Bacardi and Captain Morgan battle continues

The battle of the rum giants continues as Bacardi launches a new marketing campaign taking aim at Captain Morgan, inviting spiced rum drinkers to “bench the captain”.

Bacardi asks drinkers to “bench the captain” in a new advertising campaign for its Oakheart expression

The campaign, titled “All In, All Heart”, has been created to promote Bacardi’s spiced expression, Oakheart.

Highlighting the results of an “independent national taste test”, where consumers were found to prefer Bacardi Oakheart Spiced Rum to Captain Morgan Original Spiced Rum by a “significant margin”, the campaign features combative slogans, such as “Bench the Captain” and “The Best Part of Gameday, Isn’t Always the Game”.

“Since its launch back in 2011, Oakheart has significantly grown, organically, to become one of the top-selling spiced rums in the market,” said Fabio di Giammarco, newly appointed global vice president of Bacardi rums. “It’s now our time to showcase our leadership in the category.

“We attribute our success to the affirmative feedback received from our consumers and proudly claim our title today as the better tasting spiced rum over Captain Morgan Original Spiced Rum.”

“All In, All Heart” targets the millennial market and focuses on “male camaraderie”. It will be launched across digital, social, radio and out-of-home channels.

The campaign is the latest creation of the BBDO and OMD agencies – which were appointed the sole marketing agencies of Bacardi earlier as part of a massive restructuring effort.

Its launch comes three months after Captain Morgan challenged Bacardi’s dominance in the white rum market with a new £1m advertising campaign for its own Captain Morgan White rum.

Running with the tagline “White Rum Has A New Captain”, the campaign launched across Facebook and television platforms.

Last month, Bacardi launched the first major advertising push for its core white rum expression since the appointment of BBDO and OMD, called “The House Party”.

Bacardi was overtaken as the world’s best-selling rum brand in 2014 by India’s McDowell’s No.1 Celebration after sales declined 5%. Meanwhile sales of Captain Morgan, the world’s fourth best-selling rum brand (Brand Champions), grew 1%.