Cocktail competitions ‘vehicle for brand agenda’
Bombay Sapphire’s global marketing manager Julian Davies has said cocktail competitions are “often” a “vehicle for a brand to try and get an agenda driven home” as the brand’s Glasshouse Project gets under way.
Bombay Sapphire’s Davies says “often” cocktail competitions are a “vehicle for a brand to try and get an agenda driven home”Speaking to The Spirits Business as the Glasshouse Project “ideas incubator” launches, Davies said that some cocktail competitions had become “less about the people”.
“We didn’t really feel that offering a cocktail competition was necessarily the best thing we could do,” Davies commented on the inception of The Glasshouse Project and its bartender workshop sessions.
“Many of these people have been through competitions and often a competition is a vehicle for a brand to try and get an agenda driven home, and it’s less about the people.
“We wanted to try and flip that concept on its head and bring those people together and expose them to new things and new ideas and to each other so that they could learn, be inspired, have a great time and hopefully leave with new ideas.”
His comments follow some reports that The Glasshouse Project was to “replace” Bombay Sapphire’s successful Most Imaginative Bartender (MIB) competition. Raj Nagra, Bombay Sapphire global brand ambassador, confirmed to The Spirits Business that MIB will indeed continue, and that “MIB competition winners will filter into the GH workshops globally”.
“The Glasshouse Project is very different in nature to MIB, in that it’s not a competition, but rather a collaboration centered around learning about, exploring and putting into practice, peripheral new concepts, which challenge the everyday in new and interesting ways,” said Nagra.
“Basically [it’s] giving leading bartenders new points of view and learning in otherwise inaccessible areas of learning. It’s revolutionary, and thus far has been extremely well received.”
Balancing Davies’ comments, Nagra said: “For any bartender involved there are definitely amazing opportunities and benefits [to cocktail competitions]. This is always a key consideration when setting up a competition: affording the most creative and motivated bartenders an opportunity to globally showcase their talent, whilst building great relationships as well as new career opportunities.
“Competitions enable the brand to become more visible and closer to the bar community, building trust and loyalty. Competitions are a positive reflection for all involved, as well as a crazy amount of fun!”
For more on The Glasshouse Project, see the October Print edition of The Spirits Business.
