Brief: Every year Martell collaborates with four key artists to help them design a new limited edition bottle of their most popular cognacs. The artist selected revolves around their popularity in the market that’s the highest consumer of the particular cognac. In the US, Blue Swift is the highest bought cognac product in the Martell Portfolio. Martell US had a significant relationship with Quavo from Migos over a few years as he loved the Blue Swift product. We wanted to do something special with his limited edition bottle that was a data capturing exercise and had a solve for a significant issue in some markets. The limited edition bottle was to be distributed not only in the US, but other key markets of Nigeria and Taiwan.
Challenge: Counterfeit bottles is a large problem in the world for Martell, predominantly in the Asian and African markets. This connected bottle prototype for the limited edition Quavo bottle was a great way for us to test new technology while alluring consumers to purchase the bottle and have a brand experience while consuming the product. Each bottle that was from the French warehouse had a specific pin that once the user tapped the cap of the bottle with their phone using NFC technology, a website would pop up confirming if the bottle was counterfeit or not. You were then able to report it to Martell so HQ had a log of how many counterfeits were being distributed and specifically where in the world, or specific countries.
Result: A QR code on the side of the box encouraged an animation experience that you could initiate from your phone in the liquor store at time of purchase. NFC technology incorporated in the cap of the authentic bottles from France, launched a mini site to confirm if the bottle was counterfeit or not. If the bottle was authentic, you’d receive a personal message from Quavo to have a toast with him through the screen along with the opportunity to share the video on your social media platform of choice. If the bottle was counterfeit you were able to report directly to Martell and the bottle would be tracked by submission of code automatically loaded in the form when the user submitted their report. Experience was localised in Taiwanese too for the Taiwan market. Additional CRM solution such as signing up to the Martell network were an option too on the site whether you were toasting with Quavo or reporting a counterfeit. The Drink Blue app was a Phase 2 initiative based on seeing how this Phase 1 prototype performed in the key test markets of US, Nigeria and Taiwan.