Brief
Smirnoff briefed us to find ways to bring to life their brand positioning of being the original vodka, and to connect with consumers in innovative ways.

Our Solution
We worked to find the area of common interest between the brand and its consumers. Inspired by consumers around the world, and their insatiable desire for new and interesting things to do in their social life, we came up with the idea of making original nightlife the Smirnoff brand platform.

To launch the programme we developed a series of events which brought the belief in original nightlife to life in dramatic fashion. Events in Miami, Moscow, Paris and New York featured original entertainment in the form of unique musical collaborations, original drinking experiences such as choosing drinks by scent, and a string of secret rooms, interactive spaces, and surprises to keep guests entertained.

The campaign was specifically designed to help Smirnoff access emerging social media platforms, and we created the brand’s first global Facebook page, first Twitter feed, first YouTube channel, first blogs and first podcasts.

In addition, the original musical collaborations were featured in TV broadcasts in the UK, Japan, South Africa, Thailand, Poland, Ireland and Latin America. Downloads of music and video tracks, video streams, contests, cocktail recipes and a huge volume of PR content meant that we could extend the reach of a 1,200 capacity event to over 90m people.

An Original Music Brand Partnership
We worked with our sister agency CC-Lab to create a series of original collaborations. Starting in Moscow we paired Faithless with Russia's Musica Viva orchestra, with Sister Bliss scoring orchestral elements to the band's biggest songs, which were then performed live by the band with the orchestra on stage.

On to Shanghai where the Shanxi Drummers joined English band Hard-Fi on stage for a memorable version of their hit single Hard to Beat. We needed something special to come after that on the bill, and Sasha stepped in to play a one-off Rock Remix set, skillfully weaving lots of guitars into the trademark Sasha sound.

Paris saw Mark Ronson pair up with Duran Duran, reworking their classic tracks into a 90 minute set that Duran Duran performed on stage together with Mark and his Version Players. It was a memorable performance for all those there, and started a relationship which has led to Mark producing much of the new Duran Duran album.

We ended up in New York and in the birthplace of hip-hop we created a showcase of the past, present and future starring everyone from Grandmaster Flash, through Nas, N*E*R*D, and the future represented by Spank Rock and Dizzee Rascal. The night was a roadblock and a who's who of New York hip-hop turned out to witness it.