Production Notes: BlackBeard Rum Site & Facebook App

Undercurrent has worked with Destilería Serrallés, a premium, family-owned rum distillery in Puerto Rico, since 2009. Over the past four years we’ve made some pretty awesome internet things for their biggest seller, Don Q. When BlackBeard Rum, a younger and lesser known Serrallés brand, wanted to relaunch their site and create something fun for their fans to do online, we knew we had be smart about our budget and the platforms we chose to focus on.

First, we identified our priorities: a fun experience and a clean, modern design. Then we teamed up with Free Association, one of our trusted cohorts who could be both creative and nimble. The result is a website and Facebook app that are easily manageable for a small brand, but still wow.

The new BlackBeardRum.com is simple and beautiful.

Give the people what they want: recipes for delicious drinks.

It features:

• A vertical scroll experience, which allows vistors to sway through the site, mirroring the sensation of a ship at sea
• Interstitial “fun facts” that the user unlocks while scrolling the site for an informative pirate angle
• A recipe module that makes our cocktails look incredible
• A short brand story delivered in a cool, click-through experience

The new BlackBeard “Own the Beard” app on Facebook also abides by our credo that simple is best. In the style of ever-clickable “hot or not” voting platforms, we created an app where users compete to see who has the best beard.

Visit the app and see for yourself.

A few strategic decisions guided development of the platform:

• It should be utterly simple with an unquestionable call-to-action: Users choose between two photos, and then the next two, and then the next, etc.
• It should appeal to both new and veteran users alike: A leaderboard that refreshes weekly highlights the weekly winner, recently submitted beards, and the five beards that are closest to winning
• It should be a highly usable, evolving vehicle for fan growth (and brand growth), to be leveraged with the right partners in the future

So, onward! Learn about original pirate cocktails on BlackbeardRum.com and vote on the burliest beard.