Kendall Jenner’s 818 Tequila on Monday announced a social media campaign and accompanying product launch meant to tap into Gen Z’s fixation on “little treat culture,” or small indulgences, and bridge fashion with functionality. The efforts are tied to the brand’s celebration of what it bills as 818 Day (Aug. 18).
“Free the Nip” — a cheeky nod to the “free the nipple” movement — reimagines the classic shooter as not only a minibar staple, but a fashion must-have, a direction inspired by the younger cohort’s allegiance to expressive purchases like Labubu dolls and lip gloss keychains. The campaign serves to introduce the brand’s latest 818 Minis, that are 50ml bottles of 818 Tequila’s Reposado and Blanco products, and can include influencer activations and content featuring the product in on-the-go scenarios and unexpected places.
818 Minis will roll out nationwide in September. Additionally, the brand created limited-edition collectible bundles featuring 818 Mini Bag Charms that hold the 818 Minis that might be available on Gopuff starting Sept. 8 at 12 p.m. ET. The minis launch strategy sees the marketer operating in a way typically reserved for brands in categories like beauty, explained Kathleen Braine, CMO at 818 parent Calabasas Beverage Company.
“As a spirits brand, you’re not all the time able to take part in among the fun trends on social that beauty brands get to do, and this is a fun way of us type of tongue-in-cheek putting the mini in an area that might normally be filled by a lip gloss or a hair clip,” Braine said.
The latest move from 818 Tequila continues the brand’s give attention to tapping into culture, which it has done through other recent efforts including its first national sports partnership with NASCAR driver Toni Breidinger. Those efforts have helped the brand defy industry odds — though the tequila category as a complete only grew 2% in volume last yr, 818 saw 40% year-over-year volume growth, per data shared by the brand.
Braine has served as 818 Tequila’s CMO for 2 years, but has been with the corporate for over 4 years. Marketing Dive recently spoke with the manager to learn more in regards to the brand’s approach to marketing around culture and her thoughts on the increasingly crowded social media landscape.
The following interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Marketing Dive: What insights informed your decision to tap into the “little treat” trend, and the way does it align with 818’s brand ethos?
KATHLEEN BRAINE: We’ve all the time been about shared moments between family and friends and magical moments — that’s an enormous pillar of our brand — and I feel this extension into a special size made us think, not only are we about these magical moments, but we’re greater than just a conventional spirits brand, we’re actually more like a way of life brand in that we discuss things in a way of life manner.
We’re considering this is such a cool opportunity to feature our minis in not the normal way that minis are featured — they’re type of confined to an airplane drink cart or hotel minibar — and on this campaign, we’re letting them free. That aligns nicely to the little treat culture straight away, where you see plenty of people on the lookout for the little joys in life. The minis could be one other way of expressing that little joy.
“Free the Nip” reimagines the classic “nip” or shooter as not only a minibar item, but a must have fashion accessory. Why was it essential to mix fashion with functionality?
We’ve all the time been a brand that has really cared about our brand identity visually, and our aesthetic, and that’s something that Kendall, our founder, has had as a North Star for us from the very starting. When we’re saying fashion, we’re actually just saying aesthetic and lifestyle and branding, we’re not a clothing item, but lip gloss isn’t a clothing item either, but these beauty brands are curating an aesthetic that appeals to their consumer and builds brand equity around their brand, that their brand lives on this aesthetic space.
It’s the occasions that [our product] could be utilized in, and the occasions through which we are able to express our aesthetic are type of around cocktails and at-home drinking, things like that. But the minis have opened us up to one other avenue, there’s a Get Ready With Me moment, there’s bringing it with you to the party, nevertheless it’s clipped to your bag.
818 Tequila also recently announced its first national sports partnership with NASCAR driver Toni Breidinger. What are your top considerations when deciding whether or not to market around various cultural touchpoints?
We are all the time looking first at what our consumer is fascinated about, and what the insight is that ties the moment together. I feel the minis are interesting because we were already planning on launching these — when you know anything in regards to the supply chain and product innovation life cycles and alcohol, they’re very long. It’s not like we were able to say, “Labubu is trending, we’re gonna launch these minis” and do it in three months.
The insight was already there [that] people desire a more convenient and accessible type of their favorite spirit, specifically in the buyer group that we’re working with, which is plenty of Gen Z and millennial consumers who’re looking to do things like rejoice a bachelorette party, have a girls night in where they do an aesthetic cheese plate. The mini already had an area in that, after which it just so happened that we’re seeing this cultural trend of little treat culture, bag charms, and we were like, this makes total sense, there’s a way to plus this up much more with this limited-edition bag charm.
We’ve seen major marketers like Unilever adopting social-first, influencer-heavy strategies this yr. Does that change the equation for 818 in any respect?
We’ve all the time been a social-first brand, so it really hasn’t shifted anything for us. I feel it’s the larger ships within the marketing space, the larger consumer brands, that this is a shift for them. Toni, our NASCAR driver, is one in all the very first sponsorships we’ve ever done — we actually don’t do sponsorships. Our marketing is very driven by social, digital, influencer, content creator and our founder. It’s probably not a step change when that’s how we’ve operated from the start. It’s just gotten more popular for brands to do it because they see how effective it is.
What spaces or trends is the brand looking to step into next?
We speak each to a Gen Z consumer and a millennial consumer, [the latter] who’s really fascinated about things like mixology and at-home hosting and entertaining, so plenty of our latest stuff coming up will either be focused more on that Gen Z going out occasion, after which also that millennial consumer, who is also a core consumer of 818, who is looking to host at home and make fun cocktails.
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