Malibu launches ‘huge scale-up’ for NFC bottles

Pernod Ricard has created an additional 300,000 Malibu ‘smart bottles’, which will launch across Europe as part of the brand’s Because Summer campaign.

Malibu has launched a “huge scale-up” of its connected bottles

The bottles are enabled with near field communication (NFC) technology that offers a “direct, digital touchpoint for consumers”.

Parent company Pernod Ricard first unveiled the bottles in August 2016 in an operation that was billed as the “largest global deployment ever of NFC on an alcohol product”.

Under a “huge scale-up operation”, 200,000 bottles will be available in the UK and 100,000 in Germany. The project marks another collaboration between Malibu and creative agency SharpEnd.

“We have used key learnings and insights from our previous trials to both shape a content experience that connects with our consumers and their digital behaviour, and to allow us to scale up production on an operations level,” said Caitriona Murphy, Malibu’s global brand manager.

“It’s taken a truly innovative and collaborative approach between marketing, operations, in-house design studio and IT, alongside our agencies, to allow us to establish ways of working and set us up for future connected bottle releases.”

The new technology ‘connects’ consumers to the Malibu Games and gives them the opportunity to win prizes. The UK bottle will also feature drinks recipes and rotating seasonal content.

Coconut rum liqueur Malibu launched its global Because Summer campaign in 2016, designed to capitalise on the brand’s “summer-centric” positioning.