Nikaido

How we launched a Japanese spirit in America, without spending millions of dollars and years explaining what it is.

The Challenge

When Emblem PR brought us to their client Nikaido, the ask was bold: bring shochu, Japan's beloved distilled spirit, to the United States. The problem: almost no American knows what shochu is, and the few who think they do usually confuse it with Korean soju. And on the shelf, the format itself was unfamiliar to U.S. eyes, one more cue to decode before a consumer could grasp the premium spirit inside.

The conventional path was to educate the category: years of work and millions of dollars spent teaching consumers what shochu is and why it matters before you ever sell a bottle. An uphill battle with a long, expensive climb, and no guarantee at the top.

The Insight

So we reframed the assignment. We didn't need to sell America on a category. We needed to sell America on a moment.

Shochu's real advantages, a clean flavor profile and a naturally low ABV, pointed to a gap in the market hiding in plain sight: brunch and poolside day-drinking. The refreshing, sessionable, sun-soaked occasion that the Aperol Spritz had come to own. We saw room to go straight at it with something lighter, crisper, and more refreshing.

Instead of launching a spirit, we'd launch a cocktail. And the TokyoSlide was born.

The Idea

TokyoSlide: shochu and sparkling apple cider with a twist, served over ice. Simple to make, easy to love, and low enough in alcohol to carry a long, slow afternoon. It gave shochu a reason to exist in an American glass, where the education happens after the first sip, not before it.

Then, alongside design studio Hello Reform, we built the world around it: a brand identity, voice, and design system that felt crisp, modern, and quietly Japanese. Leisure-forward and effortlessly cool, at home on a tennis court, a pickleball court, or the edge of a pool.

The Work

Once the strategy and brand were locked, we scaled it into a full launch engine.

Brand film + modular content. We built the hero film, then shaped the modular content around match frames of the cocktail, giving the whole system a consistent creative style and making every asset easy to cut.

Rapid animatics. Concept to boards to motion in days, so every idea could be seen and felt before full production.

We shot the hero product on our own LED stage (The Lido Lot), using the wall to wrap it in specific brand colors and pairing each with custom countertops. Four setups for four different moods, capturing both video and photography in a single controlled space.

A content engine, not a campaign. We mapped content across every channel, then built modular creative: launching with a brand film, a range of :15s, still photography, and a wide variety of assets for the social team. We filmed over four days with three separate crews for product, lifestyle, and social. Product at The Lido Lot; lifestyle and social in DTLA and Palm Springs. Together they produced over 7TB of video, photography, and social assets that covered the launch itself and a 6 to 12 month library to keep the brand in market long after day one.

https://player.vimeo.com/progressive_redirect/playback/1221232204/rendition/720p/file.mp4%20%28720p%29.mp4?loc=external&log_user=0&signature=f4acea7a853596b835cdf7d8b6fcf46f9770895526b0aafc211d600515835afe

TokyoSlide Brand Launch Film

Behind The Scenes