Perrier’s first YouTube campaign creates sensation
Seeking a sexier image—and a connection to a new generation—the mineral water bottler hosts a nightclub party that grows hotter as the number of viewers increases.
The camera follows the perspective of someone clopping along an alley and down a stairway into a brick-walled basement.
The viewfinder turns 180 degrees to take in the visitor: a pouty actress (you were expecting a granny in curlers?) who wanders through an empty nightclub before sipping a bottle of Perrier.
If it ended with that, the French fizzy-water bottler’s YouTube campaign never would have become a social media sensation, drawing 6 million views in a little over a week.
But the party at Le Club Perrier gets progressively hotter as more people view it, unlocking six different versions of the video. Soon a girl is dancing while clutching a rope, an albino python inhabits a glass box, and things start melting, right down to the chandeliers and the clothes on people’s backs.
Not a bad turnout for the company’s debut campaign on YouTube.
Can you handle the heat?
“We thought it would be nice if we reached a million after the campaign,” says Jorge Torres, group marketing manager for premium brands at Nestlé Waters, which owns Perrier. “As soon as we started seeing 600,000 on the first or second day, and then a million on the third day, that was a surprise. It’s new territory for us.”
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