Why is this work relevant for Media?

Our campaign for Kraken Rum, Release the Kraken, demonstrated a highly strategic and inventive approach to leveraging a range of media channels and connecting with audiences in a challenging market in a fresh, new way.

Background

Kraken Rum was popular in parts of Australia, but not the crowded yet dominant New South Wales and Victoria markets. In these key locations, competition is fierce and consumers are inconsistent. Kraken was getting lost in the crowd. Sales were low and brand recognition was weak. The opportunity for growth was huge. So Kraken Rum came to us with a clear challenge: find a way to make a splash, reconnect with core customers, reach out to new potential customers and, ultimately, drive stronger sales.

Describe the creative idea/insights (30% of vote)

Conducting research we found that the target market for spiced rum buyers skewed male (55%) and partnered or married (68%). They were almost as likely to drink out of home as at home, and were most likely to enjoy it as a post-dinner drink on the weekend (51%) rather than having it pre-dinner (28%) or with dinner (24%). We also found that taste was by far the biggest purchase driver (80%) followed by price (70%) and brand (68%), and the leading purchase locations for spiced rum drinkers were Dan Murphy’s (62%), BWS (42%) and Liquorland (38%). 50% of Kraken buyers were aged between 25 and 39, and were likely to consume more drinks at home than when out. Our lack of control over final sales channels meant we needed to find creative ways to drive our target audience towards sales at their favourite retailers and venues.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

Our first goal was to increase awareness and capture consumer attention, but also to collect data that we could leverage to make our campaign even more effective in the later stages. Next, we wanted to find a clever and disruptive way to offer our target audience repeat brand exposure. Finally, we wanted to broaden brand awareness. Based on this planning, we formulated a clear strategy: - Start small and traditional with outdoor media, and reintroduce the key markets to Kraken Rum in a moderate but distinctive way - Simultaneously gather a large cookie pool for retargeting - Shift to high-level repeat brand exposure to the target demographic - Integrate unprompted awareness across commuting paths, point of purchase locations and in venues - Finally, broaden overall brand awareness and move beyond the Kraken core audience to a wider market by leveraging high traffic locations and high-value events

Describe the execution (20% of vote)

Goal 1: Increase awareness of Kraken Rum in 2018, we started traditional with bus wraps/signage & OOH. We combined this with a geo-fencing strategy for retail outlets, nightlife venues & look-alikes. Goal 2: Disruption 2018. We infiltrated the nightlife scene in major capital cities with street posters, video projections, street & stencil art decals, mural, digital panels & bus shelter immersive takeovers. We activated geo-fenced ads around key purchasing times. Goal 3: Mass Awareness, in 2019, using Helix data we expanded our geo-fencing to all retail points across Australia. We increased visibility by aligning with Vivid Sydney, We did major takeovers of rail stations in Sydney to firmly embed Kraken Rum at top of mind for commuters. Finally, a highly sophisticated location-based campaign. Anyone who passed within 5m of our outdoor creative was added to a retargeting pool that subsequently served follow up retail ads to increase frequency.

List the results (30% of vote)

The reach of the 2018 disruptive street campaign was enormous, strong & immediate. - Bus shelters reached more than 14.5M nationally, - Video projections were seen by 1.4M nationally, - Street art posters/stencils reached 4.2M, - 10s video was viewed more than 700k times, - Unprompted awareness jumped from 17% to 19%, - Sales increased by 20%, - Kraken Rum was awarded Most Distinctive Brand at the Australian Drinks Award in 2018 & 2019. 2019 Results: - Reached 2.38M people 18-39. Sydney (1M) and Melbourne (900k), with the remainder online - Prompted awareness was boosted by two points YOY to 18%. NSW (13% -> 16%), VIC (16% -> 20%) - Google searches jumped 27% YOY and 22% MOM. - 19.8% upsurge in sales of Kraken Rum MOM during the campaign, core markets of NSW and VIC increasing 21.2% / 28%. A huge set of results for a big, multi-tentacled campaign.