SOCO LIMELIGHT
Everybody needs a good friend. And good friends have nicknames. Those were the thoughts Southern Comfort were dwelling on, when they re-positioned themselves in 2007 and consequently re-branded themselves as “SoCo” for communication purposes.
Southern Comfort’s relevance was to be rekindled for a mainstream audience promoting the brand’s muscles “energizing” and “connective”. The client was seeking a BTL platform idea that would live up to SoCo’s character while at the same time opening a dialogue with the media and the target group. This was the brief given to their agency Nest One (formerly eventlabs) who in turn appointed Derek Richards, managing director and co-founder of PIECE OF CAKE, for strategic and conceptual support.
A modern, innovative marketing approach was sought after with SoCo keen on being perceived likewise. Consumer involvement seemed an appropriate strategy as one assumption that dominated the creative phase was that SoCo should empower the target group and move it into the public focus. SoCo was to be the producer pulling the strings in the background while the consumers were to be the stars in the limelight.
And so, SoCo Limelight was born, an annual platform with the name being derived from the brand’s signature drink, SoCo & Lime.
SoCo Limelight called upon young grown ups at the beginning of their careers and interested in event marketing, interior design and journalism to apply for short term employments at a real event agency, form a team, scout off locations in major cities and eventually set up and run temporary brand event bars. There mission was to “connect” as a team, create a platform where brand, team and consumers could also “connect” and to “energize” urban nightlife.
The lucky few were recruited via a national media campaign flanked by guerilla activities in target cities. Additionally, interior design contests were tendered at relevant German universities.
The team went on to plan, create, advertise and run 3 pop-up Southern Comfort bars in Hamburg, Cologne and Frankfurt in Autumn 2008 attracting ten thousands of guests with a culturally diverse and significant program and generating wide national media coverage both with the story behind the project and the event campaign itself.
Photos: Frank Becker
