G.H. Mumm: #CauseForCelebration - PRISM Gold

Background

G.H. Mumm Champagne, a Pernod Ricard brand, had gained strong momentum in South Africa through bold collaborations and culturally relevant campaigns. However, as the brand grew, competitors began responding aggressively and the brand needed to defend its position while continuing to build relevance among younger luxury consumers.

The brief was to elevate G.H. Mumm beyond traditional champagne occasions and create culturally relevant reasons to celebrate throughout the year, while also supporting the launch of the Olympe Demi-Sec variant.

The challenge was to sustain brand momentum, drive cultural relevance and translate visibility into both media impact and sales.

The Insight

Luxury champagne is closely tied to celebration, but meaningful celebrations are driven by cultural moments and influential personalities.

To remain relevant, the brand needed to move beyond traditional advertising and instead participate directly in the cultural moments where celebration naturally happens.

By aligning with influential personalities, major social events and premium lifestyle platforms, G.H. Mumm could stay consistently visible within culture while reinforcing its brand ethos of boldness and celebration.

The Idea

An always-on PR campaign built around celebrating progressive South Africans and creating multiple “causes for celebration” throughout the year.

The programme combined celebrity collaboration, cultural event takeovers and curated lifestyle experiences to keep G.H. Mumm at the centre of premium social culture. The campaign was anchored by a limited-edition collaboration with Somizi Mhlongo, whose bold personality and high-profile wedding celebrations provided the perfect narrative platform for the brand.

The Execution

Rather than relying on a single launch moment, the campaign created multiple culturally relevant touchpoints that allowed the brand to remain visible in premium social spaces throughout the year. The campaign rolled out through a series of high-visibility PR and experiential touchpoints designed to generate continuous conversation around the brand.

Key execution elements included:

• Mumm Brunch Differently: An owned lifestyle platform hosting curated brunch experiences for media, influencers and tastemakers

• Sun Met takeover activations positioning the brand at one of South Africa’s most visible luxury social events

• New Year’s Day celebrations creating culturally relevant moments to celebrate the start of the year with the brand

• Somizi limited-edition bottle launch, supported by an exclusive brunch event and curated media reveal

• Maison Mumm photoshoot in Paris with Somizi to create global content assets for PR and media storytelling

• On-trade and off-trade activations, including Makro bottle signing events to drive consumer engagement and sales

• PR amplification through press releases, influencer engagement and targeted media storytelling across lifestyle, fashion and culinary media

Together, these initiatives created an always-on PR ecosystem that positioned G.H. Mumm at the centre of premium lifestyle culture.

Results

The campaign successfully sustained brand visibility while delivering measurable commercial impact. Media coverage generated significant attention for the brand, reaching a PR value of approximately R6.2 million through lifestyle, entertainment and trade publications.

The activity also translated into strong commercial results, with overall G.H. Mumm champagne sales growing by 19.14% year on year during the campaign period. The limited-edition Somizi collaboration proved particularly successful, with 226 bottles sold within the first week of launch, representing the majority of the available stock. The work received industry recognition and was awarded Gold at the PRISM Awards for Campaign of the Year.

My Role

I was part of the agency team responsible for developing the campaign concept during the initial strategy and ideation phase. My contribution focused on shaping elements of the campaign narrative and supporting the development of the pitch presentation used to sell the concept to the client. I worked on messaging development and narrative structure within the strategy deck, helping translate the creative idea into a clear strategic story for the campaign. I was not involved in the operational execution of the campaign once the concept was approved.