AdMiration feature: Malibu’s “Don’t Drink and Dive”

For this week’s AdMiration feature, we researched Malibu’s “Don’t Drink and Dive” ad. The ad is part of their campaign with Royal Life Saving Society (RLSS) to raise awareness of the risk of drowning when drinking near water. 

Read on to get our 3-2-1 snapshot of the ad (3 facts, 2 learnings and 1 reflection) and learn how their ad was received based on our data.

The ad opens to Tom Daley walking by the side of the pool in a knitted Malibu-branded robe, with a piña colada in hand as “Escape (The Piña Colada Song)” by Rupert Humes plays in the background. 

He is seen handing his drink to someone as he steps onto the diving board and dramatically takes off his robe to reveal knitted red swim briefs. As he gets ready to dive he looks down at the pool, concerned, and the song fades. The viewer then sees what Tom Daley was looking at, which is a message written in pool tiles saying “1 in 4 UK drownings involve alcohol.” He turns around and walks off the diving board, revealing the message on the back of his knitted briefs: “don’t drink and dive.”

The ad closes with a close up shot of the briefs and the message on them as the words “in partnership with Royal Life Saving Society” appears on screen. 

3 facts

• The ad scores in the top 5% of all UK ads in potential to drive immediate sales and top 15% in potential to build brand equity in the long-term. 

• It delivers an important message in a significantly distinctive way that is unique and true to the brand’s tone of voice. 

• Without being serious or shocking the audience, the ad still evokes a significant surprise response but ultimately leaves people feeling positive with the use of a universally-loved sports personality and a bit of humor to successfully land the message. 

2 learnings

• When partnering with celebrities or personalities, it’s paramount they align with your brand values and can endorse the message you are trying to communicate in a believable way. When values align, they can become a powerful asset that helps to bring your message to life in a more impactful way. 

• Driving shock value to deliver an important message around health and safety may help land it, but it can often leave the audience feeling depleted or anxious. It’s crucial to understand when this can work for your brand and when it becomes detrimental. 

1 reflection

When deviating from your usual key brand messages in advertising, whether it's to drive awareness of an important topic, highlight a partnership, jump on a topical trend, etc., it’s crucial to ask yourself whether it makes sense for the brand and whether it can be executed in a way that aligns with the brand personality. Staying true to your brand values and the way consumers perceive your brand is the most important element to establish when considering adjacent activations to your core communications. 

Malibu has partnered with Tom Daley and the Royal Life Saving Society (RLSS) to raise awareness of the danger involved when drinking near water given the high risk of drowning. Based on RLSS UK stats, one in four drownings are alcohol-related and further research commissioned by Malibu revealed 62% of Brits have been swimming or entered water after consuming an alcoholic beverage. They also found that Gen Z are especially relaxed about the topic, with 78% of drinkers saying it is okay to have one or more drinks before getting into water. 

The campaign aligns with the brand’s philosophy of having a good time but being aware of the need to act responsibly. It’s set to be activated through billboards and floating out-of-home displays that will ‘pop up’ across water hotspots across the UK, particularly during the summer bank holiday. It will also run through Malibu and Tom Daley’s social platforms with support of paid digital content.

Tom Daley was the perfect partner for this campaign given his aligned values on the topic. 

“I’ve always loved being in the water, but maybe more than most, I also understand its power and the need to respect it to stay safe. I’m proud to be working with Malibu and the Royal Life Saving Society UK to get this message out there. Stay safe and ‘Don’t Drink and Dive!’” he says. 

Tom’s love for knitting also came in handy in bringing the campaign to life. In collaboration with his own ‘Made With Love’ knitwear line, Malibu has launched a limited-edition capsule collection of knitted apparel including the briefs Tom is seen wearing in the video ad as well as sunglasses, bucket hats and sliders. All proceeds from the sales are going to RLSS UK and Malibu has also made a donation to the charity. 

Unfortunately for anyone looking to now buy the line, the items sold out immediately after launch!

The ad scores in the top 5% of all UK ads in potential to drive immediate sales (sales impact: 98) and in the top 15% in potential to drive brand equity and long-term sales (brand impact: 88).

Most campaigns trying to communicate an important message, particularly relating to safety, tend to use shock tactics to captivate the audience and land the point. Malibu chose to do something different, sticking to the brand’s tone of voice and unique playful style, and it massively paid off. Without shaking the audience, the ad grabs attention significantly beyond norm (claimed attention: 4.2 vs 3.7 norm) and 93% of viewers watch it until the end compared to 88% for the average UK ad.

The approach makes for a highly distinctive campaign (ad distinctiveness: 4.2 vs 3.6 norm) which does a great job at setting Malibu apart from other brands of spirits (brand distinctiveness: 3.9 vs 3.5 norm). The fun-loving and flamboyant way they chose to deliver such an important message stays true to the brand and makes for an ad that consumers can thoroughly enjoy and that is uniquely Malibu (uniqueness of brand impressions: 4.0 vs 3.8 norm). 

Just like Tom Daley’s knitted garments in support of the campaign that sold out as soon as they came out, this ad will no doubt be widely talked about. It has great viral potential with people believing it will be shared around online significantly more so than the average UK ad (viral potential: 63 vs 47 norm). 

The ad was emotionally engaging (overall emotion: 58% vs 42% norm), outperforming in delivering peaks of emotion throughout (emotional intensity: 14 vs 12 norm). 

Despite not using a typical shocking approach to raise awareness on the topic of drinking-related drowning incidents, the ad still manages to evoke a feeling of surprise in the audience significantly beyond that of the average UK ad (surprise response: 9% vs 3% norm). When the message of “1 in 4 UK drownings involve alcohol” appears on screen we see a huge spike in the surprise emotion, but this is followed by a peak of laughter and love as Tom Daley turns around to reveal the call to action of “Don’t Drink and Dive” on his knitted briefs in a tongue in cheek way. 

The change in tone with a switch in the upbeat music of the ad preceding the message reveal allows for this moment of surprise to be even more impactful and for the message to truly stick. It’s a real masterclass in landing an important message without dampening the mood of the ad and ending on a positive note. 

The overall positive feeling of the ad leaves viewers feeling good and appreciating how the brand chose to approach the serious topic in such a light-hearted yet impactful manner. When asked to choose an emoji that best describes how they felt about the ad, 27% chose a “love” emoji compared to 19% for the average UK ad. 

People loved how the brand used Tom Daley to promote the message. He’s an incredibly lovable and influential sports personality, aligns with the brand feel and its values and is hugely relevant at the moment coming out of his performance at the Olympics where he revealed he is retiring from competitive diving. 

They also really enjoyed the contrast between the happy, summery feel of the ad and the seriousness of the message it was aiming to deliver. It made the reveal more impactful and grabbed people’s attention in a more gentle way with appealing and eye-catching visuals. 

Here’s what they had to say about it:

• "I liked how at the beginning it seemed like a normal advertisement with the bright colors then suddenly shifted to an important message, really makes you read it and sticks in your head. Has a comedic feel to it before the reveal also."

• "I liked the music and the surroundings. I liked the way a serious message was conveyed in a friendly and gentle way."

• "I liked the fun-ness of the ad and how bright and colorful it was. I like that it had a famous swimmer to promote the importance. I like that they tried to make it funny."

• "Loved the ad. Most alcohol brands say to drink responsibly but it feels impersonal. This has the shock factor of the statistics and is specific about why it’s important to drink responsibly. Also, everyone loves Tom Daley. Fab ad."

While making people laugh and feel love towards it, the ad is highly informative (new information: 3.7 vs 3.3 norm) and well understood (understanding: 4.4 vs 4.1 norm). Nine in ten people who watched it felt like the message that “Malibu promotes responsible drinking” was conveyed clearly. 

The ad doesn’t speak directly about the brand, but landing such an important message through it makes the audience feel more positively about Malibu after watching it (brand appeal (3.9 vs 3.7 norm). It also drives the brand to be top of mind the next time people are thinking about buying spirits with 34% saying they would choose Malibu after watching the ad vs only 12% before watching it (purchase uplift: 22% vs 15% norm).

Huge kudos to Malibu on this entire campaign! They delivered a highly captivating, but most importantly, lifesaving message in a truly impactful and unique way. 

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