Smirnoff Parties with Baddie Winkle

December 23, 2016

ADAGE – Our Latest Takeaway

Baddie Winkle proved that showing up in unexpected places can make you the life of the party. At 88 years old, no one expected Baddie Winkle to show up on Instagram, much less become one of its biggest stars. Ms. Winkle has a social media following that boasts over over 1.8 million followers – on par with the biggest millennial celebs. Smirnoff, powered by their agency 72andSunny, tapped into this phenomenon and made Ms. Winkle the spokeswoman of its new product offering called “Ice Electric.”

Smirnoff’s “Ice Electric” is non-carbonated and features a screw-on lid – think alcoholic Gatorade. It’s geared towards the Electronic Dance Music (EDM) crowd and allows partygoers to “keep it moving” (ie. keep dancing and drinking) without making a mess. And what better personifies keeping the party going than someone that’s been – presumably – doing it for 75+ years? Baddie Winkle was a visually provocative and instantly shareable choice.

Smirnoff and 72 made a predictable move by targeting the large and growing EDM subculture – and they had a lot of fun capitalizing on the popularity of Ms. Winkle to drive home “Ice Electric’s” brand promise. She was probably a lot cheaper than Selena Gomez too!

According to their website, Baddie’s been “stealing your man since 1928.” This campaign definitely evoked The Most Interesting Woman in the World. It would be hard to match Dos Equis’ legendary male-led campaign, but in Baddie Winkle they had a much larger, targeted built-in audience as a platform.

This AdAge Takeaway was Inspired by this Article on AdAge.com

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