Campaign Trail is an analysis of some of the best new creative efforts in the marketing industry. Past columns can be viewed in the archive here.
Bacardi often boasts that it sells “sunshine in a bottle,” making summer an important occasion for the privately held rum distillery. For years, marketers have used the start of the season as an opportunity to repeat “Do What Moves You.” This is a brand platform centered on music and dance that was launched in 2018. Looking ahead to 2024 and the foreseeable future, Bacardi has tapped pop star Camila Cabello, who broke out from the girl group Fifth Harmony, as the face of this initiative.
Set to Cabello's new hyperpop single “I Luv It,” Bacardi's latest “Do What Moves You” spot explores sonic themes like light waves illuminating a rum bottle, yellow partitions on the road, and “sand dunes.” It literally expresses how everyone and everything moves. Like an explosion of sand. As Cabello and her friends dance, the lighting of a seaside apartment complex mimics a visual equalizer, with a wide shot showing the entire skyline of similarly lit buildings.
The campaign was developed over two years in collaboration with BBDO New York and brings together the brand's history, functional aspects and new brand ambassadors in an ad that celebrates self-expression, togetherness, fun and summer. .
Laila Mignoni, Bacardi's Global Head of Brand Marketing “This is an invitation to transition from a different perspective.”
Soak in the “fountain of youth”
Music is the 'fountain of youth' that keeps our 160-year-old brand fresh and relevant. (“Show me your playlist and I’ll know how old you are,” Mignoni jokes.) Previous versions of the seasonal campaign have featured dancehall DJ crew Major Lazer, hip-hop producer Swizz Beatz, Popular artists such as rapper Meek Mill have performed. The latter was part of an effort to remix Miami Sound Machine's iconic song “Conga.” In Cabello, Bacardi has found an up-and-coming pop star whose identity aligns with its brand.
“She's from Cuba and grew up in Miami, so she's exactly like us. We're from Cuba and grew up in Miami,” Mignoni said of the partnership, which pays homage to the Florida city's melting pot. Ta. Gateway to Latin America.
In addition to Cabello, the campaign also features choreography by Marin Brutti, Jonathan Debrouwer and Arthur Hare of (LA)HORDE, a Marseille-based dance collective that combines ballet and contemporary dance. Directing duties were handled by Nicolas Mendes, co-founder of film production collective Canada, who has directed music videos for Rosalía and Travis Scott (he also directed the official video for Cabello's “I Luv It”).
Once Bacardi arrived at the concept for Soundwave, the brand conducted several rounds of qualitative and quantitative testing before working with Cabello's team to plan the lookbook, dancers, casting, and locations. The production included five days of filming in the Dominican Republic before embarking on “huge” visual effects work to bring the choreography and various sound waves to life.
“It's about the power of music and how it moves everything and people and ultimately brings everyone together,” Mignoni explained. “It sounds so easy, but I swear it was a lot of work.”
overcome fragmentation
As with previous “Do What Moves You” pushes, Bacardi will continue to iterate on new creative throughout the year and beyond. The brand has a long-term partnership with Cabello (whose new album C,XOXO is set to be released on June 28th) and has other activities planned for “the next few years.”
The campaign launched in April during NBA playoff broadcasts on ESPN and TNT. The media plan will run for 18 months to two years and is split between digital channels and traditional channels such as TV and out-of-home. Bacardi has expanded previous versions of “Do What Moves You” into spaces such as SoundCloud, Snapchat, and NFTs. The go-around features custom partnerships with Snapchat and Spotify, including an album launch with Cabello and an augmented reality activation at a music festival.
“The way we all consume media right now is so fragmented, we're going to spend so much time on audio. “That will be the biggest change. We have increased our investment in audio formats,” Mignoni said. “It's also a great format because it gets a lot of attention. We're all multitasking all the time, but with audio, you're there. So audio is a big part of that. It is occupied.”
