Victoria Day of the Dead Campaigns
The brand’s first campaigns referred to the offerings that are made to loved ones who have passed away. Then he resorted to the representation of the catrinas, a traditional character of Mexican culture created by illustrator José Guadalupe Posada, and who represents death. Parades in the streets of Mexico City, concerts and collectible merchandise were some of the actions carried out to publicize the campaign.
The next step was the legends. In 2016 there was talk of a ghost woman wandering Avenida Reforma in the country’s capital. The virality and uncertainty did not wait, until the brand announced that it was the start of its campaign.
It was the preamble to the inauguration of the Hotel de Leyendas Victoria, a building restored and decorated so that viewers could live an interactive theater experience, through the narration of traditional stories such as La Llorona or Charro Negro.
This activity based on experiential marketing placed Victoria as Grupo Modelo’s second largest brand, below Corona, by growing 10.7% in consumer preferences between 18 and 24 years old, in just one year.
“Later we decided to put aside the catrinas, the papel picado and the offerings, because it already gave us the feeling of being limited, and we gave way to understand where the Mexicans’ obsession with death came from, so we show the origin ”, explained Yune Aranguren, director of the Victoria brand.
Ogily México began keeping track in 2018. For Victoria Hernández, CEO of the agency, Cerveza Victoria is a client that challenges the creative team all the time, in part because it already has a territory that has been won and differentiated from the Day of the Dead and also because It always requires being at the forefront and one step ahead of the rest.
The first advertising action in his charge was Mictlan. This project was carried out by the ballet dancers Isaac and Esteban Hernández, who performed a choreography that represented the path that the dead had to follow to reach the Mexica underworld.
“We dared to reinterpret what Mictlán would be like, that underworld that corresponds to the Aztecs. With the help of Ogilvy, the piece became iconic, we began to talk about the origin of the Day of the Dead like no one had ever done before, we presented a version in Nahuatl and it had an incredible impact,” said Aranguren.
But the effect achieved triggered the real challenge. “When we realized what a monster we had created with Mictlan, we knew it would not be easy to top this campaign,” he admitted. This forced the creative team to search for new stories that would allow them to connect with the Day of the Dead in a very human way.
With this idea came Xibalba. In it, Victoria shows the Mayan underworld through the death of a man, who must pass a series of tests with the help of his family to achieve rest with his ancestors. With this creative piece, the brand celebrated the Day of the Dead 2019.
With the support of Ogilvy and the Media.Monks agency, Xibalba was launched in traditional media such as television, cinema and outdoor advertising, and on digital platforms, which allowed the campaign to reach 63.5 million people with 95% of the share of voice of the beer category.
The piece of content obtained 29 million views and achieved a VTR of 56%, that is, the rate of complete views of the commercial on digital platforms. Nearly 759,000 digital offerings were designed, due to 98% of the positive sentiment the ad elicited.
Xibalba was also awarded at the IAB Mixx 2020, where the best of digital advertising is recognized, with a bronze medal in the Content Video category. In the Golden Circle, the campaign was also awarded six metals and two Grand Prix and was also a Marketing Monster in 2020.