Bacardi tests IGTV by getting users to participate in video creation

The music video will feature the dancing duo Les Twins, who have 970,000 followers on Instagram at @OfficialLesTwins. Starting at 1 p.m. ET on June 29, @OfficialLesTwins will begin posting Instagram Stories asking followers to vote on elements of the video, such as choreography, lighting, camera angles and even the length of the video. Based on followers’ choices, Les Twins could take their moves from a New York City subway all the way to Coney Island, so the music video could easily span an hour. The results will be incorporated into Les Twins’ next Instagram Story, and the final version will be posted to Bacardi’s and Les Twins’ IGTV channels at noon the following day.

Laila Mignoni, director of creative excellence for Bacardi, took the interactive approach to draw attention to the company’s new IGTV channel and chose influencers because they already have followings there. Bacardi saw more room to be creative and get more viewer response with IGTV’s long format.

“A lot of social platforms only allow you to only communicate with such short clips,” said Mignoni. “That has been a frustration at times. Platforms dictating how a story should be told because of the length is a downer. We need both — the short and longer formats where you can land emotions in narratives.”

The effort, created with agency BBDO, is part of Bacardi’s yearlong Do What Moves You campaign, which aims to inspire consumers to live expressively, and is also supported by Bacardi sponsorship of music festivals and its Dance Floor digital ad launched in May and promoted on social channels, music streaming sites like Spotify and SoundCloud and music publications like Fader and Stereogum.

Get more exclusive coverage and analysis around the future of video, TV and entertainment by subscribing to the weekly video briefing email.