Bacardi Incognito Tickets
Bacardi
Issue 41 | December 2016
Agency
BBDO New York
Creative Team
Chief Creative Officer Worldwide David Lubars Chief Creative Officer New York Greg Hahn Executive Creative Directors Tom Markham Danilo Boer Marcos Kotlhar Creative Directors Damjan Pita Derek Harms Art Directors Martin Staaf Bhanu Arbuaratna Copywriter Janelle Anne Director of Creative Technology, Experience & Design Simon Mogren Designer Jessica Andrew Creative Technologist Filip Williander
Production Team
Director of Integrated Production David Rolfe Director of Digital Operations Clemens Brandt Senior Interactive Producer Carissa Ranelycke Senior Interactive Producer PD Shindell Developer Alex Massicott Senior QA Engineer Jimmy McGee Animation Chris D’Andrea
Other Credits
Account Team Steven Panariello Josh Goodman Meghan Wood Lindsay Vellines Planners Julian Cole Patrick Tomasiewicz Alysha Lalji
Date
September 2016
Background
In 2016 Bacardi faced the same problem as every other major brand: they needed to reach a young tech-savvy audience that used ad blockers and private browser settings to keep their privacy online.
Idea
Most people knew about Google Chrome's Incognito. If you opened the Incognito window, it prevented Chrome from saving your browsing history so you could sidestep retargeted ads.
Instead of fighting this online behavior, Bacardi partnered with electronic artist Goldroom, also known as Josh Legg, to embrace it.
Ten pairs of tickets to a Goldroom gig were hidden on the band's website. To find the tickets, though, people had to turn on the Incognito mode. This prompted a landing page promoting the competition to pop up.
Goldroom posted clues to his social media accounts. If fans didn't win the tickets they could still get exclusive tracks and a clip from a new music video no-one else could see.
Incognito Tickets was the first exclusive music experience only visible in private browsing.
Goldroom also promoted the treasure hunt in his social media
Results
2,500% increase in site traffic, visitors spending 5 minutes average time on site. This led to 15 million+ media impressions.
Our Thoughts
Here is a brand recognizing that it has to be digitally savvy if it wants to engage anyone under the age of 30. This is a generation that knows how to avoid advertising but has a grudging admiration for those brands that do manage to get through.
They would see this as being both clever and, through the musical connection, relevant.
Bacardi isn't the only big brand finally moving money away from TV and into digital media.
It is plain to see that in a world of over-supply, millennials will choose those brands that do more than offer a product and which provide experiences they can enjoy and share.
Like this treasure hunt for VIP tickets to a supercool event.