THE BRIEF

“Be Curious. Enjoy the Unsuspected. It’s Not About What You See; It’s About What Lies Beyond.”

That is the brand experience we need to bring out for Martell NCF. Martell’s original consumers were traditional, older Chinese businessmen due to its strong liquor taste. Because of this taste perception, the brand has a smaller share of the younger market. As such, Martell launched a new variant - Martell NCF that features a trendier packaging style, lighter taste, lower price yet with premium non-cognac quality, to appeal to the younger segments of the market. Our challenge here is to create new tribes, change the perception of audiences towards Martell and make Martell NCF the drink of choice amongst young male and females.

THE Strategy

We need to support Martell in creating product awareness, driving curiosity, excitement and push for first time trial of Martell NCF. The key is to create a new image for Martell that is fun and contemporary, youthful and adventurous.

The plan

We recruited party-goers to an exclusive by-invitation-only mystery launch event. Guests were chauffeured to an undisclosed location, which was only revealed upon arrival. The party itself is an unsuspected journey to be, that you will only know what lies beyond upon reaching the venue. We utilised all the available digital tools - Canvas ads, Teaser Videos, pre-registration gimmicks, weekly challenge and social contents to create buzz prior to the launch.

We worked closely with the client on the event activation ideas. With the themes of #BeCurious and “Enjoy the Unsuspected”, guests were invited to use the specially developed Martell Light Up app to officially “Light Up the night, Light up the taste, Light up the party and Light up Yourself” to launch the event. A “shake-shake” feature was specially developed for the app so users could shake their smart phone to light up the event. Social postings were created to build up the hype for the event.