BIC Gets Naked for Diageo Client Pitch

5/22/2018 Unknown 0 Comments


How lucky can a BICster get? This year's corporate partner was Diageo's The Naked Turtle Rum, a brand with social impact in its DNA. Partnering with the Sea Turtle Conservancy, The Naked Turtle donates money to the cause for each bottle of rum purchased. It launched in limited markets in 2013 ago and came to BIC to solidify brand identity and then amplify value through an integrated communications campaign. After weeks of research, strategizing, concepting and executing in interdisciplinary teams that have been together since the fall semester, BICsters wowed Diageo judges Jason Chebib, Joyce He, and Dorothy deVencia at the Client Pitch on Thursday, May 17th.

Team Vanguard kicked off the evening with their campaign "Save the Planet. Drink More Rum." Based on research that demonstrated how important turtles are in the larger ecosystem of the planet, Vanguard flipped the usual message. To them, The Naked Turtle gives you the opportunity to create the sort of healthy planet that you'd like to actually drink all that rum in.

Team Incite's campaign, "Keep a Good Thing Going," promoted The Naked Turtle's optimistic brand value and allowed consumers to experience unexpected goodness in unexpected places. Team Incite brought the beach to the people with The Naked Turtle Beach Truck that included drinks, music, and sand between your toes.

Team 3-2 Squared believed that consumers could use The Naked Turtle as a megaphone to amplify their personal values. The team's campaign, "One Drink. A Larger Story," created different personas that connected consumers to larger, more purposeful stories about themselves while linking back to the ecological-minded brand.



Team Perspecta felt that The Naked Turtle was not just challenged by an oversaturated spirits market, but by an abundance of cause-driven products that have become the norm since The Naked Turtle launched five years ago. Appreciating that other social-impact brands such as TOMS and Warby Parker give visible proof of consumer support, Perspecta created the "Show Your Goods" campaign which was anchored in a Naked Turtle Bar Crawl where naked participants wore body paint as they celebrated --and shared -- the brand and its values on social media, making their drinking choice more visible.

Diageo VP of Consumer Planning Jason Chebib, The Naked Turtle Brand Manager Joyce He, and Diageo Brand Director of Bailey's Dorothy deVenecia judged the pitch. Before announcing the winner, they gave enthusiastic praise of each team's campaign and very particular feedback to guide BICsters' future success. In the end, the client decided to "go naked" and selected Team Perspecta's "Show Your Goods" campaign the winner.

The BIC Corporate Capstone is a required course that is taken in the BICsters final semester of the program. Overseen by Professor and BIC Program Director Nancy R. Tag, the course has worked with such high-profile corporate partners as Univision, Universal Music Group, and Heineken USA.