Diageo’s Captain Morgan rum is again investing in an East Coast-only campaign to maintain the brand’s strength in the region and play up its local bona fides.
The new campaign hinges on two video ads that feature a storyteller cozied up to a bar and recounting tales of local daring do: the eating of a giant donair and perseverance in the face of injury.
[iframe_youtube video=”0btlTCwOjhk”]
Kieran O’Beirne, Diageo Canada brand manager for its rum and tequila portfolios, says the company is looking for ways to make the global positioning – “Captain Morgan champions the idea of fun” – more local and relevant in Canada. “We want to do that in a way that’s very authentic… speaking to people in Atlantic Canada in a way that’s consistent with the brand but allows us to celebrate the unique culture out there. It’s less and less expensive to have that localized touch.”
[iframe_youtube video=”46tNkMnzkX8″]
The work was created by Accomplice Content Supply Co., a Halifax-based agency.
Towards the end of 2014, the brand launched another East Coast-focused campaign called “Made Different” that honoured its unique connection to the region. Bootleggers moved rum into the U.S. from Eastern Canada during prohibition, and the top-selling Captain Morgan’s white rum that’s made locally is distinct because of a slight greenish colour that infuses the liquor during local storage.
Eastern Canada also accounts for a disproportionately high percentage of Captain Morgan sales in Canada – approximately 20% – despite its relatively small population. And where vodka dominates spirit sales in the rest of Canada, in Atlantic Canada, rum tops the charts. “There’s a different culture around rum,” O’Beirne says.
Work from “Made Different” has been running on-and-off since it first debuted, augmented with new social media content. The new wave of work is an attempt to bring the East Coast campaign more in-step with that global “ambassador of fun” positioning, O’Beirne says.
