Many beverage alcohol consumers are drinking less, but they are also drinking better and more premium products. In this presentation from Bar Convent Berlin, Jacob Briars, Global Advocacy Director at Bacardi, discusses the ways brands can continue to drive premiumization in beverage alcohol. Briars touches on the importance of having a clearly defined product and marketing to specific occasions.
Successful beverage alcohol brands understand that creating value takes more than selling at a premium price tier. In his presentation at Bar Convent Berlin, Muiris Ó Riada, Global Brand Director for Hendrick’s Gin at William Grant & Sons, discusses the Hendrick’s Gin approach to brand activation. Ó Riada explains the critical roles played by everyone on the Hendrick’s team, as well as the importance of respecting the distiller, the liquid, and the bartenders behind the brand.
Beverage alcohol products are only worth what consumers are willing to pay for them, but brand owners must be conscious of what factors ultimately add value to their products. In this discussion form Bar Convent Berlin, Michael Vachon, Co-Founder of Maverick Drinks, reveals the importance of using your brand to build a community. Vachon touches on some examples of how brands can create a connection with their community and build brands from the bottom up.
Bacardi’s Jacob Briars on How to Drive Premiumization
Jacob Briars (00:09)
I am the Global Advocacy Director at Bacardi, originally from New Zealand and currently based in London. I have spent over 20 years in the drinks industry wearing many hats: bar owner, bartender, brand ambassador, brand owner, and now team leader at Bacardi. We firmly believe in the value of education, advocacy, product knowledge, and category insights as the primary engine to drive the industry forward, steal market share from wine and beer, and grow our spirits brands.Twenty years ago, I got my first brand job working for a small vodka startup as employee number three. To illustrate how much value our founder placed on advocacy, his first hires were himself, a marketer, a distiller, and an educator to go out and talk about the product. For anyone working at a startup who feels advocacy is a luxury, it is not. When I joined Bacardi nearly a decade ago, we had 32 people in brand education and ambassador roles; today, we have ten times that number. Whether a brand is 150 years old or a year and a half old, reaching bartenders—who act as the gateway to your end consumer—is essential.
Jacob Briars (01:54)
Two major drivers have fueled premiumization over the last two decades:
- The Professionalization of the Bartender: The craft of bartending has become a respected profession with high social currency. When consumers enter a venue looking to spend a bit more, bartenders possess the product and category knowledge required to make confident recommendations.
- Drinking “Less But Better”: Total per-capita alcohol consumption is dropping significantly, but overall consumer spend per occasion is rising. Because consumers are drinking less frequently, they want each occasion to be meaningful. They are willing to invest time, energy, and money into experiences, stories, and drinks that justify a premium price.
For bar and restaurant partners, profitability relies on three main drivers: foot traffic, service efficiency, and head spend. With foot traffic and staffing constrained, helping venues increase per-head spend is the single most effective way brands can drive trade profitability.
Jacob Briars (05:39)
While some heritage brands rely on two centuries of history to build premiumization, Bacardi has several contemporary examples of unlocking value through education and product differentiation:
- Bombay Sapphire (1987): Launched with a simple premise: if gin is about botanicals, highlighting those botanicals visually on the bottle and educating bartenders on them drives trade-ups. Learning those botanicals off the bottle as a young bartender in 1999 enabled me to build my first dedicated gin menu.
- Grey Goose: Unlocked value by explaining the provenance and quality of its raw wheat and water ingredients, establishing that vodka flavor stems directly from its base inputs.
- Patrón: Transformed the tequila category. When launched, 99% of tequila contained additives or shortcuts. Patrón introduced a simple proposition: if tequila is the spirit of agave, produce 100% Weber Blue Agave tequila with zero additives.
At Harvard Business School, we studied the “value stick”—the gap between production cost and a consumer’s willingness to pay. Unlocking that gap requires storytelling, exceeding guest expectations, and clear product differentiation.
Jacob Briars (10:38)
To successfully premiumize a spirit brand, focus on these operational principles:
- Clear Differentiation: Articulate in a single sentence what your product does differently. With 42 Below Vodka, we stacked differentiators: New Zealand origin, bottling at 42% ABV, and distinct sourcing stories.
- Consistency: Repeatedly communicate your core message. Never underestimate how easily trade advocates forget what makes your brand unique.
- Think Like a Luxury Brand: Spirits are luxury goods, not fast-moving consumer goods like toilet paper or baked beans. Consumers love discussing intrinsic craftsmanship.
- Education, Education, Education: Invest continuously in trade advocates, bartenders, and influencers who tell your story for you. A core mantra at Bacardi is: “Education drives appreciation, and appreciation unlocks premiumization.”
Jacob Briars (12:45)
When educating bartenders and trade advocates to drive trade-ups, focus on three narrative pillars:
- Provenance & Origin: Clearly explain where the product is made, its regional geography, and what makes its raw materials distinct.
- Process & Craft: Detail who made it and highlight every step of production. Patrón succeeds because it consistently details every step of its 10-step artisanal process.
- Taste & Liquid Payoff: Use language that accurately reflects the sensory experience in the glass. Teach bartenders which specific cocktails best showcase the spirit’s flavor profile.
Jacob Briars (14:20)
Finally, target the specific advocates who reach your target consumer:
- Prosumers & Industry Writers: Provide structured rankings, competitive blind tastings, and third-party validation to establish credibility for premium SKUs.
- Bartenders: Bartenders act as the ultimate gatekeepers because they offer consumers a safe, low-risk environment to sample new premium spirits by the glass.
Educating the trade elevates the entire category, driving long-term value that far exceeds any simple conversation about price. Thank you!
How Hendrick’s Gin Approaches Brand Activation
Muiris Ó Riada (00:03)
I am the Brand Director for Hendrick’s Gin, part of William Grant & Sons—a fifth-generation, family-owned distilling company. Standing here today in front of some of the world’s best bartenders and bar owners is a bit odd for me, though appropriately odd for Hendrick’s! While I am personally fourth-generation in the drinks trade—my grandmother inherited a bar and my mother was raised in it—I have never actually worked behind a bar myself. Normally at events like BCB, our global ambassadors like Tim, or Coco here in Germany, speak to what makes our brand special.For us at Hendrick’s, the bartending community has always been critical to our success. Responsible for such a prestigious brand, I hold myself to three golden rules: respect the distiller, respect the liquid, and respect the bartender. Keeping to those rules allows us to retain that unusual brand magic as we scale up globally.
Muiris Ó Riada (01:45)
The story of Hendrick’s involves a lot of serendipity. Back in 1966, Charles Gordon—from the fourth generation of the William Grant family—attended an auction and bought two very rare stills: an 1860 Bennett still and a 1948 Carter-Head still. At the time, he had no idea what he would do with them. Thirty-three years later, he tasked a young Leslie Gracie, now our Master Distiller, with creating the quintessential English gin. After countless experiments, Hendrick’s Gin was born—oddly infused with rose and cucumber.This innate curiosity, spirit of experimentation, and creative drive—especially when collaborating with or taking inspiration from bartenders—is critical to our innovation pipeline.
Muiris Ó Riada (03:10)
To share an example of this experimental spirit: back in 2013, Leslie felt compelled to explore the Venezuelan rainforest to discover unusual botanicals. She traveled for two weeks alongside then-Brand Ambassador David Piper, an expert explorer, and a botanist. One local botanical caught her senses—known locally as “Scorpion Tail.” Leslie created just nine liters of a concentrated distillate from it, which she brought back to Scotland.Rather than commercializing it, we bottled a tiny run called Kanerakuni and invited bartenders worldwide to intimate sampling events to experiment with it. While not a commercial venture, it served as a vehicle to remind the bartending community of Hendrick’s unusual origins.Years later, that expedition became the seed for our mainstream innovation platform, the Cabinet of Curiosities. From that platform, Leslie has released several limited editions: Hendrick’s Midsummer Solstice, Hendrick’s Amazonia, Hendrick’s Lunar, and Hendrick’s Neptunia. All play to the unexpected, letting us and bartenders tell incredible flavor stories.
Muiris Ó Riada (06:00)
A second example of keeping that experimental spirit alive is our bartender-focused release: Hendrick’s Absinthe. Absinthe shares a historical kinship with gin as a production cousin, famously associated with poets, artists, and those living outside convention. Traditionally, due to its high proof and intense botanical profile, absinthe functions primarily as a supporting modifier in cocktails. Leslie aimed to create an accessible expression designed specifically for premier cocktail bars to feature as a lead ingredient.When launching it globally, we kept commercial sales teams out of the room—hosting an event run by bartenders, for bartenders, complete with theatricality, priests, banquet settings, and absinthe fairies. We are now rolling this expression out across the world’s top 500 bars.
Muiris Ó Riada (07:20)
Our three golden rules—respecting the distiller, the liquid, and the bartender—are best embodied at our spiritual home, the Hendrick’s Gin Palace in Girvan, Scotland. The original stills Charles bought in 1966 are still working there every day.The Gin Palace is not open to the general public; it is an exclusive site dedicated to hosting creative workshops, bartender experiences, and Leslie Gracie’s ongoing experiments. Leslie herself is a legend in the gin industry, having won multiple lifetime achievement awards. For those visiting the Gin Palace, bringing unusual local botanicals or high-quality chocolate is the best way to charm her!
Muiris Ó Riada (09:14)
Equipped with specialized hot houses and greenhouses growing tropical and Mediterranean plants, the Gin Palace acts as a playground for Leslie and her team to test new flavor combinations and take creative risks.Respecting the distillery through Kanerakuni, respecting the liquid through Absinthe, and respecting the bartender at the Gin Palace are how we build long-term value that goes far beyond conversations about price. Supported by a long-term family company mindset, our core philosophy at Hendrick’s can be summarized as: curiosity without compromise. Thank you very much!
Building A Community Through Your Brand
Michael Vachon (00:09)
Thank you all for being here, and thank you, Emily, for asking us to be a part of it. I’m the co-founder of Maverick Drinks. We started distributing craft spirits in the UK in 2013, and now we represent brands big and small—ranging from Lucas Bols, with 447 years of history, to Teeling Irish Whiskey, along with a range of brands we create ourselves.When I was thinking about this presentation, I kept coming back to the age-old expression: “Something is only worth what people are willing to pay.” When we talk about “worth,” I really want to drive that toward core values and value creation. For us, we always focus on how to add value to our guests, our brand partners, and our internal team. One of our foundational principles has always been centered on that exact question.
Michael Vachon (01:21)
One of the primary ways we focus on adding value is by building community. It is such a core part of our business that our sales team’s “ABCs” stand for Always Build Community. We drive that message continuously: if an initiative isn’t adding value to our drinks industry community, it’s taking value away. When our team sells products into venues, it isn’t just about the price point, product cost, or trade deals; it’s about whether our portfolio genuinely adds value to those bars and their guests.Building a brand means anchoring it around what matters to your customers. First, that means giving them a sense of ownership. A classic case study is BrewDog with their Equity for Punks crowdfunding model, giving thousands of fans a real stake in the business. Many spirits brands have followed suit with crowdfunding campaigns, giving their biggest advocates meaningful equity. Beyond equity, we see whiskey brands offering cask sales or issuing whiskey bonds that mature over time—creating a deeply invested community attached to the brand.
Michael Vachon (03:44)
Second, building community is about providing a space where fans belong. For example, our brand Kyrö in Finland hosts Kyröfest every year—a massive rock concert and festival. Beyond bringing people together, they invite every customer who bought a cask to come and sample their barrels, combining that sense of ownership with a shared brand celebration.In the UK, we collaborated with the British Bourbon Society—a Facebook group of over 3,000 members. We worked with them to select their own custom cask to release under their own private label strictly for their members. We let them completely redesign the bottle label, providing an authentic space for bourbon enthusiasts to share products they are excited about.Furthermore, brand building today requires strong alignment of values. Whether focusing on soil health and regenerative agriculture, supporting ocean conservation like Gray Whale Gin, or earning B Corp certification like Mianta Tequila, brands must stand for something meaningful to resonate with modern consumers.
Michael Vachon (06:36)
I also want to touch on collaboration, where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. We had an instance where two of our partner brands swapped casks to create collaborative new SKUs. Both brands promoted the release independently to their respective audiences, demonstrating an openness to collaborate across the whiskey community. Releases like these sell out rapidly.Teeling does a lot of this—releasing a small-batch whiskey finished in Plantation pineapple rum casks, or releasing gin-cask-finished whiskies. When brands reach across categories, they build unique crossover products that generate significant trade and consumer excitement.
Michael Vachon (08:10)
We also create our own internal brands, such as That Boutique-y Gin Company, which centers on rapid iteration and innovation. We continuously develop small 100- to 200-bottle batches, enabling constant creative collaborations. We’ve collaborated with distilleries in California, created custom releases with influential industry bloggers, and developed bespoke expressions for world-renowned bars like Panda & Sons in Edinburgh and Opium in London. Partnering with top-tier bars provides immediate credibility and proves these releases are serious craft liquids.
Michael Vachon (09:21)
Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) e-commerce is rapidly evolving as a powerful way for brands to connect directly with audiences. Working alongside our retail platform, Master of Malt, we use real-time consumer data to rapidly develop products we know customers will love. We map out consumer trends and test new product concepts continuously—targeting up to a new small-batch product launch every week.For example, when data showed growing consumer interest in banana flavor profiles, we created a small-batch banana-flavored rum to test the concept. Following its success, we expanded the range to ten flavored expressions, discovering through real-time sales data that black cherry was actually the top performer.Similarly, we launched Jaffa Cake Gin—inspired by the popular UK biscuit. Despite initial skepticism, it sold 50,000 bottles in three months because it tapped into immediate consumer recognition.
Michael Vachon (12:20)
Another example is a whiskey product we created using a popular internet meme aesthetic on the label. It sold tens of thousands of bottles quickly, so we expanded the lineup with additional iterations. While critics might ask if launching multiple variations dilutes a brand, these product-led releases are designed to maximize consumer engagement during their active lifecycle.Working with agile retail partners allows small brands to test demand, gather immediate customer feedback, and maintain a continuous, data-informed innovation cycle. Thank you very much!
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