Coruba, a dark rum, had been in gradual decline for 10 years, the outlook as dark as the liquid itself. In fact the dark rum category as a whole was struggling.We were asked to turn that around.Ordinary campaigns had already tried and failed. We came up with a revolutionary involving idea.Artists get sponsored. Sports people get sponsored. Now it’s time for New Zealand’s biggest party legends to be sponsored too.The idea:Find the twenty New Zealanders who throw the best parties, then sponsor them for a year to throw even bigger and better ones.

Get sponsored by Coruba was divided into three phases.1: Recruitment – a multi media campaign calling for applications for the sponsorship.2: Selection – a series of one to one emails to the database asking them to prove themselves worthy of a sponsorship.3: Promotion – more media to let everyone know who the legends were and why they were so legendary.

Increase core brand strengths – home parties, mates.Perception amongst male/females 18-30 ‘Good/fun drink’ – up 66% ‘It’s a party drink’ - up 33%Make Coruba cool again. ‘coolness’ rating up by 36%Provide presence and scale reflecting the brand’s size/status.Campaign awareness 44%Total spontaneous awareness increased 39% ‘Drunk in the last Month’ increased 40%Engage directly with 10,000 new consumers.52,179 unique visitors to website. 2.9 million hits.

Database of 14,141 opt-in e-mail addresses generated for future use.

Sales:an increase ex-factory of 30% ($4,410,000 retail – campaign cost $640,000) the first significant increase in sales in ten years.