Havana Club
Cult Re-Brand
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This was a brand strategy project where the role of strategy was to connect the brand with a new audience.
This is easily one of the most satisfying projects I’ve had the pleasure to work on.
Re-engineering the iconic Havana Club for a whole new generation stretched from brand strategy to design, advertising, social content, brand collaborations, cocktail development, point-of-sale materials, and merchandise.
Havana Club was in need of a refresh.
Their world had long been craft cocktails and a tourist board vision of Cuba – but the youth weren’t buying it.
They came to us with a brilliant ambition: they wanted to be a the number one rum for the next generation.
So we set out to create a new global strategy and brand for Havana Club to recruit the next generation of rum drinkers.
Out with the perfect serve, in with the ideal serve: sociable, raw, with all your mates.
The strategy was to become a cult brand by infusing Havana Club’s credible Cuban connections with codes from global streetwear culture.
We drew on the Havana Club’s authentic Cuban roots, but brought a new raw, low-fi and DIY aesthetics to the brand.
We’d embraced the high-low lifestyle – bringing just the right amount of glamour to the streets, and bad-ass trashiness to the luxe.
We’d be brand proud, embracing our identity with confidence, and most importantly… we’d not take ourselves too seriously.
The new brand design looked particularly at home in urban out of home advertising.
We wanted to give the audience a sense of ownership over the brand, and created a playful design language, inspired by stickers. This allow people to choose and use whatever version of the brand they wanted in user generated content.
An authentic, punchy tone of voice kept everything on track.
Collaborating with credible brands was a key part of the cult brand strategy. Our Daily Paper collaboration sold out in minutes.
We made a lot of own-brand merchandise as well.
