Background: 

Every alcohol brand invests in responsible drinking messaging.

Encouraging people not to drink and drive, to drink in moderation or drink more water. 

Most brands simply want to tick the box. 

Malibu didn’t have the luxury of just ticking the box. 

Malibu may be well known globally but it's still not top of mind for most people. 

Compounding that issue is the fact that Malibu can’t outspend its bigger competitors such as Bailey’s when it comes to paid media. 

We needed to ensure that our investment in responsible drinking not only encouraged people to drink responsibly; it needed to make a real impact, make the brand more visible and improve people’s perceptions. 

Objectives:

A responsible drinking campaign that makes real impact:

• Makes people aware of the issue and changes people's behaviour around water
• Gets the brand talked about and top of mind
• Increases people's opinion of, and connection with Malibu

Creative idea:

We partnered with the UK’s most decorated and famous Olympic diver Tom Daley, the Royal Life Saving Society UK (RLSS UK) and Made with Love (Tom's knitwear brand) to create a range of knitwear with a simple message:

Don’t Drink and Dive

We launched when the conversation around Tom was at its highest; the conclusion of the Paris 2024 Olympics, and his retirement (announced the day before our launch) with a PSA starring Tom, along with a series of daily follow up films we called, “Daley Reminders” which featured on Instagram. 

Then, we targeted a moment - the last summer Bank Holiday - creating floating billboards featuring Tom’s bum and floated them where the highest number of drunken accidents occur. From Brighton to Newcastle, Manchester, the Lake District and Durdle Door.

Finally, we auctioned off the knitted briefs, worn by Tom on the shoot and raised an additional £10k for the RLSS UK

Insights & Strategy:

The majority of responsible drinking campaigns are indistinguishable from one another because everyone is operating off the same consumer insights on the problems: drunk driving, overconsumption, anxiety / ‘hangziety’ and consent. 

To talk about responsible drinking in a uniquely Malibu way, we needed to look at the issue from the brand's perspective. The fact is, Malibu is a brand that is linked to summer, specifically summer holidays spent by the pool, the lake, or the sea drinking a Piña Colada. 

The water became our focal point and what we found through desk research and interviews with non-profits was terrifying. Alcohol was the leading cause of many accidents around the water, including boating accidents but one fact stood out above all others; 1 in 4 drownings involve alcohol in the UK.

Execution:

We designed each piece of knitted apparel with Tom himself, crafting each element for maximum impact. We hand tiled '1 in 4 UK drownings are alcohol related' to the bottom of a pool. 

We inflated floating billboards and drove them to drink drowning hotspots, as well as mimicking the iconic design of water safety signs to give them a Don't Drink and Dive twist. And we made custom 'Daley Reminder' embroidery to work as titles for short form awareness content. Each piece of design was meticulously crafted to have the maximum impact for the space it was designed to be seen.

By launching just after the 2024 Paris Olympics we ensured Tom's notoriety was at its highest. Meaning when we launched our collaborative social posts with the famous diver and our charity partner, the Royal Life Saving Society UK, we garnered maximum attention, including live interviews with Sky, features on ITV and broadcasts from the BBC. Due to the positive change inherent to the idea, the press continued to show interest and momentum built, we were featured across a variety of publications, from GQ and Wonderland magazines to the national press of the Sun, Daily Mail and Mirror. The PR went beyond the UK, traveling as far as Tatler Hong Kong and US Weekly. Overall we managed to obtain a reach of over half a billion. No small thing for a knitted pair of speedos and a small UK media spend. 

This was an incredible partnership involving Malibu (Pernod Ricard), Royal Life Saving Society UK (RLSS UK), Tom Daley and us. 

Results:

The campaign surpassed all of our objectives: raising awareness, changing behaviour and improving brand perceptions. 

It drove awareness of the issue and got people to drink more responsibly around water:

• A significant increase 12% in awareness of the dangers of drinking and swimming
• +12% awareness of the risks, post exposure to campaign (equates to 8 million people!)
• A significant increase 10% in people not getting in the water after drinking
• 29% said they wouldn’t drink and swim, after ad exposure (that’s 2.9 million people!).

The campaign also drove significant increases in key brand metrics:

• Brand Closeness of +1pt
• Purchase Intent of +.8pt
• Recommend of +.9pt
• Consideration of +.7pt

It got Malibu and the issue talked about in media

• £5.6M in earned media value 
• £6.15M in earned media value
• Generated over 200 articles and over half a billion in reach (1.1B)
• Live broadcast coverage on Sky News, BBC and ITV 

Raised over £42k for the RLSS to use to fund their vital mission