Challenge

While having strong brand recognition and paid marketing presence in the spirits industry, Bacardi’s Bombay Sapphire gin had never had any digital interactive presence and was interested in engaging the new, earned media of the blogosphere to evangelize the product. On Bombay Sapphire’s behalf, SocialRadius created a “Spirit of Exploration” contest that featured inspired stories of travel and exploration from well-traveled, liquor-savvy and intellectual individuals active in the blogosphere and realm of social media.

With a particular focus on the travel vertical, the bloggers were to submit their insights on what they felt the spirit of exploration represented to them. Readers and visitors voted for their favorite posts, and the highest-rated contribution received the title of "Bombay's Spirited Explorer."

Solution

• Created blog platform to coincide with a heavily integrated marketing campaign, including extensive print ads.
• Extensive outreach to travel bloggers and other bloggers who might be interested in the contest’s theme of “Spirit of Exploration.”
• A purely organic, ground-up campaign with no traditional outreach.

Results

• More than 100 bloggers participating in the “Spirit of Exploration” blog promotion, with more than 40,000 individual contest entries.
• More than 1,000,000 unique visits to the “Spirit of Exploration” blog.
• SocialRadius’s engagement of the travel blogosphere got the attention of those even outside the travel industry, including Gawker Media, as a savvy method of interactive brand engagement.