BACARDÍ Beginnings

ROLE: UK MUSIC AND BRAND PARTNERSHIPS LEAD AND CAMPAIGN DIRECTOR AT BACARDÍ

Spirits brands have been sponsoring music for decades. BACARDÍ Beginnings was built on a different premise: that a brand willing to actually participate in the creative process - not just put its name on it - could earn a fundamentally different kind of cultural credibility.

The platform paired established artists with emerging talent to create and release original music, with each project engineered around a genuinely new idea for how music could be made, distributed and experienced. The brief was not to be present in culture. It was to contribute to it.

The Challenge

Despite significant investment and a credible music heritage, BACARDÍ was underperforming with a key UK audience. The brand felt transactional to the people it most needed to reach - music press, tastemakers and a younger consumer who had developed finely tuned instincts for spotting the difference between a brand that understood their world and one that was renting access to it.

The existing programme was event-led. Events disappear. The strategic shift was to rebuild Beginnings as a content-first, partnership-driven platform - one that could generate stories, assets and cultural moments that travelled well beyond the night itself.

The Platform

Three flagship projects. Three genuinely new ideas. Each one designed to create a press narrative, a cultural story and a distribution mechanic that had not existed before.

Project 1 - 24-hour A&R with Rudimental & Bipolar Sunshine

Rudimental and Bipolar Sunshine walked into a London studio at 7am. By that evening, they had written, recorded, mixed, mastered and performed a brand new track live at The Vaults in Waterloo - releasing it the same night via BBC Radio 1. The story was the process. The constraint was the concept.

Project 2 - BPM with Toddla T & Roses Gabor

The track launched locked. Only the first beat was available. The rest unlocked progressively through social interactions - tweets and likes - via a bespoke SoundCloud experience, until the full track was revealed. A remix competition followed. Toddla T later released the track on Defected Records, extending the project's credibility well beyond the campaign. Significant airplay followed on BBC Radio 1 and across national stations.

Project 3 - AV23D with Kele Okereke & Bobbie Gordon

The world's first 3D-printed vinyl record store opened in London for two days in December. Bloc Party's Kele Okereke and emerging artist Bobbie Gordon released their original track Down Boy in a limited-edition 3D-printed format, with bespoke sleeves designed by Studio Moross and proceeds supporting Nordoff Robbins. It was a music release, a retail moment, a technology story and a cultural event simultaneously - and it landed in press that no conventional launch could have reached.

Partnerships & Delivery

The platform was built on a partnership infrastructure that gave it credibility at every level - Coda Music, Universal Music, The BRIT Awards, Soho House Group, MAMA Group and The Fly among them. Artist selection, contract negotiation, influencer relationships, content production and PR were all owned within a single integrated delivery model, with a £1.2m budget managed across all three projects.

The content approach was deliberately multi-layered: long-form documentary content, event capture, social assets and bespoke digital mechanics, each designed for a different audience without diluting the platform's core identity.

Results

1,090% year-on-year increase in earned coverage.

14x uplift in earned reach.

600% increase in video views.

Campaign recognised by Campaign magazine as a Notable Campaign of the Year for behavioural insight, cultural credibility and creative ambition.

Strong brand reappraisal among previously resistant media and tastemaker communities.

Strengthened long-term relationships with music press, cultural institutions and emerging talent ecosystems that outlasted the campaign itself.

Strategic Impact

BACARDÍ Beginnings demonstrated that a brand willing to take genuine creative risk - not brand theatre, but actual participation in the process of making something - can earn a quality of cultural attention that no media budget can buy directly.

The platform became a blueprint: for how a spirits brand moves from sponsorship to cultural authorship, for how content-first thinking extends the life of a live moment, and for how innovation with purpose earns press coverage that feels like editorial rather than advertising.

The difference between the two is everything.

PROJECT PARTNERS FOR BUILDING CREDIBILITY

CAMPAIGN FEEDBACK AND TRIUMPHS

24hr A&R with Rudimental and Bipolar Sunshine

Rudimental and Bipolar Sunshine wrote, recorded, released, mixed, mastered and performed a new track live in just 12 hours before launching the track via BBC Radio 1.

Rudimental and Bipolar Sunshine kicked off the BACARDÍ Beginnings music mentoring program by partnering on an ambitious 24-hour creative project. Together, they wrote, recorded, released, and performed an original track in just one day, pushing the boundaries of music production. Starting in a London studio at 7 a.m., they completed the entire A&R process, culminating in a live performance at The Vaults in Waterloo that evening. This collaboration highlighted the innovative spirit of BACARDÍ Beginnings, providing Bipolar Sunshine with a unique platform to work with Rudimental and showcase his talent to a wider audience.

NUMEROUS PIECES OF CONTENT WERE CREATED TO TARGET DIFFERENT AUDIENCES, THIS IS JUST AN EXAMPLE

BACARDI BEGINNINGS PROJECT 1 CREATED TRACK

ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF CONTENT- THIS TIME FROM THE EVENT

PROJECT 1 VISUAL SNAPSHOT

APPROACH

COVERAGE EXAMPLES

A HANDFUL OF PRESS SHOT EXAMPLES

PROJECT 2

BPM with Toddla T & Roses Gabor

Toddla T & Roses Gabor launched their track via a special SoundCloud app. Only the first beat of the track was available on launch, the rest of the track was gradually unlocked one beat at a time via social interactions (tweets/likes). Once fully unlocked, a remix competition launched. Toddla T later released the track on Defected Records further cementing the credibility of the project. There was also significant airplay on BBC Radio 1 and other stations.

NUMEROUS PIECES OF CONTENT WERE CREATED TO TARGET DIFFERENT AUDIENCE, THIS IS JUST AN EXAMPLE

BACARDI BEGINNINGS PROJECT 2 CREATED TRACK

A VISUAL SNAPSHOT OF THE PROJECT

APPROACH

COVERAGE EXAMPLES

A HANDFUL OF PRESS SHOT EXAMPLES

PROJECT 3

AV23D with Kele Okereke & Bobbie Gordon

Bloc Party’s Kele Okereke & Bobbie Gordon Become First Artists To Release Original Track Using 3D Printing Technology In Final BACARDÍ® Beginnings Music Project

The world's first 3D printing record store launched in London as part of the final BACARDÍ Beginnings project, featuring Bloc Party's Kele Okereke and emerging artist Bobbie Gordon. Together, they released the original track "Down Boy" in a limited edition 3D-printed vinyl format, highlighting the innovative fusion of music and technology. The store, open for two days in December, offered music and tech enthusiasts the opportunity to purchase the vinyl, with proceeds benefiting the Nordoff Robbins charity. The release included exclusive record sleeves designed by Studio Moross and celebrated with a live performance by Kele and Bobbie.