_1.jpg)
What was the campaign in a nutshell?
To celebrate the launch of the new, sea-inspired Hendrick’s Neptunia Gin, we beautifully transformed three lighthouses around the country with the help of British contemporary artist Claire Luxton.
How did the idea come into being?
The gin world is as competitive as Mount Olympus. Luckily, Hendrick’s Gin master distiller Leslie Gracie is Goddess of the Still – creating the brand’s latest limited release: Hendrick’s Neptunia Gin. The liquid enchantingly bottles the magic of the sea, and the brief to Red was to do the same through earned coverage.
The coast was our creative starting point; not the seaside with all its "leisure" connotations, but the coast, with its majesty, mystery and wild romance.
Further inspiration came from a partnership Hendrick’s was exploring with Project Seagrass, a charity dedicated to the protection of seabed ecosystems across the UK.
Our light-bulb moment was lighthouses – transforming these beautiful beacons of our coastline into a canvas for our storytelling. With a nod to the need for us to protect our seabeds, our coastlines, our natural environments.
What’s more, it turned out that Girvan, the home of Hendrick’s Gin Palace and Leslie’s dog-walking route, is home to a lighthouse of its own.
What ideas were rejected?
We spent time looking at how to use the ocean waves to power a sea-organ and create an ode to the coastline. However, there were far too many variables involved, such as tidal times and sound amplification.
We also looked at lots of sand art but didn’t feel the execution was original or disruptive enough for Hendrick’s.
Briefly describe the campaign planning and process
We needed to marry the brand’s distinctive, unusual personality with a mass reach campaign.
Specifically, we were tasked with creating disruption, salience and widespread awareness of the brand as well as product awareness ahead of all other marketing channels going live. We needed to go big and fast. The stakes were high.
We spent a solid three months researching lighthouse locations – and hit a lot of dead ends. Most lighthouses are either protected or privately owned, meaning our initial idea of painted murals was out – and who knew scaffolding was so expensive?
So changing direction, we collaborated with multidisciplinary artist, Claire Luxton, who could create extraordinary projection-based visuals. She was able to transform our white towers into writhing, colourful tales of Hendrick’s Neptunia and the peculiar history and landscape of each lighthouse, its local area, and the natural world. Each projection included a blend of physical and digital art to create a kaleidoscope of colour, imagery and unexpected detail.
The installation project was supported by a hard-working "product on page" sell-in. We also ran a competition to win a "Night with Neptunia" – the chance to stay at one of the lighthouses.
from on .
What were the biggest challenges and how did you overcome them?
Working with lighthouses wasn’t without its challenges. As mentioned earlier, we needed to work with disused lighthouses but despite appearances, many "disused" lighthouses are still used in navigation by planes.
Twelve-plus weeks and 99-plus lighthouses later we had our three, perfectly positioned across Britain’s coastlines, in East Sussex, on the Wirral and in the home of Hendrick’s Gin, Girvan in Scotland.
How did you measure the results and what were they?
We smashed the KPIs and within the first five days of the product launching, we generated a 315% increase in coverage versus the previous two limited releases.
Coverage highlights included "picture of the day" in the Evening Standard, feature pieces in the Daily Mirror and a double-page spread interview with master distiller Lesley Gracie in The Scotsman.
What's the biggest lesson you took away from the campaign?
Make offerings to the gods of the seas and skies as early into the campaign as possible. We struck gold with our sunsets on all three of our shoot days.