SB meets… Nidal Ramini, Brown-Forman
As advocacy director for the EU, IMEA, APAC & GTR, Brown-Forman, Nidal Ramini is taking a fresh approach to brand awareness, education and connection – all key focus points for the Woodford Reserve Global Bar Exchange.
Let’s talk about advocacy – what does it mean to you?
The last 10 years in the spirits business has focused on what we’d call ‘classic brand education’. In the last few years, how people are influenced has completely changed. It’s all about connecting people, working within a tribe, as we like to say, inspiring them and having the brand facilitate that experience. That’s what the world of advocacy has moved into because if we want to know the ins and outs of a brand from production, you can look it up. So, we don’t need to send brand ambassadors on the road travelling around to tell you, ‘This is where the distillery is, this is the history’. Instead, advocacy is now about the idea of inspiring people, connecting them, and giving them transformational experiences, with the goal of creating advocates for your brand. There’s a big difference between training somebody and making them an advocate for your brand.
Woodford Reserve is now in the third iteration of its international advocacy initiative, the Global Bar Exchange. Tell us more about its evolution.
We came up with the idea of a Global Bar Exchange. We grabbed hold of this idea that it should be all about flavour – a flavour discovery journey. That was the essence of the programme in the first year, and I believe it was a success. The second year, we wanted to expand and we worked with 13 markets.
This year, what we’ve tried to do is not say, ‘Right, expand the programme, we need to include as many markets as we possibly can’. But instead, we’ve looked at markets that we feel would benefit most from the programme, can execute the programme to deliver maximum impact in the community, and that have the teams, the wherewithal and budgets to make sure it really stands out.
How does the Global Bar Exchange take your standard bar takeover to the next level?
For me, this is just the cherry on top of the cake. It’s honestly such a small part of the exchange experience. If you participate in the Woodford Reserve Global Bar Exchange, we do ask quite a lot of you. It’s not for one or two nights; it’s three to four nights at least. Each exchange requires a long haul; I think the shortest journey we’ve got this year is Napoli to Dubai, and the longest one (depending on how you fly) is Mexico City to Hong Kong. It’s a long way, therefore it’s not a ‘pop in, pop out’ kind of thing. We ask bartenders to act like hosts when they build the itineraries.
We work with the local bar teams and ask, ‘Where’s the best spot in town for coffee? What are your favourite cultural activities in the city? Which are the best restaurants and other bars in town?’ We always ensure cultural experiences are included within each exchange. For example, when the team from Berlin went to Tokyo last year, they attended a tea ceremony and wore the official garments – it felt like a way to fully embrace and respect the local market and culture.
As I said, everything we do is about these transformational experiences. That’s the most important part, the connections, the experience, and the hope that the bartenders will go back to their home markets and bars as advocates in more ways than one.
What has the feedback been like from past participants?
It has been extremely positive. I think they’re also surprised that this isn’t an exercise to force the brand on them at every opportunity. I’m a big believer that advocacy is all about the brand facilitation or curation of experiences. As a brand, I think we’ve done a really good job of recognising bartenders for their work, giving them an experience that is not only motivational and inspirational, but also lets you connect with your peers, have genuine conversations and build lasting relationships.
What’s planned for the remainder of the 2025/26 programme and beyond?
We’ve got some really strong exchanges still to come – in a lot of cities we haven’t worked with before. Hong Kong and Mexico City are both new markets to the programme, as are Napoli and Dubai. Next year, we’re not planning on increasing to 16, 18 or 20 markets. But we want to include some locations we haven’t worked with before with this exchange. I can’t tell you everywhere, but I will say we’ll definitely be going to India for the first time.
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