Malibu Gives the People Their Summer Back with 'The Coconut Nut Malibu Remix'  

Today, Malibu and VIRTUE, the creative agency born from VICE, release a global music video ‘The Coconut Nut Malibu Remix’ featuring sunny dance moves from the audience who has shared their interpretations of #TheCoconutChallenge. As Malibu has a strong role to play within summer, this campaign aims to keep summer alive in a fun and alternative way after the recurring ‘Malibu Games’ brand campaign was cancelled due to Covid-19. Since summer isn’t cancelled for consumers the team was able to quickly pivot this into an interactive summer campaign to keep the spirit of summer alive.

Under these challenging circumstances Malibu kicked off a global campaign at the start of August through the #TheCoconutChallenge in partnership with Platinum Selling American DJ and producer Dillon Francis, renowned choreographer Matt Steffanina and over 50 Malibu brand Ambassadors from seven different countries. 

Together with media personalities and creators such as comedian Hannah Stocking, singer and radio presenter Fleur East and creative director Ashley Banjo, Malibu inspired people to bust a move and post their creative interpretations of the dance to social media to make the final cut of Malibu x Dillon Francis’ ‘The Coconut Nut Malibu Remix’ music video. 

#TheCoconutChallenge campaign wraps-up with today’s launch of a high quality VFX music video highlighting the fun-spirited nature of summer and light-hearted vibes Malibu is so synonymous with. Along with bringing people together in a virtual #TheCoconutChallenge dance craze where dance moves came from Asia to Europe to North and South America’, Malibu shared a little bit of sunshine with its audience. This resulted in 60% of the consumer conversations about rum in the US highlighting Malibu (as of Aug 8th, shortly after the launch on Aug 4th) and The Coconut Nut Malibu Remix by Dillon Francis being featured in ‘Dance Rising’ playlist by Spotify.

Monica Jungbeck, global senior marketing manager for Malibu at The Absolut Company, says: “When the global pandemic hit us with unprecedented challenges, we turned to our long standing partner VIRTUE, to come up with a strategy and campaign that would resonate with our audience whilst inspiring the spirit of summer. Not only have we been impressed with their ability to pivot and provide strategy and creative under extreme pressure where the world seemed to be changing from one day to another, but to bring a highly unique and ownable campaign delivering on the business objectives through a highly collaborative, agile and flexible way of working has proven our commitment as partners. And most importantly; giving our audience a sense of summer not being cancelled.”

Simone Quistgaard, business director Northern Europe at VIRTUE, adds: “We believe in creating work that speaks to our most primal instincts of pleasure, attraction and delight. By tapping into the world of Malibu’s audience we wanted to involve them in their natural way of being creators by inviting them to join the summer fun in an alternative way. The teamwork with Malibu goes way beyond the traditional ‘client/agency’ model and we are incredibly proud of the work we were able to create together under these challenging circumstances.”

The work comes on the back of many other creative campaigns following the long-standing partnership of more than three years between Malibu and VIRTUE. As the global agency of record for all communications activities, VIRTUE was also responsible for Malibu Games 2018 and 2019 and the Malibu Summer Feels Tour - making Malibu the number one most talked about rum brand during the summer of 2019.