Insight
Imagination was an intrinsic part of the Bombay Sapphire brand story: the founder’s journey, the invention of new distilling processes through to the global search for botanicals. However, this proposition had failed to land with consumers. The brand had talked imagination, but had not demonstrated it.
The client and agency team sought a territory, a consumer passion, to engage with their Optimistic Seeker target audience through. Film was identified early as culturally democratic territory. A commissioned industry survey identified imagination as a topical theme: many in the film business thought it in short supply. Within film, Short Film as a genre felt ripe for re-invention. A previously niche cinema genre, new, content hungry online video channels created new opportunities to popularise the form.
Strategy
To land the Imagination thought with a small opinion forming audience, required very different behaviours to advertising. It was clear this was not about end lines, but perhaps about beginning lines. It needed a platform with a title, an identity, to build behind.
Nor could behaviours be changed quickly. Any property would have to be durable: simple enough to be engaging, whilst robust enough to be repeated and scaled around the world. The platform had to generate multiple connections points and reasons to believe.
This led to a simple and powerful thought: an Oscar winning writer would write a short film script, stripped of any stage direction, to allow the readers to imagine their film of his script. The five most imaginative would go into production.
One script, five winning films.
No film experience required, just imagination. The wrapper, the title, became The Imagination Series, an IP the business could get behind and leverage. There were many campaigns but very few that repeat. Success would require the establishment of a returnable format.
Execution
The platform required credibility and a partnership with the Tribeca Film Festival offered a high profile launch and rigorous judging process. Academy Award winner Geoffrey Fletcher shared a similar philosophy, believing imagination made the world richer. As he developed the first script, he became an enthusiastic ambassador and this team delivered credibility, PR-ability and distribution potential across the 12 month campaign.
Each recruitment asset, from the script artefact, the animated film, though to the social media mentoring, had to be intuitively imaginative. This included the script coming to life though a stop frame production process involving 1,400 paper cut-outs.
The competition was launched in person by Oscar winner Adrien Brody at Tribeca Film Festival 2013, with significant PR coverage and ambient stunts including placement of the script in cabs and public places around NYC. Online traffic was driven to the Bombay Sapphire entry site through partnerships with film, writing and creative universities, colleges and training schools. The competition manifesto was brought to life with a imaginative animated “Hints and Tips to Enter your Film” video, very popular on Youtube and Vimeo film platforms.
The entry process was further aided by plenty of social media activity, including including Google+ hangouts with Geoffrey Fletcher, social content and video from the judging process in Tribeca (YouTube and Vimeo) and behind the scenes content of winners through the production process.
A panel of the great and the good sat in Tribeca in September to judge the most imaginative scripts. Five were chosen, went into production and were premiered at Tribeca Film Festival in April.
Results
In year one, the Imagination Series saw 720 entries from 34 markets globally. In year two, 1,334 entries came from 63 counties. Since launch it’s become a global platform for imaginative excellence in film.
This has led to unprecedented levels of engagement. Room 8 has been viewed by 900,000 times, liked 10,000 times, 2000 comments from 150 countries, driven by 82% organic traffic. The film was quickly picked up by the great and the good, including a Staff Pick by Vimeo.
The platform has now become the most successful Bacardi communications platform to date, used as a template for Bacardi’s new global Passion Platform communication model across all brands. The Series is planning its third year, one of few returning branded content projects across the group.
Room 8 has gone on to critical success, winning Best Short Film at the BAFTAs & a Webby award for Best Drama: Long form or Series. This is unprecedented.
It has been a defining moment for Branded Content, raising the bar for all. Many campaigns do not make the kind of content that audiences want to spend time with. Winning against the world’s best theatrical filmmakers demonstrates brand initiated content can compete with best.