In recent years many brands have jumped on the so called LGBTQ+ bandwagon. Absolut however has a long, proud history dating back to 1979 of celebrating and working with members of the LGBT communities. With Kiss with Pride we wanted to create a campaign that cut through all the other brand noise and ensure that our legacy with the LGBTQ+ community by dramatising the number of countries where homosexuality is still illegal and raising money for Stonewall to lobby governments and the media for the decriminalization of homosexuality. Our target audience are Millennials who believe their generation will change the world for the better and who expect brands to take a stance and get engaged in what they believe in.

The execution exists as a series of 32 photographs - both pure and with a projected, rainbow outline of the Absolut bottle. On the shoot, we were mindful of what position we were shooting in, to maintain varied compositions and skin colours, but also making sure the kiss itself was always clear. We had 6 and 48 sheets, and took over Brighton Pride with a series of vertical banners. Digital reincarnations included flick-book style animations, where a series of kisses flickers across the screens. We played with the cropping to guarantee anonymity to the participants, but encouraged dynamic shapes and variation. The outline posed a challenge, as we had to maintain the iconic Absolut bottle outline, but allow them to frame the kisses. Each outline was retouched individually onto the selects, presenting an exemplary effort of craft, detail, and design.

Increased brand metrics amongst our target audience: Prompted Awareness +3%, Consideration +2%, Preference +4%, Past 3 month consumption +6%, I advocate +2% & ‘Is a creative brand’ +1%. Social Buzz: 5.5m earned reach vs 3m owned. Traditional PR: 121 Pieces of PR coverage, 291m reach overall. Advertising, 2m impacts. £60,000 raised for Stonewall Charity which was used to support LGBT activists from the 72+ countries by: Arranging study visits with over 60 activists from 18 different countries, building networks across similar contexts and organisations with limited resources. Responded to the arrest and torture of gay and bi men in Chechnya in collaboration with Amnesty and local activists, to draw critical attention to the issue and call for donations for the emergency response. Brought representatives from four UK police forces to work with police across the Western Balkans to improve access to justice for LGBT people across the region.