Bacardí often boasts that it sells “sunshine in a bottle,” making summer a key occasion for the privately held rum distiller. For years, the marketer has used the onset of the season as a chance to iterate on “Do What Moves You,” a brand platform that launched in 2018 and revolves around music and dance. For 2024 — and the foreseeable future — Bacardí has enlisted pop star Camila Cabello, a breakout star from girl group Fifth Harmony, as the face of the effort.

Set to Cabello’s new hyperpop single “I Luv It,” Bacardí's latest “Do What Moves You” spot literalizes how sound moves everyone and everything, including lightwaves shining through a bottle of rum, the yellow divider on the road and a “Dune”-like explosion of sand. As Cabello and company dance, the lights of a beachside apartment complex imitate a visual equalizer while a wide shot shows an entire skyline of similarly lit-up buildings.

The campaign, made in collaboration with BBDO New York and developed over two years, connects the brand’s history, functional aspects and new brand ambassador in an ad that celebrates self-expression, togetherness, joyfulness and summer.

“It’s an invitation to move from both an emotional perspective — the freedom of being who you are without the fear of being judged — but also from a physical perspective,” said Laila Mignoni, Bacardí’s global head of brand marketing. 

Tapping into the ‘fountain of youth’ 

Music is a “fountain of youth” that keeps the over 160-year-old brand fresh and relevant. (“Show me your playlist and I can tell you how old you are,” Mignoni jokes.) Past versions of the seasonal campaign have featured buzzworthy artists including dancehall DJ crew Major Lazer, hip-hop producer Swizz Beatz and rapper Meek Mill, the latter of whom was part of an effort that remixed Miami Sound Machine’s iconic song “Conga.” In Cabello, Bacardí has found a rising pop star whose identity aligns with the brand.

“She’s from Cuba and she grew up in Miami, so it’s exactly like us: We’re from Cuba, and we grew up in Miami,” Mignoni said of a partnership that pays homage to the melting pot of the Florida city that serves as a gateway to Latin America.

Along with Cabello, the campaign features choreography by Marine Brutti, Jonathan Debrouwer and Arthur Hare of (LA)HORDE, a Marseille-based dance collective that blends ballet and contemporary dance. Directing duties were handled by Nicolás Méndez, co-founder of filmmaking collective Canada who has helmed music videos for Rosalia and Travis Scott (he also directed Cabello’s official video for “I Luv It”).

Once Bacardí landed on the soundwave concept, the brand did several rounds of qualitative and quantitative testing before working with Cabello’s team on a plan for the lookbook, dancers, casting and location. Production included a five-day shoot in the Dominican Republic before undertaking a “giant” visual effects effort that brought the choreography and various soundwaves to life.

“It features the power of music and how it moves everything and everyone, but then ultimately brings everyone together,” Mignoni explained. “It sounds very simple, but I promise, it was a lot of work.”

Navigating fragmentation 

As with previous “Do What Moves You” pushes, Bacardí will iterate on the new creative throughout the year and beyond. The brand has a long-term partnership with Cabello (who will release her new album “C, XOXO” on June 28) and has other activations planned for “the next couple of years.”

The campaign launched during NBA playoff broadcasts on ESPN and TNT in April. The media plan, which is expected to run for 18 months to two years, is split between digital and traditional channels like TV and out-of-home. Bacardí has extended previous versions of “Do What Moves You” to spaces like SoundCloud, Snapchat and NFTs. This goaround features custom partnerships with Snapchat and Spotify that include augmented reality activations for Cabello’s album launch and music festival occasions.

“The way that we all consume media right now, it’s so fragmented, but we will spend so much time in audio, that will probably be the biggest shift that we’ve had as a brand. We’ve been increasing our investment in audio formats,” Mignoni said. “It’s also a great format because you get a lot of attention. We all multitask all the time, but with audio, you’re really in there. So audio is a big part of it.”