The Challenge/
Not only are people unsure of the origins of a Mojito, also the key ingredients used in making one. Some rum brands have countered this problem by creating pre-made Mojitos. We were tasked with promoting Havana Club as the key ingredient of The Genuine Cuban Mojito – a premium rum you won’t find in a pre-mixed bottle.
The Collaboration/
We delved into our audience’s lives to discover two crucial insights:
- Whilst unsure of the Mojito’s alcohol ingredients, our audience do connect mint with Mojitos.
- Our UK target audience share a lot of Habaneros’ attitude, despite living in very different places. Habaneros create what they need from the little they have; our audience shares this drive to ‘create something out of nothing’; they have grown tired of the mass-manufactured and enjoy using their ingenuity to recycle and upcycle.
The Creation/
This was a battle of hand-made versus ready-made. Our strategy was to celebrate the genuine & authentic alongside personal ingenuity. And so The Havana Club Mint Revolution was born, inspiring the audience to demand Genuine Cuban Mojitos using fresh mint and authentic Cuban rum.
Teaming up with ‘guerrilla gardener’, Richard Reynolds, we created urban Mint Gardens across four cities using only upcycled salvaged items – ‘creating something out of nothing’. Passers-by were encouraged to get involved and we handed out 25,000 mint seed packets in 100% recycled packaging, with instructions on how to grow mint and a recipe for the Genuine Cuban Mojito.
We drove consumers into bars through a mobile app, which located nearby premium bars who had signed up to The Mint Revolution with special offers on The Genuine Cuban Mojito. The messaging continued in-bar with a series of letterpress posters and hand-made POS including a branded wooden crate planter of fresh mint.
The Connection/
The Mint Revolution captured the attention of, and truly engaged not only our core audience, but also the trade and the media.
We increased sales of Havana Club in participating bars by 100-120% during the campaign and by an average of 50% ongoing post campaign.
The brand’s Facebook community increased by 105% in just 4 weeks – all organic without any paid-for media.
The media were engaged by the originality of the Mint Gardens and the revitalisation of corners of urban cities. The campaign achieved extensive coverage in local media as well as national exposure in The Guardian.
