When Malibu launched its “Get Ready With Malibu Pink” campaign this spring, the rum brand had all the necessary ingredients for a modern influencer campaign. Creator partnerships with Sabrina Brier and other influencers, on-trend “get ready with me” style videos, all centered on the debut of a new flavored rum with guava, coconut, and pineapple.
But there was also one element that was surprisingly new terrain for Malibu’s parent company Pernod Ricard: its first major campaign designed specifically for TikTok.
A platform once off-limits
Until very recently, alcohol brands like Malibu were completely absent from TikTok. But over the past two years, TikTok’s stronger age-gating protocols, which help guarantee to marketers like Malibu that the content they publish is only seen by legal-age users, have opened the platform for greater experimentation. The growing, cross-generational popularity of TikTok, with four in ten U.S. adults active on the platform and 80% over the age of 21, was also heralded as a key factor.
“It’s important for us to connect with Zillennials,” Caroline Begley, Pernod Ricard’s vice president of marketing, tells Fast Company of the importance of the microgeneration of younger millennials and older Gen Z. “Malibu has been around for decades, but it’s always important to introduce new consumers to the brand.”
The rush to catch up
Boozy TikTok campaigns have proliferated, including Grey Goose vodka’s “Devil Wears Prada 2” content starring supermodel Heidi Klum, Espolòn Tequila’s “Shot Kings Week” celebration with actor and comedian Ken Jeong, St-Germain liqueur’s spritz-making session with actress Sophie Turner, and a behind-the-scenes look at a commercial for the ready-to-drink brand -196 with content creator Pooja Tripathi.
They are now playing catch-up to connect with the highly coveted Gen Z crowd that dominates the cultural conversation and trends on an app that’s already almost a decade old and generates more than $14 billion in U.S. advertising spending annually, according to data from market researcher eMarketer.
How the rules changed
Pernod Ricard and Bacardi were early adopters, launching limited pilots beginning in 2024. At the same time, TikTok was in active discussions with the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States (DISCUS), the liquor trade advocacy group responsible for setting the protocols for advertising across television, print media, out-of-home advertising, and social platforms including Facebook and Instagram.
