Today Olmeca is synonymous with tequila and is the #1 by market share in the category in Russia (NielsenNUR+Metro) thanks to the shift in 2018 to the most active consumers of high-energy drinks – partygoers aged 18-24. So the communication was relaunched as well – it became all about spontaneity, fun and parties.

In order to maintain its leadership in the category it’s necessary to be always relevant for the audience and surprise it. For this purpose we aimed to create relevant and bright project for them.

At the same time we have to make it with the help of bright ideas spreading organically because there are very strict legal restrictions for alcohol advertising in Russia (no TV, no media, no promotion).

Olmeca is focused on partygoers aged 18-24 and all about spontaneity, fun and parties. In Russia there are strict legal restrictions for alcohol advertising (no TV, no media) so we have to make campaigns with the help of bright ideas spreading organically.

Insight: Young people feel uncomfortable wearing the same clothes again if it has already been seen on a social media.

IDEA: OLMECA UNEXPECTED MERCH

We’ve created a merch collection which works together with a specially developed Instagram AR-effect. People could get this merch item and «change clothes» in real time, right while shooting Instagram Stories.

Just point the camera on merch — the AR-effect will recognize Olmeca’s color to instantly overlay the whole merch with different patterns. One merch, multiple digital outfits. Neon fur, blue leopard, sliced limes—it’s your choice what to wear.

Users could get party sets with merch participating in contests in Olmeca social media.

Our approach: audience-first and inline with brand DNA of spontaneity and fun. We observe our audience to find insights and turn them into campaigns, inspiring people and giving them specific tools.

Among the audience of partygoers aged 18-24 we identified a tribe to study – flexers (Prime & Ipsos internal report July 2019 –June 2020).

Hanging out with friends is extremely important for them. They can turn any place, occasion or entertainment into an unplanned party. And post a lot of content about it (no content – no party). According to the tribe internal research we know that they care about their digital image a lot. At the same time according to the research (environmental charity Hubbub) 41% of all 18-25-year-olds feel the pressure to wear a different outfit every time they go out.

Insight: they feel uncomfortable to wear same clothes again once it’s been seen on social media.

We combined a chromakey technology, AR and favourite social network of our audience – Instagram. Our team produced brand color merch collection and created Instagram Effect with a special script allowing to recognize bright contrasting color and use it as chromakey. Users could choose this effect in the Instagram effects library and use it in Stories — to overlay different crazy AR-patterns in real time. One merch item – multiple digital outfits. Each pattern reflected the meaning of the brand's platform, namely that with this merch you are ready for even the most unexpected party. The only thing that the chromakey technology did not recognize on the T-shirt was the project logo. Therefore, all user content has always remained branded.

We launched Olmeca collection of T-shirts, socks and scarfs during fashion weeks all over the world as an alternative way to show off. We also made party sets with merch, shots, glitter and tequila itself. Users could get it participating in raffles in Olmeca social media accounts. ??

On the popular Russian social network Vkontakte we have developed a chat bot right in our community post. Anyone could comment and get a reply from the bot: GIF-animation with models fashion walking and showing T-shirts from the unexpected merch collection. And of course the bot suggested users to go to the next party wearing it. Once the user left a comment for the bot, he automatically became a participant in the merch raffle.

The campaign started on 21st of October 2019 and lasted for 10 days.

We sent unexpected merch to the big Instagram influencers, they highly appreciated it and made a lot of branded content. Moreover, local communities found the activation interesting and supported it.

Olmeca created really interesting tool for the young audience that not only attracted their attention, but also made a positive contribution to the brand perception.

Contribution to market share growth by 5.1 p.p. and other factors (compared to the similar period last year).

Growth of knowledge among the TA (18-24) – Spontaneous awareness indicator by 3 p. p. (compared to the similar period last year).

Tactical KPIs

1. Reach as the result of campaign resonance: 3 130 000 people in two weeks of the campaign (from bloggers and VKontakte communities).

2. Engagement in content:

- Average ERR (actions/reach) of bloggers’ Instagram posts – 15% (vs 8% on average);

- Contest post on Olmeca Instagram produced 7% ER (vs average 5%), and there were 3.5 thousand comments under the post on VKontakte;

3. Mask usage:

- 224 000 tried the effect and 23 800 people made Stories with this mask.