Kraken Rum launch their world-first premix

With a cult following for their Kraken Black Spiced Rum, Proximo Spirits challenged Awaken to unleash a beast unlike any other and launch their world-first premix with Aussie drinkers.

The big challenge? Finding a way to achieve this in a world coming to grips with the outbreak of COVID-19. Our campaign launch coincided with the spread of this global pandemic, so it was essential that we pivot and find ways to use media to connect with customers who are increasingly drinking and socialising at home.

We pride ourselves on being smaller and fiercer than our big-budget competitors – and this campaign was the perfect opportunity for the Awaken team to demonstrate our knack for being resourceful and strategic.



Stay-at-home orders changed consumer behaviour from shopping at large centres to frequenting local suburban shopping malls. Restaurants and bars were replaced with home cooking, dinner parties and backyard bbqs. This presented us with a huge opportunity.

We immediately pivoted our outdoor buy to focus on smaller suburban and regional centres with bottle shops, and changed our digital buy to focus on proximity targeting, moving away from where people used to work and play, to where they lived and shopped.

Another challenge was that the parent spirit was in a period of sustained growth that could not be cannibalised by this new format. To reach ambitious sales targets of the premix without risking the dilution of the parent spirit brand, we needed to steal market share from beer and other RTD brands.

Following extensive quantitative, qualitative and mobile ethnographic research we explored the target audience that was most likely to trial and purchase – and defined a consumption occasion to set us apart in the cluttered premix category.

OUR ULTIMATE GOAL WAS TO:

GET those at the “step up” transition period in life

WHO are now enjoying drink largely at home due to COVID-19

TO elevate their at home experience with Kraken premixes instead of beer or spirits

BY reflecting what they’ve been hunting for in our bold taste, mysterious heritage and intriguing narrative