Absolut Drinkspiration

Drinkspiration - Mixology on the go Ever draw a blank at the bar? The Drinkspiration iPhone app from Absolut Drinks will help you order or recommend a cocktail to match the moment's mood, weather, color, time, location, bar vibe and more. An interactive encyclopedia that lets you hook-in to up-to-the-minute global drink trends, and then share what you want via Twitter and Facebook.

Functions and Features

Just scroll through, select your categories, and Drinkspiration will zero-in on the perfect drink. The choice made, you can easily share it, create top lists and tip off your friends via Facebook and Twitter.

Personalised drink suggestions
Vibrant drink images
World trend list with real-time updates
Facebook and Twitter integration
Mood, vibe, time and weather sensitive
Encyclopedia of recipes from Absolut Drinks
Personal order history
GPS driven
Live reports on drink trends in Prague, Tokyo, Paris, Buenos Aires and everywhere else

The best of Absolut drinks for iphone and blog

Sign up at Absolutdrinks.com and get free downloadable widgets that provide seamless integration between your Absolut Drinks profile, your iPhone and your blog. Sign up and the sophisticated entertainment of Drinkspiration and Absolut Drinks is at your fingertips. The widgets let you synch with your Absolut Drinks profile and keep your blog up to the minute with drink history, current favorites, and your all-time top five.

Download the app at http://www.absolutdrinks.com/

This is such a good idea and could work really well for Sauza Gold & Blanco.

Tres Generaciones UK launch

The launch of Tres Generaciones, Sauza's super premium tequila took place on Monday 22nd June at No5 Cavendish Square. The exquisite former Georgian townhouse with its opulent interior was the perfect setting for Maxxium to introduce the Tres Generaciones brand to the UK market.

The evening began with a Paloma VIP upon entry. A refreshing long drink perfect for the summer, the Paloma VIP showcased the wonderful fresh agave flavour and delicate floral notes in the triple distilled Tres Generaciones Plata.

As guests sipped their drinks Global Sauza Ambassador Jaime Rodriguez introduced the night and talked passionately about his deep connection with tequila and in particular Sauza. Jaime hopes to one day shift the image of tequila from the simple spirit it has been deemed and to teach audiences that it is a sophisticated blend with great versatility.

Jaime was followed by Tomas Estes, owner of Mexican restaurant and bar La Perla whose knowledge of tequila is extensive. All eyes were on Tomas as he educated journalists on the three generations of the Sauza family and the 136 year old distillery which bears their name and where Tres Generaciones is still made today.

The night now in full swing, guests were treated to an Ultimate Margarita cocktail. A classic serve, the Ultimate Margarita is a tangy citrus cocktail and the perfect way to enjoy the spicy yet smooth and slightly sweet flavours of Tres Generaciones Reposado.

The Tres Generaciones Plata, Anejo and Reposado variants were laid out on tables so that guests could sip each tequila and learn about their taste profiles from surrounding communications.

The final cocktail, The Honey Water went down very well. A delicious way to enjoy the most premium expression, Tres Generaciones Anejo, the Honey Water is a sublime, well balanced mix of flavours that complement the spirit's brown sugar sweetness and warm oaky finish.

Tres Generaciones will stand proud in high-end bars and restaurants and will be aimed at luxury retailers such as Harvey Nichols and Harrods.

As part of the launch, Maxxium has teamed up with Theme magazine to create a "mentoring initiative", a competition that seeks to find successful "mentoring partnerships" among UK bartenders. The best partnerships will be featured in Theme magazine over the coming months and the most inspirational will win an exclusive trip to the Sauza distillery in Mexico.

Thanks to Lime PR for organising this fantastic and successful event.

Visit Tres Generaciones online to find out more http://www.tresgeneraciones.com/

Root Organic Spirits

From Lovely Package:

“At 80 proof, ROOT is unlike anything else on the market today and is the first true American liqueur since the Pre-Prohibition Era.

It is lively, and rose gold in color, this rustic spirit has a full, rich smoky flavor, inspired by an 18th century Pennsylvania folk recipe, which eventually evolved into Birch or Root Beer. The recipe stems from Root Tea, which goes back to the 1700s, when Native Americans taught the recipe to settlers. Over generations, Root Tea grew in potency, particularly in Pennsylvania, where the ingredients grew in abundance. During the Temperance Movement, a Philadelphia pharmacist removed the alcohol and ironically rechristened it Root Beer. This is our creation and interpretation of a genuine potent, Root Tea.

ROOT is a certified organic spirit made with North American herbs and pure cane sugar. All botanicals are painstakingly selected and tested for purity. Using all natural, organic ingredients, like anise, birch bark, cloves and cardamom, with hints of spearmint and citrus, the sugarcane based liquor is distilled in limited batches to ensure maximum quality.”

This is great fun. And beautifully designed. It seems like a genuinely innovative idea with a story. Nice.

Knob Creek Drought

From Adrants:

"So Knob Creek, due to demand for its bourbon, is running low on supply and is at risk of running dry before its next batch is ready in November. Rather than bottle the next batch before its full nine year maturity, the comapny has turned its lack of product into a promotion. A sick joke of a promotion but a promotion none the less.

We've been sent all sorts of goodies from marketers in the mail. Sadly, most are of the throw-a-way variety. This is most certainly not the case when it comes to liquor, unless you consider pouring the product down one's throat throwing it away.

So we were quite pleased to see the FedEx man drop off a package which, when opened, turned out to be a nicely designed box from Knob Creek. Ooo...more liquor, we thought. And borboun. And a really good bourbon at that!

Sadly, upon opening the box, all we got was an empty bottle of Knob Creek and a letter explaining the company's predicament. OK, so it is a fairly ingenious promotion but, dudes, the whirlwind of anticipation and resulting depression caused us to go sulk in our bedroom for at least five minutes before we could come back to work.

At least Jim Beam sends full bottles of its product! Then again, Jim Beam isn't Knob Creek so we're inclined to understand. Anyway, there's the story of Knob Creek's latest promotion."

The comments are broadly positive:

"To me this is a great technique for grabbing attention and instigating curiousity to stand apart and generate demand for your product. With this kind of promotion they are bound to turn the retail outlets dry of supply sooner than they actually anticipate thereby creating a following of curious first timers who would wait for the new supply in Novemeber. Though the challenge would be to engage and make sure the brand recall is fresh until then."

"I got a "I survived the drought of 2009" t-shirt. I'm quite pleased with it, actually."

It reminds me (a tiny bit) of Burger King's Whopper Freakout. Holding back your product is an interesting mechanic so long as you do it in the right way. For Knob Creek it is a sign that they are so committed to creating top quality bourbon that they wouldn't dream of cutting corners.

Le Nez de Courvoisier at Charles de Gaulle

Exciting news. The Le Nez de Courvoisier idea is gaining momentum. Recently, thanks to Amy Neville-Eliot and her Global Travel Retail team, Courvoisier created a Le Nez installation in Charles de Gaulle aiport in Paris.

The installation focused on bringing the three key aromas - creme brulee, candied orange and iris flowers - in Courvoisier XO to life through scent. To add more engagement the aromas are complimented by music created especially by Lauent Assoulen who is able to create the sounds of smells. The combination of music and aroma helps to demysify the complex aura that surrounds cognac. Each aroma is traced back to a different part of the cognac production process. For instance creme brulee comes from the way the barrels are toasted and iris flowers comes from the borderies cru.

Courvoisier Global Travel Retail Marketing Manager Amy Neville-Eliot said: “The Le Nez de Courvoisier programme provides us with an opportunity to bring to life the Cognac experience, by using sight, smell, and sound to maximise the pleasure of the tasting. Securing this site in Charles de Gaulle during the month of March was a great opportunity to launch the concept to the travel retail consumer. We are now looking at ways to roll it out with other travel retail customers in Europe.”

An extract from the Moodie report says:

"Philippe Lanusse, Senior Buyer at French airport retailer Aelia, commented: “We were delighted to launch the Le Nez de Courvoisier programme to the travel retail consumer in Charles de Gaulle Airport. It is a refreshing, new concept that allowed us to engage with potential Cognac consumers on a new level. The fully interactive experience gives them the opportunity to have fun whilst learning more about Cognac.”"

The installation was also covered on Trend News.

It's great to see such an exciting idea being rolled out. Last summer we created Le Nez training kits for our sales force and in December we create a Le Nez nosing experience at a Future 500 event.

In the pipeline is a Le Nez session at Tales of the Cocktails in New Orleans and many more exciting projects.

Courvoisier Mixology Event - Future 500

Courvoisier recently held a mixology event in London for members of The Future 500 as a way of showcasing the mixable nature of Exclusif. I'm biased because I work on Courvoisier, but I love cognac cocktails, partly becasue the Sazerac and the Sidecar are regarded as being two of the original cocktails ever to have been created. And guess what, they are both made with cognac.

The great thing about Exclusif is that it is made specifically for bartenders to create amazing cocktails. Many people read this as meaning that Exclusif is an inferior product that should be masked by coke or ginger ale. But that couldn't be further from the truth. Because of the fact that Exclusif is made using grapes from the four top crus it has a more complex taste profile that allows it to stand up to almost any flavour you throw at it. Rather than it being easier to make, it actually takes more effort and skill to craft. This makes Exclusif great for bartenders to experiment with in a range of cocktails.

The event was brilliantly put on by Drew, Greg, Delphine and Amy at White Label and was hosted by Andy Pearson. There were 5 tables which were each hosted by a different mixologist from the Courvoisier Future 500 network who guided the guests through a range of cocktail challenges. There were 4 round of cocktails ranging from the classic sazerac to begin with, through to creating a long mixed drink and a version of a cognac martini.

It was huge fun and taught us that the bartenders are far more skillful than we give them credit for. The crowd was a brilliant selection of fascinating people who you could spend the entire night talking to and bouncing ideas around with. I'm now looking forward to the next event.

Here are some photos to give you a feel for the event



Angella and Hayley marvelling at a Courvoisier float



Using lemon grass as a straw



Only use 5 drops of bitters (whoops!)



Strawberry and basil cocktail cleverly titled "The Faulty Basil"

For a much better write up have a look at the article in Theme Magazine here.

Taste for Life - Tanqueray and Magnum Photos Event

I was very honoured to be invited to the public unveiling of the "Tanqueray Taste for Life" photography exhibition at Liberty's in assocation with Magnum. A stunning space in Liberty's was transformed into a photography gallery showcasing the winning entries into the contest along with some classics from the Magnum portfolio.

The Taste for Life contest asked entrants to capture “rich, intense moments in life". Moments that Tanqueray would like to be a part of. It's a really interesting area from a strategic as well as photographic perspective. From a brand point of view it deliberately hasn't asked for "refreshing moments" which is what gin brands tend to do. They typically focus on the thirst quenching, refreshing territory. But as a premium gin brand, Tanqueray is playing in a more upmarket, premium space that almost feels celebratory. And from a photographer's point of view the area of rich intense moments in life" is a far richer playground than refreshment.

Tanqueray's involvement with photography also fits the TGI data that maps against drinkers of premium gin brands. Taking photographs and appreciating photography is something that fits well with a premium spirits brand.

Partipants were given the brief along with some inspirational shots from Stuart Franklin, the President of Magnum. Not only did this give the competition serious credibility, but also direction. It's interesting that Diageo always features 2 glasses in its ads... and likewise how Stuart Franklin's pictures show 2 people. The idea being that Tanqueray is a sociable drink for sharing life's rich moments.

"... a competition is being run by the makers of Tanqueray gin to give ten photographers a chance to feature in the Magnum Photos exhibition as well as winning a top prize of £5,000. Entrants in the two age categories (18-24) and (25+) will need to capture their interpretation of a 'Taste for Life' and provide their own rich, intense moments. To help guide entrants there will be five categories to enter covering adventure, relationships, cocktails & glamour, achievements and festivals & celebrations.

All entrants will be judged by a panel of experts including Stuart Franklin, President of Magnum Photos, Jeremy Langmead, Editor of Esquire magazine, Alan Sparrow, Picture Editor of Metro, Nicky Catley, Picture Editor of The Daily Telegraph and Kristof Fahey, Vice President of Marketing for Yahoo! Europe.

To inspire entrants, the makers of Tanqueray have commissioned Stuart Franklin to capture his own 'Taste for Life' images. To view these images and enter the competition visit www.ATasteForLife.co.uk. A shortlist of forty entries will be selected for the final judging process and all pictures will also be put forward for the public to vote for a People's Choice to feature in the exhibition."

Tanqueray partnered with Flickr to earn credibiliy in the photograpic arena. It's a great model for a contest and produced some fantastic images.

Here are some images from the event:











I love the Ali picture in its own right, but in a funny way I just find this shot more amusing. I love the fact that he looks like he is pouncing on the people in front of him at the event.





The winning entry: Daniel Clinch's image ‘Treading a Fresh Path'as covered in the Telegraph.

We were treated to some fabulous cocktails. My favourite was the English Garden, made with elderflower cordial and apple juice. But the Grapefruit and Passion Fruit number wasn't half bad either. Especially when accompanied by a scallop wrapped in pancetta!



I am also told that these people are famous... but I neither know who they are or have heard about them in conjunction with Tanqueray since.









I like Tanqueray's Taste for Life idea becuase...

1. It makes Tanqueray seem very premium
2. The area of photography fits with their target audience
3. Partnering with Magnum and Stuart Franlin adds gravitas and a media hook
4. Partnering with Flickr makes the engagement side work and amplifies the contest within the photographic community
5. The use of media and timescale ensured that the programme was talked about before (Off Licence News and Spitoon) and after the event on Londonist and in the Telegraph
6. It fits in really well with their ongoing sampling presence at Taste of xxxx events

Well done Tanqueray and Jo and the team at Trimedia and thanks for the incredible goodie bag.