2011 Winners & Shortlists

Results and Effectiveness

Brand equity attribute "great for night outs, cool and trendy brand" increased by +61%. Sales Increased by +34%. Market share increase +4% points. Created 14,000 Facebook fans. Broadcast 1st which was seen by over 4,000 underground clubbers and 250,000 overground commuters.

Creative Execution

We did just that. We turned the Smirnoff concept into a medium by creating a clubbing landmark in Beirut’s hall of fame club – BO18 – making it visible, not only to people in the club, but to everyone driving by. BO18 is uniquely different from others clubs from around the world. It has something that others don’t have: a 280ft retractable roof which opens over the dance floor and this is exactly where we chose to hang our Smirnoff crate – in the heart of Beirut’s clubbing scene. On September 13th we revealed our Smirnoff global experiment literally under the stars, over a cloud of smoke with an array of lasers and a packed house of surprised fanatical Lebanese clubbers.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

Smirnoff was losing out on its trendy and cool brand attributes. To gain back its street credibility, it embarked on an ambitious plan to show the world just how cool it really was. 14 countries were enlisted for an experiment in global nightlife culture whereby they each shared the spirit of their own capital city. But how do you bottle and export a city’s party scene? You put it in a shipping crate of course! Great... Shipping crates are hardly cool nor trendy, and kind of bulky. The challenge: how do we get Beirut’s clubbing elite excited by a crate and inspire them to join this global movement by virtually filling it with ideas on ‘what makes their city nightlife so cool and trendy’. Well, you clearly need to be central to their nightlife, do something special, be cool and contextually relevant – but with a crate!