Serving up an unexpected collaboration

Gui Pasculli began his career in Brazil 20 years ago, a journey that has taken him via the 2016 Rio Olympics working on clients such as Nike to London where today he oversees partnerships for Malibu in his role of Head of Culture and Partnerships for Malibu. We caught up with Gui to talk about its collaboration with Oatly.

What does your Head of Culture role involve?

As a Head of Culture, my mission is to bring Malibu closer to people in innovative ways that go beyond traditional advertising. I look at what is happening in the world, what is making people excited, and what they are talking about and try to create connections to engage them with Malibu, not just through our products, but through our mindset. Collaborations can generate interest and new touchpoints that resonate with people. We all live busy lives and are often under pressure that we need release from. We want to be the brand in culture that helps consumers unplug, disconnect and have a good time. The pineapple flavour of piña colada reminds people of holidays and a summer breeze but collaborations can help consumers get that vibe without necessarily going to the beach.

How do you choose who to collaborate with?

We want to avoid the obvious and search for the absurd. We need to outsmart our competition that goes way beyond the spirit category as people don’t usually live inside a supermarket aisle. Malibu wouldn’t likely partner with a sunscreen product or flip-flop brand because it’s expected – it wouldn’t spark any interesting conversations. We want to do something with a partner that Malibu couldn’t do in isolation. We did this last year with a limited-edition collaboration collection with cult luxury streetwear brand, Aries. It was viewed as a first between a fashion and a spirit brand and celebrated the hyper-real spirit of an endless summer transporting Malibu from the beach to the streets. Likewise, our latest collaboration with Oatly is not an obvious partnership. Oatly offers products that have a lower environmental impact compared to traditional dairy, so as not to “recklessly tax the planet’s resources.” Its tone of voice is often cheeky, fun and entertaining. On the other hand, here at Malibu, we want people to enjoy the moment now without worrying too much about what is around them. A soft-serve ice cream is not a speciality of ours nor Oatly’s and it’s fun!

We want to be the brand in culture that helps consumers unplug, disconnect and have a good time

How did the collaboration with Oatly come about?

Oatly initially contacted us to discuss a licensing deal. Licensing can be a great marketing tool and forms part of our culture strategy; it allows Malibu to be found outside the spirits category such as with chocolate brands using our logo and flavour profile. On the other hand, though, collaborations allow us to go beyond our flavour profile by opening conversations around attitude, mindset and behaviour. After the initial contact, we thought, “hang on a minute, is there a bigger opportunity to tap into?”. We realised we could leverage Oatly’s cheeky tone of voice, its reach and its coolness to amplify our message of having a good time. As conversations progressed, we came up with the idea of a pina colada in the shape of an ice cream that people could enjoy without the pressure of worrying about the environment or dairy restrictions.

Tell us about the collaboration’s campaign.

This is an earned campaign that launched organically on social channels first. At its centre was a promotional stunt around two brands coming together to launch a product that no one was expecting. After all, a non-diary piña colada soft serve is not a thing, right? For the stunt, a cement mixing truck disguised as a giant pineapple mixing ice cream drove through the most iconic spots in London before parking up in Battersea Park to give some samples to people who as passing by. On the same day, we opened a pop-up bar called Paradise Arches in Shoreditch. Guests had the chance to enjoy Malibu x Oatly-inspired cocktails, light bites, and a complimentary Piña Oatlada on the house of course. In addition to the stunt and the pop-up, we’ll set the Piña Oatlada on tour across Europe including summer festivals and various bars in London.

I assume that the product has gone through focus groups and it tastes okay.

We were the guinea pigs to be completely honest.  We went to Malmö to Oatly’s HQ for the first time in January with our mixologists and after a few trials we tweaked its formula a little just to increase Malibu’s taste but it was surprising how well the brand’s different flavours work together. The soft serve was so tasty that the Piña Oatlada was born right there that day. We also played with some recipes using Oatly as a base for some cocktails we are serving as part of the campaign. We have the “Tropical Oats” which uses an amazing orange mango oat drink and another called “Choco Coco” which takes Oatly chocolate drink, just to give some examples but there are more. We always thought they would taste quite nice but it was surprising how tasteful they were. 

How will you measure the success of the campaign? 

All the work done here is to drive earned conversion in the short term and build equity for Malibu over the long haul – going beyond the spirit category and positioning Malibu in culture as a brand that brings that spirit of summer to people. We are keeping track of the share of searches to see how people are reacting/engaging and sharing the content produced. Share of search is the best metric as you cannot buy it. It’s the quality of work and resonance with people that will make them interested to go and search more about us. Beyond that, we have our internal metrics every semester that track gain in equity and brand attributes evolution, done by Metrics Lab. We are sure this collaboration will bring those metrics up as well as a lot of buzz this summer.

Where does Malibu stand on sustainability?

It is very important to us and we are continually looking at how we can improve our packaging and produce Malibu more sustainably. For example, we have been exploring ways to improve the use of plastic in packaging by looking to cut waste and increase the amount of recycled plastic in its bottles ever since we made our glass bottles lighter several years ago. We also have a relationship with Plastic Bank, which provides support to a plastic recycling ecosystem in the Philippines. Working with a sustainable brand such as Oatly has reinforced our ambition and it offered a new perspective that we will be able to benefit from.