In 2014, Absolut’s challenge was to entertain and recruit a new pool of millennial spirit drinkers who were not choosing Absolut and were unaware of its rich heritage of artistic collaboration.

In the meantime, our audience of 20-something drinkers is the most connected, most digital-savvy generation in history, consuming online content like fast food. If it’s not original or entertaining it’s not worth even five seconds of their time.

Our industry now knows that ‘content is king’. But with traditional broadcast viewing in decline and hours spent online (and particularly on social media, via mobile devices) increasing every year for our audience, the need to heed that adage has become more urgent.

Absolut is a global brand, so the imperative was for Absolut Nights content to cut through across all markets by appealing to the same universal insight: there are ordinary nights out, but only Absolut’s creativity can make the night extraordinary.

Absolut has created a visual legacy – the likes of Warhol, Haring, Hirst and Newton have brought to life the brand’s boldness, wit and freshness – and this legacy informed our nightlife world.

This multi-disciplinary design process had to strike a balance between art and function. To do this, we paired artists with world-class engineers, architects and fabricators to develop a structural masterpiece in the African Bushvelt.

The structure was designed to look like it had fallen from the sky and become embedded in the ground, while the exterior’s mirrored sides blended into the surroundings to reflect the beautiful African landscape and colourful pyrotechnics display that would unfold later in the evening. At night, the mirror surface refracted light into the sky making the structure visible from miles away.

A transparent material immersed our guests in pyrotechnic choreography. The pyrotechnics were designed to gradually move closer in proximity to the audience, giving the impression that the explosives were on a collision course with the cube.

This was achieved through precise pyrotechnics mapping that consisted of six rings fully encircling the structure, triggered in sequences, detonating at 50 feet and getting as close as five feet away from the cube.

Absolut Nights is a global series of one-of-a-kind, live experiences that put the art in party.

In collaboration with boundary-pushing artists, Absolut used the night as a creative canvas, crafting mesmerising, electrifying experiences within which our audience could play.

In Johannesburg, Absolut collaborated with leading pyrotechnic choreographers to create a kinetic dance floor that sparked an epic show of fire, sound and light as the audience danced inside a custom Perspex cube. The audience danced to the beats of one of South Africa’s most progressive acts, and the more they raised the intensity, the more spectacularly the audience’s dancing was visible in the night sky.

This was combined with original cocktails created by some of Johannesburg’s leading mixologists – in keeping with the pyrotechnic theme, the drinks themselves came alive in custom Absolut ‘flaskas’.

The Johannesburg launch of Absolut Nights has contributed to the following results for Absolut:

• 8% increase in Absolut Facebook fans worldwide

• 10,500 Online Mentions Of #AbsolutNights

• 1/2 Billion Media Impressions

• 12M visits to online stories

• Media value ROI 32:1

And it reasserted Absolut’s place in popular culture, getting the brand back on the map of premium vodka drinkers around the world.