It’s a real challenge for Mike’s Hard Lemonade to reach out to millennial male customers and the main reason is that, most millennial men don’t know about this beverage. The brand therefore, decided to team up with The Annex, the millennial division of Chicago-based ad agency, Havas, to create a happy and bright new campaign titled, “Drink on the Bright Side.” This is Mike’s effort to capture the attention of millennial men between the ages of 25 and 29, in a campaign that includes a combination of social, digital, TV and print as well as out-of-home advertising.
According to Jason Peterson, chairman and CCO of Havas Creative, the agency engaged The Annex to work on the campaign to ensure the ads have “an authenticity of what is cool and what is relevant.” However, it were insights from the team at Mike’s that came in handy for the campaign, that suggested, drinking Mike’s Hard Lemonade makes folks happy. “The core belief for us as a brand is Mike’s is about your favorite happy times. The reality is that sad people don’t drink Mike’s, so for us we wanted to make our creative campaign reflect that moment of happiness in what increasingly feels like a negative world,” said Sanjiv Gajiwala,vp, marketing, Mike’s.
The shorter spots like “Rocket Shoes,” and “Arcade” actually reflect the millennial spirit in a nice, yet somewhat crazy way but they’re funny and have what it takes to hit millennial men. The spot titled “Arcade,” for instance, shows a millennial youngster riding a cool little “super” puppy that’s shooting lasers. Gajiwala explained, “For us the insight was this group of consumers, these 25-30 years old, they have their own language which is not always a spoken language or a linear language, they don’t have a lot of time and they want to communicate quickly and for us that meant shifting our creative approach to reflect that and reflect what we think Mike’s Hard Lemonade is and what it’s role is in their mindset.”