Beefeater taps Jamiroquai for 0.0% campaign
Pernod Ricard-owned Beefeater gin has teamed up with Jamiroquai to reimagine the British band’s Virtual Insanity video with its alcohol-free expression.
The Beefeater 0.0% campaign with Jay Kay, Jamiroquai’s co-founder and frontman, reimagines the band’s Virtual Insanity music video 30 years after its 1996 debut.
The partnership with Jamiroquai also comes as the brand invests in the continued growth of its alcohol-free portfolio, with Beefeater 0.0% arriving in the UK last September, following its January 2024 debut.
Francesco Ottaviano, vice-president of marketing gins & aperitifs at Pernod Ricard, said: “Beefeater 0.0% plays an important role in our strategy to recruit new consumers into the brand and meet growing demand for more flexible drinking occasions.
“Through culturally relevant partnerships such as Jamiroquai, we’re able to engage consumers in new ways while reinforcing the relevance of the Beefeater master brand. The campaign demonstrates how no-alcohol innovation can support both category growth and long-term brand equity.”
In the original Virtual Insanity video from 1996, Kay is seen gliding towards a camera with his hand reaching for something, which in this 30-year-anniversary reimagining is Beefeater 0.0%. The alcohol-free expression is then portrayed as open doors to more rooms, adventures and more hats, which Kay is famed for wearing.
Beefeater’s parent company Pernod Ricard noted its internal data shows that 75% of Beefeater 0.0% shoppers are new to the gin brand, while 15% subsequently go on to purchase Beefeater Dry.
The expression (0.04% ABV) is inspired by the full-strength Beefeater gin and adds the core London Dry gin recipe to a non-alcoholic base. The botanical profile was created with ‘natural’ flavours.
Nights out without compromise
At a press screening for the campaign in London last night (23 July), Kay explained how the collaboration had to stay true to the video’s original formula.
He said: “When Beefeater spoke to me about doing it, I was very much on the line of ‘the original video is my baby, I’m trying to stay true to it, not compromise and keep the quality in it’. But the production guys were amazing. The production was far more complicated than the original and I have to put my hands up to them.
“It feels like a really good collaboration. It’s a very cool brand. It’s a London brand, and the band has always been associated with London, so it’s worked really well.”
Kay also observed how audiences have changed since 1996, particularly in socialising and the new role of moderation in today’s drinking occasions. “I think the 90s had their wild times and we’re always going round in big circles, reinventing and changing,” he said. “In a way this is true for Jamiroquai and Beefeater.
“I think the brand itself has also changed according to what people are doing these days, particularly younger people, which is where they want to enjoy the moderation vibe of it and Beefeater 0.0% is what allows them to do that. It’s a really noticeable thing, with people, who I might add are not heading for 57, who are younger and there has been a tangible sea change in how they approach their night out.”
Regarding moderation, Kay also spoke of how the term and Beefeater 0.0% don’t have to mean restriction.
“I think people want to get more out of their night if they go out,” he said. “You used to have an alcoholic drink and have a glass of water, which does dent the vibe a bit, but having something like Beefeater 0.0% is especially good.
“The bottom line is that can make a good night last longer at a nicer pace, and again, not having to switch to water because I’ve been there, and I’ve been with people and done the same thing, and it’s like ‘oh I’m going to have a water’, and it does take you away from what you’re doing slightly, as suddenly everybody else is you know has a gin and tonic and you feel a bit out of step.”
“That’s what’s cool about this. It just keeps the energy going if you’re having a night out. I’ve been pretty choosy over the 30-odd years about who I want to be associated with as well, but I think it’s a two-way thing, and it’s a cool brand,” Kay said.
Kay also spoke of visiting the Beefeater’s distillery in London and compared making music with the process of making the brand’s products.
“It’s an art form, and there’s no compromise,” he said. “It’s quite a funky thing to see with the old vats, tubs of juniper and the one guy there who has to nail a brand that is so old-school and so distinct. He’s got to make sure that it’s exactly what it’s supposed to be in the last batch and the next batch, which is quite a thing to have a nose for.
“I think that’s where we marry up, and where the two brands work really well, with not compromising.”
Of Beefeater 0.0%, he added that “there is no visible difference and you can’t taste a difference, or at least a tangible difference, and that’s a hard nut to crack.”
“I’m a gin and tonic guy, but there’s loads of flexibility in being able to do other drinks with it, which is great. They are your remixes,” he said.
The campaign had its global launch in the UK and is also launching across Italy and Spain.
It can be viewed below:
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