Smirnoff's Social Ingredients Campaign

Advertising has grown so much over the years and with the creation of social media it has only gotten better. With about a fourth of the world’s population being on social media in 2013, advertiser's delegate a large portion of their media budgets to social media and it is one of the largest environments in which advertising takes place (Knoll). Facebook and Youtube are the most popular social media sites so that is where most advertisers try to target. Smirnoff decided to do the majority of their campaign on Instagram but they also shared their posts on Facebook, Snapchat, and Pinterest. The campaign was amplified by other companies like OOH, TV on Demand, and online videos as well. Social media provides people and advertisers with a unique opportunity allowing them to create interactive ads. Smirnoff used the opportunity in a great way. By using current trends they were able to interact with their viewers on a more personal level because they took what everyone was watching or interested in and related it back to their brand increasing both their number of sales and their brand. 

 

Smirnoff is the top vodka brand in the world and well known by many people. A few years ago back in 2021 Smirnoff Ice teamed up with Special and launched one of their most challenging and ambitious social media campaigns ever called “100 Days,100 Ways”. The goal of this campaign was to show people that there is pure potential in every day. The campaign launched on October 17, 2021 and ended on January 24, 2022. Tim Norman,  a senior brand manager at Smirnoff says “At Smirnoff we see the Pure Potential in every day – whether that’s the Monday which kickstarts a new working week, or the pinnacle of the year at a New Year’s party. It’s certainly a challenging campaign” (Stoppress). Special Co-founder and CEO, Tony Bradbourne says “There is potential all around us, and when it comes to mixing a drink, inspiration doesn’t have to be limited to physical ingredients,” (Stoppress). Smirnoff wanted to create 100 drinks based on the top social trends of the day. They essentially were wanting to turn their feed into a recipe book. These trends varied from viral celebrity blunders to TikTok Trends, big news moments to pop culture milestones, even big holidays like Hallowen and events like Black Friday. Some of these drinks included a new year countdown inspired seltzer, a Sagittarius cocktail, a spotify wrapped seltzer, and 96 other clever ideas. If you watch the video linked above you will see a few more of their most popular drink creations and what inspired them. The daily process went as follows: first, the campaign team conceptualized their drink by looking at the top trends of the day to identify their social ingredients, then they formulated their drink and tasted it to make sure it was perfect, then finally they shared their creation and how everyone could make it for themselves on all the social platforms I mentioned in the previous paragraph. Chase Bickerton, the mixologist in charge of creating all of these drinks says “I love the idea of celebrating the pure potential of every day this summer - from the latest album launch, to a festival headliner or the casual backyard BBQ - and distilling that into a drink. I only have a limited amount of time each day to create a recipe, or recommend a drink, but I’m totally up for the challenge,”. They tagged all of their post with their campaign hashtags #100days100ways and their brand’s slogan hashtagged as #purepotential. Through their campaign they were able to earn 11 million impressions. They were able to reach a total of 461,547 people with an average frequency of 25.22. I believe the reason their campaign was so successful is because instead of trying to start a new trend which can be very difficult, they used what was already popular and created something entirely new. They added their own unique twist using what they are good at, making drinks! Since they were using the top social media trends they did not have to worry too much about controversy and backlash since their drinks were inspired by what people were already enjoying and laughing at. For example, one of the drinks they created was for the bird of the year. The bird of the year in 2021 just happened to be a bat which was related to the Covid-19 pandemic. One thing that I believe they could do to continue to grow their brand and keep people engaged is potentially continue this campaign. I am not saying do it everyday because that will get old fast and people would lose interest, but maybe a new drink of the month or week based on the top trend that month or week. I think it would be neat to see a drink inspired by Taylor Swift which has been a big leading trend this year in both her music and her relationship or maybe even a Barbie inspired cocktail. The possibilities are endless, which is what Smirnoff wanted to show people in the first place. I found this campaign really interesting to research and learn about. Overall I would have to give this a 10 out of 10.