Absolut encourages Aussies to Make Love Louder with Absolut Love Letters campaign via The Bravery and Republic of Everyone
Absolut has launched Absolut Love Letters; a project via Republic of Everyone and The Bravery, that celebrates the LGBTIQ+ community, the power of allies and friends, and the importance of being a vocal supporter in 2020.
The majority of Aussies believe love is love and support the LGBTIQ+ community. But recently it feels like the loudest voices are the most negative ones. Absolut is on a mission to change this.
Through Absolut Love Letters, Absolut aims to gather and distribute one of the largest collections of positive messages for the LGBTIQ+ community – and share them publicly across the country during the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, as a major event sponsor and into March 2020.
Absolut have released the Make Love Louder report, led by prolific LGBTIQ+ researcher, author and advocate, Dr Shirleene Robinson, which underpins the Absolut Love Letters project. This report highlights how public debate on freedom of speech and discrimination has negatively impacted the community and the importance of vocal support of allies and friends, asking the community what they need and from who, to see better support.
The research found:
• The community is at a new low yet allies and friends have gone quiet with 3 in 4 considering themselves silent supporters (73%)
• LGBTIQ+ people, 2 in 3 confirmed they saw or heard negativity about the community at least once a week
• The importance of vocal and overt support for the community in the current climate of discrimination, to demonstrate hate is in the minority and love is louder
• Seeing public support from the media is very important for LGBTIQ+ Australians (89%)
• 3 in 5 said they want to see it from brands and corporations
Says Eric Thomson, global marketing director of Pernod Ricard Winemakers: “Absolut has been supporting the LGBTIQ+ community for 40 years through being a proud, celebratory partner of the community. Absolut believes in finding beautiful, simple ways to show love, which can be seen in the call- to-action; simply share your message of support or love letter to the community through #absolutloveletters or #makelovelouder.
“In our third year as a major partner of Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, we wanted to evolve our approach to not only celebrate and support the community but also empower and galvanise their allies in order to create real action too.”
Social cause and impact agency partners The Bravery and Republic of Everyone worked with Absolut to ensure the process from insight gathering to execution, was done in consultation with leading LGBTIQ+ organisations and the LGBTIQ+ community. They worked directly with partners just.equal and the Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras, plus consulted with a range of sector organisations and interviewed 1,000+ members of the LGBTIQ+ community and 904 allies and friends, resulting in a campaign the community determined would not only be helpful but impactful.
Says Claire Maloney, director, The Bravery: “Absolut Love Letters identifies a way to mobilise allies and friends to speak up, and let love be the loudest message. It’s positive, which is what so many people told us was important right now. It’s also why we ensured the research built upon existing insights, to reveal new ones, to benefit organisations working within the sector.”
Once again, this year Absolut will hero stories of love and support from the community, this time in celebration of LGBTIQ+ Aussies, their allies and friends. To bring the campaign to life and collect and distribute as many love letters as possible Absolut activated:
• Out of home campaign dominating Mardi Gras parade areas plus metro sites around Australia
• Video and stills content created by non-binary Director Cloudy Rhodes with real-life members of
the LGBTIQ+ community and their ally
• A mural painting on Oxford St from visual artist, Scott Marsh, to bring to life a story of love and
friendship between two friends Emma (out since 2016) and Benn (her ally since 2016)
• Absolut Love Letter dancefloors at Laneway Festival and Sydney Mardi Gras 2020 Fair Day, plus a range of touchpoints at Absolut partner bar venues including Merivale, The Sydney Collective
Group and other small bars
To get involved, share your message of love, support and positivity for the community on social with #AbsolutLoveLetters to help us show love is louder. Find out more at absolut.com/au/loveletters
Client: Absolut
Global Marketing Director: Eric Thompson
Senior Brand Manager: Karlee Fancourt
Global PR Manager: Simon Clark
Assistant Brand Manager: Kate Moran
Strategic and PR agency: The Bravery
Director: Claire Maloney
Strategic and creative agency: Republic of Everyone
Founder: Ben Peacock
Social media management: Analog Folk
Partner and Managing Director: Matt Robinson
Event production and management: PIM Group
Director: Mike Edkins
Mural art: Scott Marsh
Video production: Ampel with Director, Cloudy Rhodes
Research: Dr Shirleene Robinson, just.equal and Maidstone Consulting
6 Comments
Oh fuck, I’m bored of this virtue signaling shit by brands.
You know what they say Steve… if you are bored, then you’re probably boring
Was the OOH designed in PowerPoint? The typography hurts my eyes. Don’t even get me started on the music track.
I can’t help but smile whenever I see this campaign. Thank you, Absolut.
and this great work. seriously, how can you fault it? deep idea, good strategy and a really nice blow up rainbow thanks to our partners. Not one single cliche in the copy either. so to the haters, you need to open your hearts a little.
Yeah agree about the OOH. Very hard to read and copy is far too small. Also execution is poor, looks like someone rushed it and did a lazy clipping mask of the bottle over the text. Amazing work by Scottie Marsh on the mural though, definitely the best part.