2024 Winner

CASE SUMMARY

The vodka category has been declining for several years. In 2023, the category declined 2% due to the tough economic situation that Canadians found themselves in post-pandemic.

What Canadians chose to drink is affected by many broad cultural and economic forces. Of most concern to a premium brand like Absolut in 2023 was the potential impact of Canadians having less disposable income. Generally, in the alcohol category, a lift in top of mind awareness can have a major impact in buying decisions.

But with the threat of some buyers shifting to standard vodka, Absolut had to go above and beyond to stimulate demand.

The challenge and opportunity for Absolut was to increase awareness at a local level to reignite growth. With localized creative that felt more personalized to Canadians, Absolut would be able to guarantee a greater share of attention in the category, and stave off the impact of macro-economic forces.

Absolut is always looking for new ways to reimagine and bring to life its ‘Born to Mix’ platform. In 2022, as they began to plan, the generative image program Midjourney became open source. The buzz around this new tool for artists and designers sparked Absolut’s interest. Artificial Intelligence presented a unique opportunity to bring “Born to Mix” to life. Midjourney is like a mixologist in many ways - both take their cues from instructions (whether from a customer or a prompt), as well as different source-material (such as recipes or data from across the internet), to create a totally new output (a generative image or a delicious cocktail). It was a new-age way to mix!

Absolut has a long history with the art world – both as a muse and the artist. And for years Absolut has designed different vodka bottles representing cities globally (i.e. Absolut LA or Absolut Brooklyn). The brand was inspired to apply this approach in a far more localized way – not just featuring cities, but showcasing popular neighbourhoods across the country (from Ossington in Toronto, Mile End in Montreal, Gastown in Vancouver, and many more).

The brand knew this would appeal to the brand’s audience. The Absolut drinker has specific neighborhoods they like to go out in – which just so happen to be some of the coolest in their respective cities. And each have their own unique vibe. Canadian neighborhoods are a mix of people, places, and culture. Just like cocktails, each mix is unique.

From this thinking, Absolut’s “Mix Your Neighbourhood” was born. AI would be their virtual mixologist; staying true to the brand roots by creating cocktails inspired by the essence of neighbourhoods across Canada.

“Mix Your Neighbourhood” was the first time a vodka brand had ever created visual cocktails using AI.

Absolut started with getting the right “ingredients.” They reached out to locals and bartenders across Canada and asked them to identify the key qualities that made their neighborhood unique – whether that be “bohemian” to “famous clocktower” to “colorful.”

The brand then gave these “ingredients” to Midjourney and asked it to mix them into digitally visualized cocktails. The resulting art pieces were both surreal and familiar – stunning celebrations of
Canadian neighborhoods.

But it wasn’t enough for the brand to just make beautiful images. The value of AI for Absolut was not about jumping on a bandwagon of a new and interesting technology, but to act as an accelerator to creativity in the real world. So, they also worked with Absolut mixologists to create delicious cocktail recipes, mimicking the AI artwork and bringing the flavors of each neighborhood to life.

To “serve up” the brand’s neighborhood cocktails, the agency used social listening and showed up in spots they knew the brand’s audience would be, using Wildpostings and throwing events at Art Galleries to increase credibility events. The agency also used PR, organic social, and an owned website to share the 30+ Neighborhood Cocktails, artwork and recipes included.

The brand’s local campaign quickly went global. Consumers from around the world asked the brand to mix their neighborhoods. Week by week, they listened and beautiful AI cocktails were mixed with the unique ‘ingredients’ of these global neighborhoods.

Total impressions generated from Absolut’s “Mix Your Neighbourhood” campaign exceeded 18M with 17.4M earned from a mix of local and national media coverage. This hyper-localized creative had incredible results on Absolut’s business and marketing goals.

After years of decline, Absolut returned to growth. While the vodka category continued to decline (-2% in 2023), Absolut increased household penetration by +6%. This was the first time Absolut’s HHP had increased in three years.

The campaign also lifted top of mind awareness by 20%, consideration by 300% and purchase intent by 400%. And it was all due to a technological innovation that allowed the agency to imagine “Born to Mix” through fresh eyes (and fresh algorithms).

Credits

Brand: Absolut
VP of Marketing: Caroline Begley
Brand Director: Dan Flecker
Senior Brand Manager: Bethan Hamilton
Brand Manager: Darragh McArdle
Assistant Brand Manager: Megan Ouellet

Agency: Ogilvy Canada
CCO: Francesco Grandi
Group Creative Director: Dylan Soopramania, Tim Holmes
Art Director: Josh Dornan, Audrey Laliberte
Copy Writer: Claire Mills
Managing Director: Anchie Contractor
Group Account Director: Karishma Goomer, Alex Karayannides
Account Director: Paul Costello
Account Supervisor: Nasreen Mody
Account Executive: Ankita Singh
Managing Director, Strategy: Mike Wiles
Senior Strategist: Kate Safarian
Head of Production: Cas Binnington
Producer: Julie Caniglia, Clare Dietrich, Maddy OShaughnessy
Senior Producer: Emily Robbins
Senior Print Producer: David Scanlon
Retoucher/Premedia Production: Engel Garcia
French Copywriter: Sophie Bordes
French Creative Director: Laurent Prud homme
Supervisor, Clients & Operations: Anais Xiong
NA CCO and NA President, Ogilvy: Chris Beresford-Hill
Global Chief Creative Officer, Ogilvy: Liz Taylor
Earned Media: Citizen
Vice President: Joseph Cariati
Associate Director: Jennifer Nagy
Account Manager: Sara Hoffman
Paid Media: Wavemaker
Group Account Director: Kelly Young
Associate Director: Rachel Mchugh
Media Planner: Casey Miller
Head of Production, North America: George Sholley
Associate Design Director: Peter Hahn
Production Company: Hogarth
DP: Henry Sansom
Production house Producer: Marc Milliard