BACARDÍ’s ‘Music Liberates Music’ Album Marks “A Whole New Wave of Sonic Branding”
When BACARDÍ reached out to RESISTER, a full-service music and composer agency, the brand knew what it didn’t want: a sonic logo or a brand theme. It wanted an ownable sonic identity that felt fresh and genuinely interesting, and would also work as a “long-lasting music strategy for all future music choices as well as some owned assets for their social content,” says Hollie Hollie Hutton, the agency’s ECD and co-founder.
The brief, a dream in many ways, meant RESISTER “had to throw out the rule book with this project,” Hollie adds. Weeks of ideation and analysis incorporating AI stem technology and team listening sessions led to the creation of “a framework that truly resonated with the brand and the BBDO agency team.”
“Rather than creating traditional instrumental brand music,” says Hollie of the efforts, the team pushed it a step further and landed on “working with commercial artists to create a series of EPs.” The idea was the solution to the brief in a twofold way: the EPs “could not only be used as brand assets but also released across all DSPs, tapping into music culture and speaking to the brand's history of supporting emerging talent,” says Hollie.
‘Music Liberates Music’ is the resultant creative product, recently shortlisted for a Transform Award. It’s also a follow up to the success of 2023’s ‘Sound of Rum’ EP RESISTER worked on, with both continuing to capture and define BACARDÍ’s distinct personality. Hollie sees BACARDÍ’s brand identity mixing “the vibe of the islands with the sounds of the city streets” as captured through “bright, topline melodies, heavy beats and basslines.” Translating that sonically is about “showcasing the fun spirit, connecting cultures, and making you want to get up and dance.”
While ‘Sound of Rum’ showcased BACARDÍ's heritage sound, like its “Latin rhythms, rooted in reggaeton, Latin pop, and electronic music from the region the brand was born,” the second album extended into new genres and cultures, according to Hollie. “By giving new sounds the BACARDÍ treatment, we were able to showcase just how flexible the framework is and how it can develop into a long term strategy for all music creation,” she explains.
Bolstering the brand’s international standing was vital and RESISTER reached out to a British hip-hop/rap artist, Dutch and Polish pop acts, and a Canadian Afrobeat artist, “bringing an even more global feel to BACARDÍ's toolkit,” Hollie says.
The artist selection process was considered and particularly in-depth with RESISTER spending a lot of time researching and “hunting down the best talent, listening to reels, and digging into our global network of collaborators,” explains Hollie. “We were looking for talent who bring something fresh and unexpected to their genre and have that 'BACARDÍ sound', ensuring we create something really unique and ownable for the brand.”
What RESISTER didn’t want to do was task artists with creating sounds simply to fit a brief, as authenticity was so important, so the team only worked “with artists already releasing in the sound we were searching for.” This process made briefing the artists much smoother since they were already comfortable in the space of commercial music creation and were selected for having a suitable sound in line with what BACARDÍ was after. “From there,” Hollie says, “we worked with [the artists] to sprinkle some BACARDÍ magic on top, explaining the whole journey we have been on so they could connect to the project and work collaboratively throughout.”
Hollie notes how the careful preparation and selection mostly eliminated the challenges associated with this kind of project. “When you choose artists who are bringing their authentic sound to the table, the creative process is always a lot smoother as you are not asking them to be anything other than themselves. Our challenge was to guide and ensure all tracks also stay true to the ‘sound of rum’ and fall within brand guidelines,” she adds.
‘Music Liberates Music’ has seen a lot of success since the launch and Hollie shares some top-line stats like “a 96% completion rate on Spotify ads, a 52% hook rate on BACARDÍ's music-first TikTok ads, over 100k streams on Spotify in the first three months and even national radio airplay.” What can other brands learn from this? “It shows that when you bring real artists and an authentic sound into the mix on a sonic branding project such as this, you can tap into culture in a much deeper way and the results truly speak for themselves.”
This project marks “a whole new wave of sonic branding,” says Hollie, “moving on from and building on the classic theme and mnemonic approach. Brands can and should implement clear strategic frameworks behind their music choices and approach their sound just as diligently as they do their look and feel.” She emphasises that there is “no reason this always needs to stick to the owned melodic approach” and adds, “by implementing a strategy that taps into music culture and allows for authentic artist partnerships, brands are both able to own a distinct sound in the market and reach their fan base organically through music. In a social-first world, this is where we believe the future of sonic branding is heading and we're here to pave the way.”
