Gen-Z, Millennial Media Opps: Smirnoff launches campaign starring Kaley Cuoco

Smirnoff named actress Kaley Cuoco chief summer officer as part of the new "How to Summer: Grown-Up Edition" campaign. The push includes two 15-second ads and nine 06-second video ads, which will be supported online and on national TV. The brand also purchased a front-page ad in USA Today and local ads in multiple newspapers. It worked with PHD, VMLY&R, Taylor and Starpower on the campaign. It is promoting Smirnoff Red, White & Berry with this push. The brand noted it is specifically targeting 21- to 34-year-olds (Gen-Z and millennials). 

According to Pathmatics, Smirnoff earned 1.3b impressions YTD through Facebook ads (56%), Instagram ads (38%), Twitter ads (4%), desktop video ads (2%) and desktop display ads (1%). It placed 100% of these ads directly onto sites such as facebook.com, instagram.com, twitter.com, youtube.com and univision.com. It spent approximately $10.2m on digital display ads YTD, a 6% increase from $9.6m spent in this channel during the same time period of 2021. Full-year spend increased by 50% from $14.6m in 2020 to $21.9m in 2021. 

Per iSpot, Smirnoff spent nearly $6.3m on national TV ads YTD, a significant increase from $1.2m spent in this channel during the same time period of 2021. Full-year spend increased by 69% from $5.4m in 2020 to $9.1m in 2021. This year, it placed ads during programming such as NFL Football, 2022 Winter Olympics, NBA Basketball, SportsCenter and This Is Us. 

Sellers-- Smirnoff mainly targets Gen-Zers (21+) and millennials. It reaches these demographics through digital display and national TV ads. The brand has been increasing spend across both channels, and I see no reason to believe it will stop any time soon. This year, it placed the majority of its digital ads directly onto social media sites Facebook and Instagram, which are both very popular among its target audience. It also invests in OOH, print, radio and local broadcast TV ads, per Kantar. There still may be time to offer last-minute campaign ad space. Sellers should get in touch soon to score some of these extra ad dollars. 

Agency & martech readers-- As mentioned above, Smirnoff worked with PHD USA (media AOR), Taylor (PR), VMLY&R (social) and Starpower (influencer) on the campaign. I believe it also works with creative AOR 72andSunny and digital AOR 360i. You likely have the best chance of picking up project-based assignments at this time.