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Havana Club Brings Cuban Mode to Life Across Three Markets
Havana Club launched Cuban Mode in November 2022 as an integrated global campaign designed to immerse audiences in La Cubanía — the collective Cuban spirit of creativity, mutual support, and vibrant communal energy — across Canada, Spain, and the United Kingdom, using a single cinematic media asset anchored in authentic Cuban culture and lifestyle.
The campaign arrived as Havana Club sought to deepen its positioning not merely as a leading Cuban rum brand but as a cultural ambassador capable of translating Cuban heritage into an emotional and aspirational language that resonates with contemporary consumers. Rather than presenting Cuba as a geographic destination, Cuban Mode frames La Cubanía as a transportable mindset — a way of approaching life that anyone, anywhere, can adopt and embody. That conceptual pivot distinguishes the campaign from conventional spirits advertising, which typically leans on origin stories or cocktail occasion cues.
Cuban Mode was developed in collaboration with creative agencies Sid Lee and Yard Agency, with the initial rollout confirmed in Canada before the campaign was publicly reported on November 8, 2022, as noted by The Spirits Business. The campaign subsequently extended into Spain and the United Kingdom, with planned or active extensions into Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, and Greece, according to The Spirits Business and Strategy. Canada, Spain, and the United Kingdom represent the confirmed primary markets where the campaign ran in full across Havana Club's social and digital channels alongside local activations. Havana Club International S.A. operates as a joint venture between Pernod Ricard and the Cuban state-owned Corporación Cuba Ron, a structure that gives the brand legitimate claim to Cuban provenance in its international markets — a point of competitive significance given that in the United States, Bacardi markets a separate Havana Club rum produced in Puerto Rico.
Havana Club positioned Cuban Mode on a consumer insight that extends well beyond rum preference. The brand identified that Cuban culture — its music, its communal creativity, its characteristic resilience — holds a universal aspirational appeal that the rum category had not yet fully claimed as strategic territory. By centring the campaign on La Cubanía as a mindset rather than a product attribute, Havana Club moved into cultural branding, a register more typically occupied by fashion and lifestyle labels than spirits.
Ludmilla Stephkov, Havana Club's global brand director, stated that the campaign presented Cuba as "a mindset and way of life," according to The Spirits Business. That framing is strategically deliberate. In the United Kingdom, the rum market exceeded one billion pounds annually in 2022 and represented approximately thirteen percent of the UK spirits sector, according to Rum Nl. Within that competitive landscape, Havana Club faces pressure from both Bacardi — the dominant global rum player by volume — and Diplomatico, which has built a strong premium positioning in European markets. Cuban Mode responds to that pressure not by competing on taste claims but by asserting cultural authenticity as a differentiating asset that neither competitor can credibly replicate.
Across Canada, Spain, and the United Kingdom, the campaign targeted consumers who self-identify through cultural participation — music, creativity, collective experience — rather than through conventional spirits-occasion behaviour. As reported by Strategy in December 2022, Yard Agency had worked with Havana Club for four years by the time Cuban Mode launched, giving the campaign a strategic continuity that reflects accumulated brand understanding rather than a single executional intervention. Annika Ramchandani, Associate Creative Director at Sid Lee, observed that "there's truly a unique recipe to the Cuban way of life that invites us to make the most of what we have," as quoted by shots.net, encapsulating the campaign's core strategic proposition.
Cuban Mode rests its creative authority on a precise pairing of moving image and still photography, each handled by practitioners whose existing bodies of work signal both cultural credibility and high production values. The campaign film was directed by Aisultan Seitov, whose prior collaborations with artists including Offset, 21 Savage, and Tyler the Creator established his fluency in translating subcultural energy into compelling visual language. Seitov's directorial sensibility — rooted in authentic portraiture of creative communities — made him a considered choice for a campaign whose entire premise depends on the believability of its Cuban cultural representation.
Complementing Seitov's film work, the campaign features photography by Jack Bridgland, a UK-based photographer recognised for his editorial and commercial work with Rosalía and Robert Pattinson. Bridgland's contribution introduces a sophisticated, high-end aesthetic that elevates the still imagery beyond documentary into something closer to fashion editorial — a register that reinforces Havana Club's premium positioning across Canada, Spain, and the United Kingdom without sacrificing warmth or cultural texture.
The production was handled by Partizan Ltd, with Jason Oakley serving as producer and Jill Gattegno responsible for costume design. Partizan is a production company with a long record in ambitious branded content and music video work, and its involvement signals the level of craft ambition behind Cuban Mode. Yoan Prat, General Manager at Yard Agency, articulated the creative ethos behind the campaign when speaking to shots.net: "Cuba is a unique place that is fuelled by diversity, mutual support and creativity. The creative mindset is one of their defining strengths." That statement reads less as campaign rationale and more as a creative brief distilled into two sentences — which is precisely the kind of clarity that keeps a campaign coherent from strategy through to final frame.
No independently verified performance data for Cuban Mode — including reach figures, engagement rates, or sales uplift — is publicly available from named third-party sources. No verified award wins for the campaign have been documented in publicly available records. What can be assessed is the structural effectiveness of the campaign's design and the conditions into which it launched.
Cuban Mode carries a Clapboard Score of 68 out of 100. That score reflects the campaign's genuine creative ambition and its disciplined strategic coherence — the alignment between the La Cubanía concept, the calibre of its production talent, and the cultural legitimacy of its Cuban spirit positioning is unusually tight for a spirits campaign operating across multiple international markets simultaneously. The score is tempered by the absence of a broader executional ecosystem: a single primary media asset, however well-crafted, limits the depth of cultural immersion the campaign promises at the concept level.
The campaign launched into a UK rum market that exceeded one billion pounds annually in 2022, according to rum.nl, and into a global rum market that research firm Market Us valued at approximately fifteen billion US dollars in the same year. Within that context, Havana Club's decision to anchor Cuban Mode in cultural identity rather than occasion or taste represents a structurally sound long-game play. In Canada, Spain, and the United Kingdom — markets where premium spirits consumers respond strongly to brand story and provenance — the campaign's emphasis on Cuban heritage and Cuban lifestyle creates meaningful brand equity even where short-term conversion metrics are unavailable.
Cuban Mode is Havana Club's integrated global campaign launched in November 2022. Created by Sid Lee and Yard Agency, it invites audiences in Canada, Spain, and the United Kingdom to embrace La Cubanía — the Cuban spirit of collective creativity and vibrant communal energy — positioning Havana Club as a cultural ambassador rather than solely a rum brand.
Cuban Mode ran primarily in Canada, Spain, and the United Kingdom. Canada received the initial rollout during summer 2022, according to Clapboard's editorial record. The campaign subsequently extended to Spain and the UK, with planned or active extensions into Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, and Greece, as reported by The Spirits Business and Strategy.
Aisultan Seitov directed the Cuban Mode campaign film. Seitov is known for his work with prominent music artists including Offset, 21 Savage, and Tyler the Creator. The film was produced by Partizan Ltd, with Jason Oakley serving as producer, and photography was provided by UK-based photographer Jack Bridgland.
La Cubanía describes the collective Cuban spirit of creativity, mutual support, and vibrant communal energy. Havana Club built Cuban Mode around it to position the brand as a cultural ambassador, not just a rum producer. As Havana Club's global brand director Ludmilla Stephkov stated to The Spirits Business, the campaign presents Cuba as "a mindset and way of life."
Sid Lee and Yard Agency created Cuban Mode together. As reported by Strategy in December 2022, Yard Agency had worked with Havana Club for four years before the campaign launched, providing accumulated brand understanding. Sid Lee contributed creative direction, with Associate Creative Director Annika Ramchandani cited by shots.net as a key voice on the campaign's strategic concept.
Cuban Mode received a Clapboard Score of 68 out of 100. The score recognises the campaign's disciplined strategic coherence and high production craft, including the calibre of director Aisultan Seitov and photographer Jack Bridgland. It is tempered by the campaign's reliance on a single primary media asset across its three confirmed markets.
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