Winners & Shortlists

UBER LIBRE

TitleUBER LIBRE
BrandBACARDÍ
Product/ServiceALCOHOL
Category F04. INNOVATIVE USE OF SOCIAL OR COMMUNITY
Entrant Company MR PRESIDENT London, UNITED KINGDOM
Advertising Agency MR PRESIDENT London, UNITED KINGDOM
Production Company PARTIZAN London, UNITED KINGDOM
Credits
Name Company Position
Laura Jordon Bambach Mr President Executive Creative Director
Dave Martin Mr President Creative Director
Thea Hamren Mr President Associate Creative Director
Victoria Trow Mr President Creative
Shahla Lalani Mr President Business Director
Jason Melhuish Mr President Account Director
Bryony Cook Mr President Producer
Naomi Dunne Mr President Planner
Sam Kennedy Partizan Producer
Jason Oakley Partizan Production Manager
Richard Wilson Partizan Production Assistant
Ozzie Pullin Partizan Director Of Photography
Matt Dollings Partizan Editor

Creative Execution

To celebrate Cuban Independence Day, we partnered with car service partner, UBER, to give Londoners a taste of freedom. For one night only, users could log onto the Uber app, hit the BACARDÍ bat icon and nominate their friend who was stuck in an undesirable situation to receive the drink. One of ten mixologists paired with a driver, who then delivered the free, freshly mixed BACARDÍ Cuba Libre with lime, right to their door. We tracked the cars and conversation to help fuel the chatter in real-time.

The idea was a huge success, with the #UberLibre hashtag reaching 6.7 million people, and trended on Twitter. Heavy influencers in our demographic picked up on it and engaged in the activation, and there were more social mentions for BACARDÍ Cuba Libre in a 48-hour window in the UK than the whole of last year combined.

The challenge for BACARDÍ was how to get 25 year old guys to stop ordering Rum and Cokes, and start ordering BACARDÍ Cuba Libres with lime. The original Cuba Libre cocktails were created in the early 1900s to celebrate the end of the Cuban War of Independence by bringing together the BACARDÍ Gold of Cuban Revolutionaries and US soldiers’ cola rations. They toasted ‘Por Cuba Libre!’ and an original drink of freedom was born. This history has been lost on our consumer, with the cocktail becoming a generic bar staple. In addition, we knew ordering a drink at the bar is hugely important to our demographic’s self image. A rum and coke is ordered dozens of times on any given night, but lacks in excitement and cache. Combining these two factors, we needed to give guys a new bar call, bringing meaning and symbolism back to the cocktail, and allow the brand to own the serve.