The Brief

Bundaberg Rum is a brand with a history of ingenious thinking – the rum was created in 1888 as an ingenious solution to a molasses surplus. But in recent years young men had come to see the brand as unintelligent. They had grown up seeing Bundy as a very ‘Aussie’ brand much loved by their fathers and older brothers, but to them it was lowbrow. Our objective was to re-establish Bundaberg Rum as a brand that stood for ingenious thinking, and re-connect with a younger, more intelligent audience.

Describe how the promotion developed from concept to implementation

Our idea was The Think Tank – a facebook application where people submit their most bothersome conundrums, which are transformed into ingenious solutions and then filmed. To launch Think Tank we created a film featuring Bundaberg’s founding Sugar Miller. He asked people to join the Think Tank and submit their conundrums. People went to our page and gave us their conundrums. We then chose the most heinous conundrums and asked the members to solve them. They sent us their solutions. The most ingenious solutions was chosen and turned into films.

Describe the success of the promotion with both client and consumer including some quantifiable results

The Think Tank is an active, ongoing platform. To date there are 120,000 people in our community 12,000 conundrums submitted so far 6,000 solutions submitted so far 6,000 likes 1,230,000 people watched our films Bundaberg Rum sales increased by 25% since Think Tank went live

Explain why the method of promotion was most relevant to the product or service

Think Tank was relevant to Bundaberg because it created a community of thousands who act out Bundaberg’s ingenious brand purpose on a regular basis. The Think Tank promotion gave consumers something of real value, something inextricably linked to Bundaberg Rum, which they continue to embrace. With the liking and sharing of conundrums, solutions and films, facebook turned consumers into Bundaberg brand advocates, who spread the brand message of ingeniousness far and wide.