As of Thursday, it had 61,000 views on YouTube.)
Bacardi also teamed up with media engagement company Shazam to include the Shazam icon in the film and provide an interactive second screen extension.
A promo runs prior to the movie spot, asking consumers to ready their phones. By activating and opening the Shazam app while the Bacardi ad plays in theaters, the app will automatically direct the consumer to additional campaign content, including behind-the-scenes footage, recipes, and other films.
“By including the Shazam mechanic, we were able to efficiently drive a narrative storytelling arc and extend distribution of the additional long-form video assets, which help unfold the entire Bacardi story, all viewable on the second screen mobile-optimized landing page,” the rep says.
The film will play in movie theaters through August 8 but will appear on TV and in print throughout the summer.
“We strategically launched the Bacardi Vivimos video like a true movie release, capitalizing on its epic story feel. Cinema was the cornerstone of our channel strategy – the ideal platform and an organic channel in which to seed the content,” the rep says. “Most importantly, the timing was strategically planned to coincide with the [July 4] holiday weekend, which historically drives some of the highest traffic to cinema all year.”
The integrated marketing campaign launched with a national rollout that also includes cable TV, outdoor placements, experiential, digital activation, and on- and off-premise programming.
Following Bacardi’s 150th anniversary celebration in 2012, Vivimos builds on consumer curiosity and the momentum surrounding the brand heritage, Bacardi says. The target is Millennial males, ages 21 to 24.
Bacardi says the campaign will reinforce the brand’s “rich, courageous heritage at a time when authenticity and masculinity are key themes among target consumers.”
What’s more, the second film comes in conjunction with what the rep calls a shift toward acceptance of mobile engagement in theater. Instead of sponsored ads asking everyone to turn off their cellphones, they now ask moviegoers to actually turn on devices to engage in a multitude of ways.
In addition, the rep says the quality of this film is so rich that it feels like a movie and Bacardi wanted to use the cinema to “make it feel big.”
Bacardi has 6.7 million likes on Facebook and 41,000 followers on Twitter.
