Here’s How User Generated Content Helped Bacardi Boost Engagement and Sales

When it comes to the brands they love, customers are craving increasing levels of authenticity when it comes to being marketed to.

Here in the marketing business, we all know how challenging and labour intensive it can become creating a seemingly never-ending stream of content which not only entertains and/or informs our audiences, but simultaneously comes over as genuine and transparent.

That’s where user generated content comes in.

Customers spend roughly five and half hours with user generated content every single day and a staggering 93% of marketers agree that content created by their own audience performs better than branded alternatives. 75% of marketers claim user generated content makes their brand feel more authentic and 31% of customers believe ads containing user generated content are more memorable than those featuring branded content.

User generated content saves brands time and money and performs better from a marketing perspective.

Bacardi

As a premium brand in the alcoholic beverage space, rum producers Bacardi wanted to find away to drive more late-night revellers to select its products as their drink of choice.

To begin, the world-famous brand carried out its own research into customer drinks choices and discovered something interesting. Bacardi found that the first drink of the night was regularly decided upon less than 15 minutes before placing an order and, once the customer had made that initial choice, they tended to stick with the same beverage as the night progressed.

Bacardi decided that, in order to give its products – specifically the Bacardi Mojito cocktail – it needed to use digital technology to subtly nudge drinkers into selecting the beverage as that all-important first tipple of the evening.

Teaming up with content agency, Tribe and leveraging the power of its 80,000+ diverse micro-influencers and creators, Bacardi was able source an unprecedented volume of user generated content and deploy it to give partygoers that essential hint towards selecting a Bacardi Mojito as the first drink.

Grabbing the attention of social media users during the first moments of their night out with eye-catching user generated content, Bacardi encouraged audiences to share their own #MojitoMoment on their own accounts and give its visibility a massive lift. To make sure its message landed during that critical 15-minute period, Bacardi enlisted 60 of Tribe’s micro-influencers to share their #MojitoMoment on Instagram and therefore encourage others to follow suit.

User Generated Content

After purchasing the rights to 70 pieces of stunning creator content and combining Tribe’s campaign analytics with sales and location data to identify the most influential bars in each city, Bacardi was able to place its user-generated #MojitoMoment content in nearby targeted digital panels and ensure the campaign got in front of as many pairs of eyes as possible.

“Bacardi #MojitoMoment demonstrates our approach to connecting with consumers through immediacy and innovation, via customer centric creative,” said Marketing Director, Johnathan Sully. “Using creative generated by the very customers it was designed to engage, Bacardi’s campaign was then able to encourage others to share their own #MojitoMoments – creating an instant viral effect.”

Source: tribegroup.co

Within a week of uploading the #MojitoMoment campaign to the TRIBE platform, over 160 pieces of content were uploaded from venues around Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, and Perth. 1.6 million collective reaches were achieved along with 58,000 points of engagement. Because of the power of user generated content, each engagement had a calculated cost of just $0.27AUD.

When it came to sales, 1.5 million Bacardi Mojitos were sold during the campaign period – and increase of 400% on the original target of 300k – which equated to an uplift of 14% in Bacardi sales and a 20% increase in summer performance growth.

“Combining user-generated content with outdoor ad campaigns, Bacardi not only established the #MojitoMoment as a ‘first drink of the night’ ritual, but also created the first ever dynamic media connection between social and out of home in the Australian marketplace,” said Tribe in a press release. “Leveraging the virality of social media and igniting the influence of Tribe creators, Bacardi discovered that cocktails and creator content was the perfect mix to make a mojito summer’s most contagious drink.”

Final Thoughts

User generated content is set to be a big deal in the world of marketing procurement moving forwards. Not only does it produce great results with a minimum of time and effort on the part of marketing teams, but it also helps present audiences with an image of authenticity and transparency.

With audiences becoming ever savvier to the old tricks of marketing, creating authentic and original content is one of the best ways for brands to get noticed.

You can hear Bacardi Procurement Category Director, Point of Sale Materials, Polina Kropacheva speak at ProcureCon Marketing EU 2022, being held in June at County Hall, London.

Download the agenda today for more information and insights.