Brief Explanation

We collaborated with artists on a special edition packaging design that would showcase their interpretation of creating something from purity and inspire people to follow suit – by mixing both the artwork on the box and their drinks with Smirnoff. As well as being bold and eye-catching, the artwork needed to work with the twist-and-turn nature of the Rubik’s Cube-inspired box. The packaging also drove people to a website where they could get more insight into the inspiration behind the design.

The Brief

Smirnoff is one of the purest vodkas on the market. But purity in vodka translates into a lack of taste, and consumers have struggled with the intangibility of purity in the past. Underpinning a broader campaign, we gave purity a reason for being by equating mixed drinks to an art form and claiming that the best artistic creations always start from a pure, blank canvas. Aside from traditional media channels, the client wanted to bring this notion to life in a way that would see Smirnoff bottles fly off the shelves and engage with people post-purchase.

How the final design was conceived

One of the designs used the vertical nature of the packaging to illustrate different journeys of purity and where they can lead to (from the bottom to the top panel), while the other took inspiration from an unspoilt deep-sea environment and the innocent beauty of its inhabitants, untouched by the human world.

Indication of how successful the outcome was in the market

All 100,000 limited edition bottles were sold out in half the projected time frame, and overall Smirnoff sales increased by 19.5% compared to last year’s figures.