Topo Chico’s Marketing Director Talks Summer Airstream Partnership and Activations

This summer Topo Chico Hard Seltzer partnered with Airstream to deliver an upgraded staycation experience, void of the stresses often caused by planning, packing and traveling to a far-flung destination. One contest winner will enjoy a three-day, two-night experience at “The Stayman Islands”—their own backyard, transformed into a vacation destination with sand, plush lounge recliners, a massage, a chef-curated dinner, live musical entertainment and, naturally, a private Airstream trailer to sleep in. We spoke with Brittany Norris, Marketing Director of Hard Seltzers at Molson Coors, about the inspiration and marketing strategy behind the activation.

Chief Marketer: What was the inspiration behind the Airstream activation and sweepstakes?

Brittany Norris, Marketing Director of Hard Seltzers at Molson Coors: The trip that we’re giving away is called the Topo Chico Hard Seltzer Stayman Islands. It’s about taking the work out of vacationing so that you can focus on what makes vacation the most fun, which is refreshment, relaxation and enjoying all those best summer moments. We are providing a staycation that takes all of the prep and the planning away. One lucky winner will win a curated experience right in their backyard. This is the only experience where we ask consumers not to pack their bags, because they don’t have to go anywhere.

This is part of our summer-long partnership that we have with Airstream, about providing the best parts of the vacation in your backyard. Think spa treatment, gourmet meals from a private chef that will come right to your backyard, and even a private concert for you and your friends.

CM: What research is the program based on?

BN: The insight behind how we got to first the partnership with Airstream is this: We know that our consumers love to travel. And when we thought about partnering with someone over the summer, we [looked for] another iconic brand that has this vintage, cool, effortless nature that we thought married really well with the Topo Chico brand. The first one that came to mind was Airstream, so we reached out to them and created this partnership. The staycation is a component of that.

We also have summer-long activations with retail components as well as some retail giveaways and promotions…With our retail promotion, consumers can win a [trip to a] destination where they go to either a location in California or Texas. It’s an unconventional destination where they can stay in an Airstream as well.

CM: Was there ever talk of doing a festival activation instead of a one-off contest? Why did you choose a contest specifically?

BN: We thought this was a much more intimate way to work with our consumers. We know that we can do big festivals and big events. We also are giving away, as part of our partnership with Airstream, one of two getaways where consumers can go somewhere and spend a weekend in an Airstream at a location. But with Topo Chico being about refreshment, we thought about how we can refresh the travel experience.

I was just on vacation last week in Jamaica, and it was awesome. But all of the work I had to put into looking through travel sites, finding the right hotels, finding the right experiences that everyone would like… we wanted to take that stress away from consumers and this was unique to Topo Chico.

CM: Why did you choose a sweepstakes contest specifically?

BN: We wanted a way to reach our consumers and provide them with a unique curated experience, instead of asking consumers to go out and be a part of a big festival to win a ticket. We do ticket giveaways a ton with Topo Chico, but this is about creating an intimate experience with your friends. Having a more curated event that tailors to what we think customers are going to want most, in a stress-free, refreshing way, we thought was a bigger, more exciting prize than “win a ticket here” or “win a ticket there.”

CM: Is the winner able to help create any part of the experience?

BN: There’s flexibility in the itinerary, but we’ve made sure that we had enough activities so that they felt like they were winning a really awesome prize. We thought about things that Topo Chico fans like, such as travel. We’re taking the travel out of that. And then food. We had a gourmet experience with a private chef. And then music is another passion for point. What’s better than having a private concert right in your backyard with you and some of your best friends?

CM: Topo Chico recently did a personalized voicemail activation that was pretty unique. What was the inspiration there?

BN: It all goes back to refreshment. That is what you will see consistently throughout Topo Chico activations both now and in the future. That one was about refreshing your voicemail. When’s the last time you changed your voicemail? For me, I really don’t know. So when we were brought that idea and insight from [our agency] Mischief, we thought that was an awesome way to say, okay, let’s refresh. We refreshed the travel experience with Airstream, let’s refresh people’s voicemails by giving them a chance to win a custom voicemail from a cool celebrity, [comedian Ben Schwartz].

CM: What marketing initiatives are coming down the pike?

BN: Our next program is our partnership with Leagues Cup, and that’s all about bringing refreshment to soccer fans through throughout the tournament. We’ll have retail support for that program as well, and we’ll be supporting it with local activations in key markets during those events.