Gin has an image problem in the US. People think of gin as ‘old,’ ‘sad,’ and ‘pretentious.’ They just don’t relate to it. And it shows: US drinkers under 35 are more likely to drink any white spirit other than gin (Mintel, 2023 White Spirits Report). In a category driven by image and cultural cache, a relevance deficit with younger drinkers could be a serious growth deterrent. But it also presents an opportunity for a brand to distinguish itself.

One bit of common ground between the ‘old,’ ‘pretentious’ audience and younger drinkers is an appreciation for art & creativity. Enter, Bombay Sapphire.

Bombay has built a recognizable global gin brand inspired by art and creativity. This campaign was intended to reinvigorate Bombay's 'Stir Creativity' brand platform and cement our reputation as an innovator, pushing the boundaries of creativity and inspiring the next generation of gin drinkers to do the same.

Fashion designers get their inspiration from anything and everything. But what if we took that inspiration one step further and made a dress that wasn't just inspired by a Bombay Sapphire cocktail, but literally made from it.

Introducing Cocktail Couture: the world's first cocktail dress inspired by, and made from a cocktail. Literally.

Partnering with renowned fashion designer Christian Siriano, we experimented to distill a cocktail into the molecular base for a fabric dye. Christian then fashioned the cocktail-dyed fabric into a dress that debuted on the runway of his show at New York Fashion Week.

While the immediate audience for the reveal of Cocktail Couture was fashion press and influencers, the story spread through earned media and social conversation. By tapping into an accessible form of creativity (fashion), we positioned our brand and product as contemporary and on the cutting edge of culture.

It’s obvious that a younger, creative audience gets their inspiration from influencers. But who influences the influencers? In two words: Christian Siriano.

Simply contracting influencers, using them as a vessel for a brand message isn’t powerful enough for an increasingly savvy & skeptical audience. What we needed to do was give a reputable creative an idea they would have never imagined themselves, unlock their sense of wonder, and let them do what they do best. That’s how we inspire them to inspire their audience.

That’s exactly what happened after pitching our cocktail-distilled fabric dye to fashion designer Christian Siriano. We gave him an idea and allowed him the space to indulge his artistry. He then proudly debuted our collection of first-of-its-kind fashion & accessories at New York Fashion Week.

In the end, Bombay delivered a completely original idea through a beloved designer on one of the world’s biggest creative stages.

Everything we did was geared toward creating intrigue and excitement for Cocktail Couture’s runway moment.

Before New York Fashion Week, we created a collection of short social vignettes posted across brand & partner channels that pulled back the curtain, granting viewers brief access to Christian Siriano’s creative process. Dramatically alluding: “Cocktail Couture. Drops NYFW 2023.” Paid tactics were focused on formats that created anticipation, such as Instagram Story countdowns & sequential in-feed posts.

The runway moment itself was the grand reveal, with all eyes, phones, and cameras focused on our wholly own-able branded media: the Cocktail Couture cocktail dress.

We broadcast the activation to the rest of the world beyond fashion week with a cross-channel video video that celebrated Cocktail Couture, and invited our audience to make the Cocktail Couture collection theirs on our website.

The cocktail-dyed dress caused a stir on and off the runway as Bombay Sapphire became the most talked about gin brand at New York Fashion Week, generating 1.5 billion press impressions, skyrocketing the brand’s social attention by >10x, and reaching people on 5 continents. Due to popular demand, we placed the dress in Christian's online store, and it sold out in hours. With a price tag of $9,800, it was certainly the most expensive cocktail ever sold.