Baileys Irish Cream teamed up with Canadian designer Lucian Matis to promote the brand’s new bottle design and brand refresh during Toronto Fashion Week with a unique dress made of broken glass.
Designed and created at Matis’ Toronto studio, the dress took 125 hours and a team of three skilled workers to create. It is largely made from old Baileys bottles, as well as other flat glass and multi-faceted beads. The piece is inspired by the redesigned silhouette of the new Baileys bottle and the beautiful “Double B” monogram.
The brand’s bespoke dress was worn on the runway at the designer’s 22 March Toronto Fashion Week show.
The campaign also includes a ‘Making Of The Baileys Glass Dress’ webfilm.
Matis claims that his dress design work for the brand reflects the same stylistic values as the Baileys woman, so the collaboration was a natural fit.
‘In all of my designs, I strive to make beautiful clothing that celebrates femininity and appeals to the confident, stylish woman,’ he explains.
The dress acted as both a piece of branded creativity as well as a symbolic nod to the brand’s new bottle style.
Juliane Trenholme, Bailey’s Canada marketing director, says that this fashion initiative aims to reflect the spirit behind the new taller and thinner bottle redesign which aims to ‘recapture the true essence’ of the Baileys brand ‘and celebrate the spirit of modern womanhood.’
‘We were looking for a way to really celebrate and unveil our new stylish bottle,’ said Trenholme.
‘Partnering with Lucian Matis allowed us to create something fun and let women know about the new design. We want to be seen as Canada’s most adored spirit among women.’
The objective behind the initiative is for the complete Bailey’s brand and packaging to more closely represent the sophisticated Baileys demographic.
‘We’ve tried to really echo virtues like being strong, being spirited, being elegant,’ said Trenholme, who adds that the new design aims to inspire consumers to ‘leave behind that image of your mother’s drink and embrace the new identity’.
Diageo brand Baileys positions its product as ‘the perfect blend of soft and strong, delicate and powerful – qualities that reflect the multifaceted nature of modern women’.
Supporting the design partnership, a TV commercial from the brand’s global campaign and adapted for the Canadian market with creative from JWT and media by MediaCom, is also pushing the new look.
The creative, which launched on 11 March, is running with an English and French national conventional and speciality buy over the next three months.
Comment
Whether its from an official sponsor or an ambush brand leveraging fashion week interest, branded design or fashion pieces – from Mercedes ‘Fashion Plates’ at New York Fashion Week to Vodafone’s own-brand nail varnish at London Fashion week – are all the rage in 2013.
This innovative design partnership certainly generated a significant volume of earned media not only in Toronto but across North America.
Whether principle sponsor MasterCard, plus other Toronto Fashion Week partners such as Maybelline, Korhani,Mercedes-Benz and DHL were pleased with Bailey’s stealing some of their marketing and media thunder remains to be seen.
Indeed amongst the official sponsors it is likely that rival liquor brand Gran Marnier and spirits brand Ketel One (which also has a Diageo link) had most to lose from Bailey’s fashion week ambush.
Links:
Making Of The Bailey’s Glass Dress Vimeo
Baileys TVC YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=gP8w6Rx8R_Y
Baileys Website
http://www.baileys.com/Gateway/
Lucian Matis Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lucian-Matis-Inc/175140042570701?group_id=0
Lucian Matis Twitter
https://twitter.com/lucianmatis
Toronto Fashion Week Website
http://worldmastercardfashionweek.com/
