Description:

The demand for Mānuka Honey abroad meant that Comvita’s limited edition ‘Special Reserve UMF25+’ was likely to be in high demand even at a premium price point. Our challenge was to help them stand out in an overcrowded market, using the limited release to establish them as a market leader focusing on quality and guardianship.

With only 9000 pots available, Special Reserve Mānuka Honey is an incredibly rare product made only in Aotearoa. To resonate with a global audience we focused on one specific ingredient that they would connect with: time.

Time has become one of the world’s rarest commodities. Even just a moment can seem impossible to find. So with the launch of Special Reserve, we gave audiences a chance to pause and relax with a rare moment of harmony.

This was achieved with a brand campaign telling the story of the partnership between bees and New Zealand’s native Mānuka. Photo-realistic Computer Generated Imagery (CGI) gave us the freedom to bring this special story to life as well as apply elements of time, nature and harmony into the design.

The process started by drawing inspiration from Ikebana, the Japanese art of flower arrangement, which informs design using time, movement, lines, geometry and balance.
We applied time into our design in three parts: past, present and future, which is represented as the trunk (wide with aged bark), center (nesting fresh Mānuka honeycomb), and top of our Mānuka tree (nursing seeds for tomorrow). The theme of three continues with three bees, adding considered balance and harmony to the design. The harmonious brand film applies time and harmony into the design through time-lapse and slow motion sequences, with an original piece of music composed using traditional Maori instruments. Giving viewers of the world a rare moment of tranquility and zen, bringing them closer to the unique place this natural gift comes from, Aotearoa New Zealand.