Captain Morgan

The Big Night Out

Risk aversion, recommendation, bonding, planning nights out — all through the eyes of young males

We conducted this work in the US (a mature market for the brand) and Germany (a growth market), providing Captain Morgan with two discrete perspectives on how young males – specifically those in the first three years post college/university – negotiate the ever treacherous challenge of, gasp, ‘going out for the evening.’

 

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Using a mix of mobile reporting – diary responses, video blogs – depths interviews and trends work, we worked with a sample of 25 in each market over a relatively sustained period, reaching a spectrum of well evidenced findings.

For instance, being organised is not seen as a positive trait among our young males – evenings are supposed to happen more effortlessly than that. They know the best nights out are when they meet someone new, or go to a different venue – and yet they are incredibly risk averse, by and large. The great night out is not so much about what happens on the night but what happens afterwards – as the account of the evening grows becomes both more fictitious and celebrated.

The work allowed Captain Morgan to evaluate strategies and activations that place the brand where it can help this audience organise itself (without ever losing the all-important of air of spontaneous, “we never organise” energy), do new things with minimal perceived risk, and enable the curating and sharing of the stories that bond male friendship groups together as post-college life pulls them in different directions.

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  • Citizen Journalism

    Citizen journalism works on the principle of making reporters of our participants, briefing them to capture what’s happening in the lives of their friends and family via video dispatches and blogging. It gets us places where we can’t otherwise get. It bypasses the bias of having a researcher in attendance. People are often more accurate reporters on those around them than on themselves, so that’s another bias circumnavigated.

  • Network Audits

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