bai brands
BRAND ACTIVATION + SOCIAL MEDIA ENGAGEMENT
THE ASK:
I had an opportunity to work with Bai Brands and their in-house Creative Team on a Justin Timberlake campaign initiative that originated from one of his Instagram posts on how “the blueberry fits in the raspberry perfectly.”
As Justin was a prominent investor and brand ambassador for Bai, the company got to work on crafting the perfect flavor for this social-media blitz of a beverage, with JT’s hearty approval. After the drink itself was approved, now it was our time to bring it to the rest of the world.
Participation
Art Director Illustrator
CPG Designer
Client
BAI Brands
Year
2018
THE CHALLENGE:
The Creative Brief was around crafting a full campaign release with this new product launch. We had a VERY short timeline of 8 weeks to go from concept to production. This meant we needed to create several assets in-house and involve and 3rd parties as soon as possible to ensure our Production timeline didn’t go off the rails. Other than timing, we had a fully-staffed team of creatives ready to sprint to the finish and a production team that was already working with JT’s camp to get further requirements around the Brief.
DELIVERABLES + GOALS
CPG LABEL DESIGNS
MARKETING ASSETS
COMMERCIAL SPOTS
SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGN
THE PROCESS:
In order to stay on-time and on-budget, we shot key photos and rendered 3D assets in-house while using proofing labels and early concept art to inform the look and feel of the product while the supporting content was ideated and brainstormed on.
The first thing we needed was a label. I sketched out some early concepts with the team, and based on BAI’s brand requirements and guidelines, I rendered the “braspberry” fruits you see here in Adobe Illustrator for the label art. We mocked up some bottles with the concept art for final approval by the Product Team and C-Suite.
Once approved, we setup our pre-press assets and Pantone matched for final proofing at our CPG print processing partner facility.
Another snag was around getting approval on the final script for the commercial spots. As a key stakeholder and lead talent, Justin likes to keep BAI content he makes centered around puns. We aimed for that style of humor while respecting his wishes on “minimal physical contact” due to personal proclivities and preferences. After around 40+ revisions, we had our script ready and booked the set in NYC to meet everyone’s travel schedules.
THE RESULTS:
We pared down our 60sec spot to a 15/30sec “News Flash” style broadcast ad due to adjusting our Media Buy to match the budget.
We garnered a wide circulation across various media that signal boosted from appearances on late night shows such as Saturday Night Live and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon as well as various cable networks (E!, USA, etc.) and premium digital channels (Hulu, YouTube, Spotify, etc.) through September.
The Creative Team also worked together to pool our collective talents and build a small library of supporting assets across social to help boost the engagement. This included stop-motion video animations, food photography sessions, and a cheeky "DIY Your Own Braspberries” instructional PDF to show people how to make their own “IKEA-style”.
BRASPBERRY ASSEMBLY MANUAL
Overall this campaign was a huge success and BAI extended the limited release beyond it’s original End-of-Summer scope to continue through the Winter season due to high customer demand. while meeting and exceeding distribution goals.