Anything can go viral these days, even smashing a can.
Yesterday non-alc cocktail Mixoloshe got a new name, SMASHD, paying homage to its viral social media campaign that amassed over 120 million views and gained a half million followers on Instagram.
The campaign— which began with an intern putting a baseball bat to one of the company’s cocktails— cracked the viral code by staying product-agnostic and tapping into a storyline that would resonate with a millennial and Gen Z audience, according to its orchestrators.
The premise: Nicole “the intern” Wingard launched a new Instagram handle in April as part of a challenge to make a more effective marketing strategy than her boss. If she was successful at reaching a half million followers, she would get a promotion; if not, she would get fired. Wingard hit her goal by finding new ways to smash soon-to-be-expired cans every day, often in costume, and using anything from a hockey puck to horse and carriage— all to the delight of her growing followers, dubbed the Smash Army. Along the way, stakes were raised with hints dropped that a rebrand was on the way.
“The concept really resonated with people,” said Mike Chambers, formerly chief marketing officer and as of today, CEO. “It tapped into this underlying resentment that a lot of millennials and Gen Zers have towards bosses.”
Chambers, who has built social campaigns for a number of media and technology platforms, began his role at SMASHD around the same time as Wingard last fall. The rebrand coincides with the announcement that Chambers will be taking over as CEO, while founder Kristina Roth will shift her role to chairman.
The cocktail company was founded in 2022 and offers a range of non-alc cocktails including a Mojito, Old Fashioned, Gin & Tonic, and Margarita, as well as non-alcoholic tequila, whisky, and gin. SMASHD made its biggest retail debut last October by landing in 500 Walmart stores. Artist Zayn Malik, formerly of One Direction, also joined the brand last year as a co-owner and chief creative officer.
Prior to the campaign, Chambers and Wingard experimented with social media ideas, meanwhile the team was engaged in internal conversations on a rebrand that would be easier to pronounce and less gendered. After the third video, which earned 30 million views, it was clear the rebrand could leverage the campaign and aid the new direction of the brand: associating fun with not drinking.
“We love the concept of smashing the stigma around what it means to not drink,” Chambers said.
The campaign, which by the end will have cost the company up to $30,000, has also boosted sales and awareness. SMASHD has set three daily sales records and sales rose 800% since the campaign started.
As the campaign has gone on, the team has intentionally curated content towards a Gen Z and millennial audience: age ranges with the highest engagement have been 25-34 years (46.2%) and 18-24 (26%). Otherwise, planning for the rest of the campaign was done on the fly — and often through trial and error — as the following grew beyond expectations. A cash contest, which boosted followers by 20,000 per day, was shut down by Instagram and was forced to end early. For Wingard, the pressure to create a better, more creative video each day for a growing audience while working remotely was “one of the hardest things,” and eventually eased by Chambers assisting with production in the last two weeks.
But the approach was marked by two intentional guideposts: staying away from the brand’s logo or hard selling the product (although discount codes were occasionally handed out and in some instances followers were asked to spike a daily sales record to spite the boss). Creating a community was the biggest unlock, Chambers said.
“If you can win their trust and entertain them through the course of a period of time, and then introduce in a very subtle way what you’re doing and what you’re selling, people then want that product because they want to be a part of the community, not because you’re telling them that they need to get the product,” he said.
For those who perhaps didn’t understand that the CMO was also behind the campaign, the team is hopeful that their audience doesn’t feel duped and was glad to be entertained.
How the team builds on momentum remains to be seen, as is what happens now with the newly promoted intern’s popular Instagram account.
“There’s a world where we continue to run this Nicole The Intern series and not make it the brand account,” Chambers said.
That will likely be up to Wingard, who fresh out of college and new to marketing, will now receive company equity and decide on her new title in the marketing department.