How Smirnoff targeted millennials with influencers to celebrate National Moscow Mule Day
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By: Eli Harris
On March 3rd, Smirnoff introduced the first ever National Moscow Mule Day to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the drink. The day was a huge success for Smirnoff’s marketing efforts and their efforts went viral on social media with tons of pictures and tags.
Smirnoff was able to receive help from many social media influencers who posted pictures of themselves with Smirnoff branded cups and created content featuring the brand.
Social media influencers and celebrity talent expressed their excitement for the day on Instagram. Back around the turn of the New Year, “boywithnojob” posted a meme referencing Smirnoff and the Moscow Mule. Boywithnojob has amassed over 1.2 million followers, giving Smirnoff tons of brand recognition and the post itself received 8.6K likes.
Food and lifestyle blogger Eden Passate, also known as Sugar & Charm, teamed up with Smirnoff over the holiday season to create Moscow Mule gift boxes. This was a perfect opportunity for Smirnoff to use her creativity to craft content that lends inspiration to her followers to create the perfect gift for any party host or hostess.
The two posts previously mentioned were tailored towards the holiday season and New Years. The posts shared Smirnoff’s connection to #TheOriginalMule and kicked off their push towards National Moscow Mule Day in March.
Modern national holidays such as “National Donut Day” or “National Dress in Blue Day” all bring buzz to social media because they encourage people to take pictures and engage with the theme of the day. Smirnoff was able to take advantage of their alignment to the Moscow Mule and create a day that people can celebrate, while also promoting their brand.
Many influencers joined in on the campaign on March 3rd showing their celebration for the national holiday. Actor and producer Juhahn Jones posted a boomerang video of himself happily making a mule with Smirnoff vodka of course. His post received 126K views, reaching an astonishing amount of people.
Influencers T.J Miller, Thomas Middleditch, and Megan Batoon teamed up to create a posts for their channels. This cross-promotion effort not only benefits the creators, but also the brand as posts involving influencer collaborations generally perform better than solo posts.
What started as a celebration of the creation of the Moscow Mule at the beginning of 2017 turned into a hugely successful campaign for Smirnoff in March. The creation of the first-ever National Moscow Mule Day was an expert approach to remaining relevant on social media. The Moscow Mule is an extremely popular (and photogenic) drink, and Smirnoff’s control over its invention will be beneficial to their marketing campaigns long term.
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