• by Tanya Gazdik , June 18, 2015

George Clooney’s Casamigos tequila is launching its first ad campaign, which includes online videos and social media.

The 2-year-old company is co-owned by Clooney along with Rande Gerber, an entertainment industry businessman and former model who is married to model Cindy Crawford, and Discovery Land Company CEO/founder Michael Meldman.

For the video campaign, the trio is asking friends and fans of the brand to document their idea of friendship and post it on social media using the hashtag #HouseOfFriends.

For the first video, they invited their friend and fashion photographer Jason Lee Parry to participate. The only thing Casamigos supplied was cases of their tequila. What Parry came back with was the first in a series of candid scenes from a camping trip with old friends and new friends.

Music for the 45-second and 15-second videos was created by Lukas Nelson, son of Willie Nelson.

Consumer submissions will be reviewed by Clooney and Gerber and a select few will be shared on the Casamigos’ social channels as part of the campaign.  

Casamigos chose a programmatic model because it seemed the most effective way to reach people, according to Gerber. Many liquor companies have huge budgets and hire big marketing firms to come up with expensive campaigns to convince people to drink their product. However, Clooney and Gerber do everything in-house and are involved in every aspect of the brand.  

With most things at Casamigos, the in-house creative team “thinks outside the box and doesn't follow many rules,” he adds.

Clooney and Gerber have a lot of friends who are talented in a variety of ways. From artists to musicians, to athletes, they all have one thing in common, they love Casamigos and want to share it. This open-ended campaign gives them the opportunity to do that, Gerber says.

Casamigos doesn't really see this as a traditional advertising campaign, he adds.

“It's just the culture of the company and the people who love Casamigos,” Gerber says.