The Public House Brings More Colour to Cocktail Time in Global Campaign for Kahlúa

Independent creative agency The Public House have helped Kahlúa launch a brand new global campaign for the world’s leading coffee liqueur brand. Building off their experience with some leading spirits brands, the agency got to the heart of Kahlúa’s playful personality, celebrating the ease of three of their most delicious serves: the Espresso Martini, the Frozen Mudslide and the White Russian. The challenge? To reposition Kahlúa in the treat space and as the perfect ingredient for an easy, at-home cocktail.

This 360 campaign is anchored by stylised 15” hero content that celebrates both the ease and playfulness of making a Kahlúa cocktail. A suite of bold, playful and yellow key visuals complete with stylistic mess will be rolled out across OOH and print, strengthening the brand message of ease as well as reinforcing brand colour cues. A variety of cutdowns, GIFs and stills were also created in partnership with Melbourne-based Pixel. Each video has a unique soundtrack composed by Denis Kilty.

In order to stand out in a sea of drink and serves content, Pixel and The Public House used a variety of techniques such as puppetry, stop motion and in-camera supers. The suite of content features short and satisfying little moments like coffee beans jumping into the serene foam of an Espresso Martini and a jigger and jug coming to life to make a White Russian.

“At The Public House we love a good cocktail. It so happens that Kahlúa is the standard liqueur in many of our favourites. When we were tasked with creating a campaign depicting said cocktails, it felt like the perfect brief! The work demonstrates how you can stir up your routine with Kahlúa-based drinks,” notes Dillon McKenna, Creative Director, The Public House.

Giancarlo Martins, Communications Lead for Kahlúa at The Absolut Company added:"Having an engaged and passionate partner like The Public House, who understands the core of our strategy, was crucial in unearthing our playful personality throughout the creative process.

Together we've been able to stretch our creative expression from the look, to animation style, to the Mexican-inspired music, landing in a distinctive campaign that shows how deliciously-easy it is to make Kahlúa cocktails at home."

The Public House is Ireland’s most awarded creative agency of 2022, driven by the philosophy that ‘Boring Doesn’t Sell’. Their roster of clients is made up of ambitious brands including FBD Insurance, Irish Independent, Dunnes Stores, EPIC: The Irish Emigration Museum and Barnardos.