Vancouverite Nick Martin stood at the top of the thunderous Virginia Falls in the Northwest Territories, experienced the awe of the northern lights at Aurora Village and climbed 5,000ft glaciers – all in six days. The trip of a lifetime, hosted by Corona Canada and Microsoft MSN Travel, saw him and a friend explore far-flung regions of the NWT and northern B.C. as part of the beer brand’s “Live Mas Fina” campaign.
The concept behind “Live Mas Fina” (translated as “live the good life”) is to urge Canadians to experience life outside of their comfort zones.
Created by Toronto-based agency Zulu Alpha Kilo, the overarching brand platform, launched in March this year, “takes the beer off the beach and into a new space,” said Shane Ogilvie, executive creative director at the agency.
This latest component, “Uncharted Territories,” is a series of short travel-focused films featuring Martin, 23, who was chosen from thousands of hopeful contestants around the country.
Martin’s journey was captured by MSN’s film crew and the outcome, “A Life Less Ordinary,” launched this week both on Corona Canada’s YouTube channel and Microsoft MSN Travel’s Uncharted Territories online hub.
To find their ambassador, a Corona team held auditions at selected bars across Canada. The 2,000 contestants had to make a 3-4 minute video talking about what they believe it means to “live mas fina.”
According to Kate Torrance, group account director at Zulu Alpha Kilo, Martin stood out from the get-go.
“Nick didn’t talk about destinations he wanted to visit, but spoke about the importance of doing new and different things. He is just a great spirited guy. We knew he would be able to bring the essence of the campaign to life,” she said.
“It’s easy for beer brands to get actors and tell people how they should be living, but here we have a real person doing what the brand believes in. Nick is proof that people are willing to live outside the norm,” Torrance said.
Ogilvie contends this is what is important for the brand. “We’ll measure the film’s success in all the usual ways, but really it’s about creating a real-life example of what the brand believes in.”
The “Uncharted Territories” work also featured a national competition – three lucky Canadians found the prizes inside their case of beer – with trips to some of the world’s most remote locations: Madagascar, the Son Doong Cave in Vietnam, and Easter Island off the coast of Chile.
For 2014, the agency is planning another content-driven campaign that will find “more ways of putting the consumer at the centre” under the Live Mas Fina banner, Torrance said.
