Friday, June 19, 2015

Will you buy George Clooney's tequila?



Casamigos tequila is launching its first advertising campaign.  It uses online videos and social media to engage potential users.  Fans are asked to document their idea of friendship and post it on social media, winners to be shared on Casamigos social media channels. (Irwin, 2015)

Matthew McConaughey's Lincoln campaign has already demonstrated the ability of celebrity spokespeople to sell things to Millennials, but does having a celebrity owner matter ?  He certainly has done lots of publicity for the brand over the past two years.

And what do you think of this communications strategy?  Have you heard of Casamigos?  Have you seen the videos?  Do you think it's likely that you would if you hadn't read about it here?

Here's a look at one of the videos -- music by Lukas Nelson, Willie's son.  What do you think?  Does it make you want to buy Casamigos? 





Irwin, T. (2015, June 18)  Celebrity-owned Casamigos Tequila Launches First Campaign.  mediapost.com.  Retrieved June 18, 2015, from
http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/252215/celebrity-owned-casamigos-tequila-launches-first-c.html?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=headline&utm_campaign=83752

8 comments:

Unknown said...

Before I give my opinion on the ad, I think it is important to point out that I am not a tequila drinker. I am a millennial who socializes with a drink every once and a while but I am not a "primary user." Thus, I do not think that this ad, or any other execution of this strategy, would catch my attention or influence me in an ordinary environment. Interestingly enough, I also have no connection with the Lincoln brand, yet I am very familiar with that advertising campaign because of Matthew Mcconaughey's presence. He grasps my attention and makes me want to buy the car, even though the ads may target an older age group. Although Casamigos also has a familiar face, George Clooney, the brand has a harder task. Consumers either like the taste of tequila or they don't. It is hard to convert somebody like me, who doesn't even like the smell of that alcohol, to buy the liquor. On the other hand, even though i am not a user of the Lincoln Brand, I can still be convinced of its allure because I like cars and I need cars for transportation purposes. Furthermore, it is not as black and white...the car brand has many different models that can appeal to my liking. Tequila, on the other hand, has one taste.

The Casamigos strategy is appealing to me. I value friendship, I enjoy having a drink to catch up with my best friends, and I like doing activities with my friends. Everybody has that special someone that they want to share a drink with. Yet, this specific :15 second ad does not effectively connect the consumer insight with the brand very well. It is a short ad with very little information. I am not 100% sure that I would have been able to even point out the purpose of this ad if it hadn't been introduced by PJ first...

I look forward to hearing everybody elses opinions...

Mingfang said...

I’ve never seen the Lincoln campaign, and never heard of Casamigos before.

I have to admit the scene is very beautiful and has a strong visual appeal of romantic relationship, that arouse some connection to me, I’d love to have the same experience as the lady had in the video. But this romance can be generated by any tequila or even any alcohol, it doesn’t have to be Casamigos. The ad didn’t tell me what makes this Tequila so unique that I have to buy it. And I don’t know if I get the key message right, is it trying to tell me the taste of this Tequila is like the taste of that special woman or man in my life? Or like "You are the taste I can’t resist”?

Does it make me want to buy it? No, I don’t drink, so I won’t buy it anyway, but I may buy it as a gift to my friend, and tell him, “Hey, this is George Clooney’s tequila!”

Prina said...

George Clooney with his matinee idol looks (Cary Grant for the modern age) and affable Rat Pack behavior could easily be the face of this product. Casamigos makes me think “House of Friends” and having seen his entourage of friends in magazines, there could have been an entertaining campaign come from that.

To attract millennials, the video looks like it has be shot through an Instagram filter such Walden or Nashville, and the tequila comes across as something to imbibe post Coachella with your waif friends in pricey vintage torn t-shirts.

Having watched George Clooney on interviews and award shows, I believe he has the likability to promote brand across markets depending on whether or not you like tequila.

Anonymous said...

1st reaction ... A few sun soaked shots cut (too quickly in my opinion) to a nostalgic acoustic guitar riff that I might like if I could listen on just a little longer. The words Casamigos Tequila let me know I've just watched a commercial for alcohol.

Being completely unfamiliar with the brand, I followed the accompanying link to the article and discovered that the ad posted on the blog has been cut from longer 45 second version. Also, that this is the first video of this Campaign which aims to get "friends and fans of the brand to document their idea of friendship and post it on social media using the hashtag #HouseOfFriends."

While this version makes just a little more sense than the 15 second cut and does have a slightly more perceptible underlying sentiment of friendship. It still took seeing the logo to confirm that it was indeed a commercial for tequila and at no point does it give me any info about the Campaign or the Social Media angle or the hashtag. The worst part, that guitar riff I wanted to hear more of in the shorter cut was completely left out.

45 Sec Version - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qDGGnMgwws

Does this campaign make me want to buy something?

Absolutely not! I can appreciate the thought behind the campaign and the Social media interaction it hopes to achieve but I only know about these things because of the article. The commercial for all practical purposes achieved nothing.

If it were me I’d drop the commercial and go back to the drawing board because there seems to be no logical reason to waste good marketing money on a pointless commercial. If that wasn’t an option and I had to salvage something out of this I would,

1. Add the hashtag and website in a corner throughout the video.
2. Add one close-up shot of the bottle with the logo clearly readable and perhaps the couple/ocean in the background (if possible)
3. Use a voice over (maybe even Clooney's) and have at least one good line about the spirit of friendship.
4. Add a call to action (visit the website or Facebook)


--------------------------------------------------------------------

I also watched the commercials from their 2013 campaign which leveraged the 'Celebrity factor'. In a cheesy but humorous series of 20 second ads, we see various permutations of the brand's owners, Clooney and Rande Gerber, along with their real-life partners (at the time) Stacy Keibler and Cindy Crawford, getting caught in a questionable position when their husband/wife/partner walks in to discover them in bed with one of the others. A tongue in cheek tag line appears on the screen next to a bottle of Casamigos Tequila "Please drink responsibly."

Does the use of celebrities work in this case? No question about it … George Clooney and Cindy Crawford in one frame is just not possible to ignore. I think the ad would fall pretty flat if it were recreated with just regular models.

The Old Campaign - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6w0KjBr4Gss

Yuvraj

PS: If you’re still with me … My apologies, I’m not sure at what point this “Comment” turned in to a dissertation.

Unknown said...

After reading this post, I have made a research about other videos and publications related to Casamigos tequila, as I see, this product is focused in young costumers, maybe college people in their mid 20’s. The reason why I made this conclusion is because I saw another particular video, which is actually performed by the owner itself, George Clooney. Of course taking advantage of his image, already well known.

The video is about a wild party weekend and every time he wakes up or his friends wakes up, on their five star hotel room they realize they ended up in bed with another celebrity, after a crazy tequila night, I guess.

Maybe a person in there 30’s or 40’s has already settled down and this kind of parties are not part of their routine anymore, this kind of situations sounds more related to a young guy, with no responsibilities instead of studying, no family, no children and of course lots of friends and a really active social life.

Actually this group of people are the one’s who are more into technologies and massive global communications systems, guess this is why the executives of the campaign decide to merchandise it thru YouTube as the best tool to promote the product. They are also inviting people to participate; this group of people already knows how to engage this kind of resources, which makes it easy for them to cooperate.

For me this is a smart decision they made, the closer you get to your costumer the fastest they will buy your product, of course, a product in which they participated to promote.

What could be better than that? Being part of the campaign invites you not only to share your experiences, with luck somehow this campaign will become “viral” and viral means worldwide coverage, especially on web.

Nothing is more attractive in this age than to be heard and feel as an important speaker, being remarkable, showing the world, your world, that what you are doing counts.

On the other hand, I have never heard anything about this product and after realizing this; Early 20’s might be their target, I wont buy this kind of tequila, sound’s tricky to me, it might come out to the market with very low prices; that would confirm my theory, it is a product that is willing to be affordable for college students budget, automatically this is an alarm in my head: Cheap = Not the best quality.

Not saying it doesn’t work for students, actually I think it works perfectly! The drunker you can get with the lower price the better.

Guess even tough tequila is not my favorite beverage (I’m more into gin or vodka) if there is no other option, I would go save with a Don Julio. Now on my late 20’s I definitely prefer to pay a little more and have a really nice drink that gives me no hangover, actors like George Clooney don’t impress me anymore.

Many celebrities have their own brands these days, perfumes, clothes, shoes, accessories, but none of them are as good as the price they put to get their products, there is no way I would prefer a JLo perfume over a Dior, classic Chanel or any other traditional house.

Anonymous said...

My feeling on this video spot is that it would play well on a music based site/application. Pandora and Spotify users that don't pay for the full service have 15 second "in-app" advertising hits that you cannot skip over.


Because this video has no narration or talking, it focuses on the soft musical tones and a longing for a simpler time. The way the video is shot gives a "sepia" look which reminds all generations of the 70s. - Being alone with your boyfriend/girlfriend for a weekend, bringing a bottle of tequilla and a blanket and day-dream in the wilderness. Calming.


What I do like about this spot is that it is the "anti-millenial" advertisement. It's not trying to be funny. It's not a jam-packed bar scene, or abrasive in ways that recent tequila advertising portrays being the center of attention.


Personally I don't think that a major campaign focused on George Clooney is the way to go. Perhaps I am almost the "anti-Millenial" but the name Clooney and Tequila to me don''t mix. If that clip is a predictor of where this campaign wants go with content, he does not fit the bill for that setting. His movie image and relationships profile play more to an international & spotlight feel.

I would try to make it known Clooney is a owner, on the bottle with print - with a short blurb/paragraph on how he became connected. Instead of being the focus like Sean Combs, Ray Liota and Keifer Southerland do in their video advertising.





I did a little extra reading and found this site which follows celebrity sponsorships on tequila:
http://www.alcademics.com/2014/01/the-celebrity-tequila-index.html


Thanks...see you Thursday.

-Brad Chen

Anonymous said...

When celebrities endorse brands, the perception that one hopes to create on the mind of the consumer is, of the celebrities’ attributes being attached to the brand itself. The assumption in most cases is that the celebrity in question, brings with him/her not just a fan following but also a brand equity of their own – a culture if you will – which hence lends a personification to the brand.
As far as the Lincoln Matthew McConaughey “existentialism”-themed commercials go, the entire communications strategy as well as messaging could not have been more apt. With the actor’s recent successes through movies such as Interstellar, The Wolf Of Wall Street, and from a while ago The Lincoln Lawyer, etc., his brand perception was being attached to these slightly left-of-centre bold yet esoteric themes. Cap that off with a Lincoln ad of a brooding McConaughey driving through the night…with the city lights softly passing through the background…of slick, smooth shots of the car gliding along…with not a sound other than that of his voice and the underlying soundtrack (very reminiscent of the Lincoln Lawyer infact) – and well, there were no two ways about the fact that the car company had struck gold!
However, even so celebrity endorsers can only make that much of an impact and no further – the bottom line is and will always remain the ‘appeal to an human instinct/emotion’, i.e. the communications strategy. Hence even with the Matthew McConaughey commercials, the real work was done by the integration of the brand’s key messaging with the actor’s own existing brand perception.
Moving onto Casamigos then. While I’m not a tequila-patron, I do enjoy my drinks every now and then, however I haven’t heard of this brand of tequila yet. What is even more interesting to me is that despite being a die-hard George Clooney fan, I didn’t know of his tequila! Which reinforces the idea in my mind that while celebrity endorsers might be able to make a certain impact, celebrity owners hardly do.
‘Communications strategy’ is king – the integrity of the message will always reign supreme. Despite my undying love of George Clooney, the ad for Casamigos disappoints. As a standalone video, it’s beautiful and extremely stylised – grainy shots…aesthetically documented moments between friends, lovers…sunsets of a by-gone era…the soundtrack…everything comes together beautifully. But while I might at a stretch associate it to the concept of #HouseOfFriends, it does not remotely resonate with tequila at all!
Even as far as the hashtag goes, it resonates deeper with the flower-child seventies era, than the concept of “downtime with your friends”. Further, do the seventies prominently remind one of tequila? Not in my mind. Deconstructing the ad itself, visually I would get the impression that amongst friends who are camping, the poison of choice would typically be beer. The mood, the theme, the choice of music (predominantly the guitar), the mellow visuals…none of it reminds me of tequila even remotely, and hence feels utterly “disjointed”. As a consumer, if my first impression of an ad, however stylised or beautiful, is that the brand’s message is completely lost on me, I definitely wouldn’t have much faith in the competence of the brand going forward. Would I be inspired to buy Casamigos? No.

- Moumita Virginia Roy; mvr275

KZE Lives said...

This Umberto sorry for the delay.

Since we discussed this in class I have a better understanding of your expectations. I thought the George Clooney/Cindy Crawford ads were fun. George Clooney is a big influencer in this day and age for certain age groups. I thought the campaign was targeting older adults by using humour by making fun of awkward moments resulting from too much drinking. Kind of making fun of them.

The first ad with the you couple was targeting younger adults directly. A couple enjoying a personal moment and a great view. I don't think the ads sold the tequila at all. Each spot could have done more to draw attention to the product. I think they were trying to connect emotionally. And they did. But didn't connect to the product. If the ad discussed what made this tequila better than others it might have made it more compelling. Don't get me wrong the spots were feel good and entertaining but they didn't get me to buy the product. I would most likely ask my friends if they saw the ad and did they think it was funny. Again George is a big influencer to the x and y generations but not to the millennials who would find him part of the previous generation. The first ad would be of more interest to the millennials but it doesn't highlight the effectively enough.

Bert