When vodka-based ready-to-drink brand NÜTRL launched in South Korea, GUT Singapore found the starting point for its localization in the brand’s own name.
The agency turned the umlaut in NÜTRL into a smile, building the ‘Smile Üp’ platform around the visual device and carrying it across the brand’s packaging and launch campaign. The work also brought in SEVENTEEN members S.COUPS and MINGYU for an original music video that reimagined their song “For you” as “For Ü.”
The idea gave GUT a way to adapt NÜTRL for Korea while retaining elements of its existing global identity — an approach Carlos Camacho, Chief Creative Officer at GUT Asia, describes simply: “You stretch it, you don’t break it.”
We recently spoke with Camacho about the thinking behind the launch, finding ideas that can travel across cultures, and working with S.COUPS and MINGYU on the campaign as a way to help launch NÜTRL “from the inside.”
Can you talk about localizing a global brand for a market like South Korea without losing the identity that travels with it?
The trick isn’t translating a brand. It’s finding the part that already works everywhere. NÜTRL is a straightforward brand in North America. Well known, clean, minimalist. But here in Asia it was new, so it needed a bit more context.
We started with a packaging redesign to say more clearly what the product is, its claims and its flavor, while staying close to that clean identity.
You don’t localize a brand by changing it. You localize it by finding the parts that already have appeal, then give them room to work.
We even kept the English name and logo, because there are some things you don’t touch. You don’t localize a brand by changing it. You localize it by finding the parts that already have appeal, then give them room to work.
With NÜTRL, the starting point was something already sitting within the brand itself — the ‘Ü’. Once you found the smile, how did that single visual idea begin to shape the wider campaign and brand experience?
Yes. That was the one thing that always stood out for us. We built a whole brand identity around that visual mnemonic and used it to make Korea smile up.
The campaign reimagined “For you” as “For Ü.” How did you approach turning the visual idea behind the smile into something that could also work through music and entertainment?
The artists we collaborated with are among the most popular in Korea, Asia, and globally. We turned one of their songs into an anthem to launch the brand, using music to plug NUTRL into culture, and activate the fandom.
What role does simplicity play in creating ideas that can work across cultures?
When something is simple, it travels on its own. And a smile is the most universal thing there is.
NÜTRL’s entry into Korea involved S.COUPS and MINGYU becoming part of the brand world rather than simply endorsing it. How does that change the creative relationship between a brand and the talent it works with?
We fully collaborated with them in the process. That’s the whole difference. Most brands rent talent for a smile and a logo shot. Here, the artists and their music helped us launch NÜTRL from the inside.
When talent lives in the world instead of standing next to it, people don’t feel sold. They feel invited.
It was through them that we said ‘smile up’, and showed what makes this drink special. When talent lives in the world instead of standing next to it, people don’t feel sold. They feel invited.
What are the biggest creative challenges when entering a market like Korea, where culture, entertainment, and consumer behavior have their own particular dynamics?
Standing out without falling into the obvious. The Korean alcohol category moves fast and is primarily driven by functional claims and innovation, so the challenge is being different without chasing the same moves as everyone else.
How do you balance the consistency a global brand needs with the creative freedom required to make it resonate with a local market?
You stretch it, you don’t break it. Every global brand has something true at its core, and your job is to find it. With NÜTRL, the smile was already hiding in the logo.
We didn’t import a foreign idea, we found what was already there and gave it a Korean voice. That’s the balance. Stay loyal to what the brand is, be brave with how it shows up.
Quick Hits:
A useful app or tool you’ve started using recently:
gutsOS. It’s our internal AI tool. It’s amazing because it’s built with the best of our best brains across the network.
Book, podcast, or resource you recommend:
A podcast called En qué piensan los que piensan (EQLQP). Chapter 2, The Gastón Bigio interview.
Something you want to learn or get better at:
Rum. I want to learn to read it like people read wine.
