Tequila Cloud
MSL Group
Issue 43 | June 2017
Agency
Lapiz Chicago
Creative Team
Executive Creative Director Luciana Cani Creative Director Lizette Morazzani Head of Art Flavio Pina Associate Creative Director Felipe Leite Sr. Designer Juan Carlos Montes Copywriter Ana Karina Da Silva Art Director Freddy Agostini
Production Team
Executive Producer Aldo Gagliardi Producer Juale Chavez Production Company Two Bit Circus
Other Credits
Strategy Director Felipe Cabrera Strategist Jaime Mougan Account Director Ernesto Adduci Account Supervisor Daniela Barceló Account Supervisor Maria Bonet Assistant Account Executive Marie Abboud Collaboration & Process Director Julie Ptasinski
Date
2017
Background
Winters in Germany could be dreadful; it was cold, cloudy and rainy. The Mexico Tourism Board wanted to tempt rain-soaked Germans to visit sunny Mexico by combining the Mexican thing that Germans loved most, tequila (Germany is the world's No. 2 tequila importer), with the weather they hated most, rain (it rains more in Germany than in the United Kingdom). The result? The Tequila Cloud.
Idea
The Tequila Cloud was an actual cloud that rained tequila. It made its debut in January, Berlin's rainiest month of the year, at Urban Spree, a contemporary art space in the city. Visitors to the installation were able to fill their glasses under the cloud with tequila, enjoying a taste that is synonymous with a vacation on the beaches of Mexico.
The Tequila Cloud was created by using ultrasonic humidifiers to vibrate tequila at the right high frequency to turn it into visible mist. Next, the mist was condensed into liquid form so that it dripped as raindrops. The team then used a computer to control the cloud, programming it to rain whenever Berlin residents experienced an actual rain shower, which proved to be pretty frequent at the time of the show.
After its appearance in Berlin, the Tequila Cloud started to travel around the world. Wherever it rained a lot, it also rained tequila.
Results
After the Tequila Cloud rained in Berlin, average search volumes for "Mexico Travel" in Google increased by 50% in Germany. The story spread organically to more than 50 countries, where people demanded the cloud come to their cities too.
It also reached Mexico's most valuable market, the US.
It received coverage on 175+ news outlets, including 80 broadcast stations, generating 473 million total impressions. It was a Top 5 story in the Huffington Post. Thousands tagged their friends on social media to book their trips. A minimal $60,000 media buy generated almost $4.8 million in earned media, amplifying media reach by 7,833%.
The cloud even penetrated pop culture, surfacing as a radio pop-quiz question, celebrity mention and was referenced as a way to celebrate NASCAR victory, sparking support against the idea of a wall that might separate the US from Mexico.
Our Thoughts
Forget winter, the Mexico Tourism Board says, and come to sunny Mexico. But they say it without any images of beaches and bikinis, there are no strumming guitars. Instead a small, controllable cloud that pours booze. And a ton of PR.
There you have it, in a shot glass, how advertising has changed from brands broadcasting about themselves to brands getting other people to broadcast for them.
Of course, there has to be an experience – a story to tell – which is novel enough for people to actually want to talk about it, write about it and share it.
A tequila mist ticks that box.