Case Study: Kraken Rum

The Challenge

Kraken Rum is famous for its dark, spiced flavor, and they’ve built a mischievous, mysterious brand persona to match. The brand’s persona reflects as dark, mischievous, and humorous. In 2023, they launched the lighter Kraken Gold Spiced Rum and enlisted Goat to help them build awareness and consideration via a creative influencer-first social strategy. 

The Approach

We split the campaign into two key phases; a noise-making launch event followed by a longer term creative influencer campaign that would continue to drive awareness and consideration. 

Phase 1

Our tentpole NYC event announced the new Gold Spiced Rum brand in style, and we invited local influencers to create content in the lead up and on the day.

Phase 2

Next came the launch of our ‘Hour of the Kraken’ creative. This launch focused on highly aesthetic content that amplified Gold Spiced Rum, leveraged a more memorable experience, and drove trials of the new beverage. 

Each story began with the creator striking gold in the form of a custom wooden PR box, before holding their bottle of Gold Spiced Rum aloft as a “treasure from the seas.” The mysterious bottle was the catalyst that allowed creators to share their #HouroftheKraken fable, rounding off with a toast to the Kraken.

Our “Kraken Mavericks” each had their own unique tale to tell for the campaign creative. We led with a cocktail of micro and macro creators, including TooTurntTony, Claire Allen, Molly Russo, and Logan Isle among others.

Results

Benefitting from our influencer campaign, we drove significant awareness and excitement around the new Kraken Gold Spiced Rum, achieving 4.6m+ impressions and nearly 1m engagements.

In today’s influencer landscape, it can be challenging to drive positive brand sentiment, but our campaign achieved a “perfect ten” with an astonishing 100%. Crucially, the campaign was also successful in driving close to 300K clicks to the Kraken website that our influencer selection drove desired action beyond views and engagements. 

As a result of our fantastic collaboration, in 2023, we were proud to be named Influencer Agency of Record for Kraken Rum. Our account lead for Kraken Rum, Melanie Ropp said “In the coming year, we will focus on creating a programme of Kraken ambassadors who embody the true maverick spirit.”