Notorious Beam Team

It seems amazing that the Beam Team Blog has been going for a year now! Thanks for the 6,453 visits... and all the ideas that you have contributed.

Special thanks go to Aiden for "baking" such a great cake and to Lulu, Laura, Paul and Jeeda for being great posters. If anyone else wants to join the party and become a contributor just drop me an email or post a comment.

Looking forward to the blog going from strength to strength in its second year.

Via the ever brilliant NotCot:

"Absolut New Orleans “the flavor of inspiration” - apparently Absolut (insert city name here) is no longer just an ad you see, but they are now becoming real liquors of their own. The limited edition Absolut New Orleans is a fruity mango vodka with a spicy black pepper kick (sounds yummy, must find some!). 100% of the profits from this product are donated to various Gulf Region charities. Yesterday, at Tales of the Cocktail, the annual New Orleans culinary and cocktail festival, this special flavor was officially announced. You can even go vote for the next city (i vote LA)."

Always doing something newsworthy, interesting and fun aren't they!

Genius.

Patron hopes to cozy up to tequila drinkers through a new community site that solicits information of new trends, clubs and eating establishments.

The "Patron Social Club," hosted by a video avatar "concierge" in a white suit, is a forum for its customers to find and share cool experiences.

Throughout their site visit, the concierge urges visitors to contribute content around food, drinks, nightlife, cars, technology and other lifestyle areas. All submissions are vetted before they go live on the site.

Like Anheuser-Busch's Bud.tv, the Patron Social Club has a multi-step entry process, requiring visitors to enter a user name, password, date of birth, full address, e-mail, then complete a questionnaire of their interest areas and brand preferences. Beyond the legally required information, the additional steps will give visitors a more customized experience on the site, despite the extra time required to get to it, said Megan Smith, brand relationship marketing, Richards Relationship Marketing, which crafted the campaign with parent agency The Richards Group and interactive sibling Click Here.

Patron is following in the footsteps of brands like Coke and MasterCard, which have tried to build community-based Web destinations around the attraction to their brands. While others have found it hard going to establish communities, Patron has a cadre of premium tequila enthusiasts who already look to it for lifestyle cues, Smith said.

"They wear it often as a symbol or declaration of uniqueness," she said.

Patron hopes to turn that affinity into a customer-relationship marketing bond with users. The site offers an opt-out to receiving Patron marketing messages.

"The focus is creating a means to provide those who are advocates of Patron an opportunity to interact, and to find out how we can help improve and better their lives with providing information on trends and social scenes," she said.

The Patron Social Club site also includes background information on the making of the company's tequila, photos from Patron-sponsored events and a tool for finding out the history of each bottle of Patron tequila via a unique number included on each product.

The site is part of the Richards-crafted "Simply perfect" campaign, which launched a little over a year ago. The effort also includes simplyperfect.com, a site dedicated to debating perfection. The idea is while all forms of perfection are open to discussion, when it comes to tequila, Patron is crowned the best without debate.

Richards is supporting the site with print ads that will run in regional and lifestyle magazines like GQ, Details and Blender. It will also use direct mail and e-mail marketing.

Everyone knows Bacardi as a spirit that goes with Coke but noone really thinks of it in any other capacity. This is what the brand is hoping to address through its latest £15 million "Versatility" campaign. The brilliant TV ad (see below) broke last month and makes up part of a growing trend amongst food and drinks brands to position the product as an integral part of a wider function. For example think of the Lurpak's fantastic recent 'Good Food Deserves Respect' work (also below). This doesn't simply shout about how good the butter is, but instead makes you consider it as an inherent part of a wider experience, in this case delicious and wholesome cooking. Bacardi is moving towards this too, and has come up with a range of new serves, including three new "perfect" serves: with ginger, cranberry and soda and lime. This is definitely something to think about in terms of alcohol usage occasions.

Keep an eye out for the first campaign for Moet Hennessy USA by Berlin Cameron United which encourages consumers to show off their good taste. Although fundamentally different from Courvoisier's the idea of good taste does overlap with some of the recent press executions for the 'Earn It' campaign so it will be interesting to see in which direction the ads go.

The campaign plans to feature seven Internet spots, three TV spots, and print ads in GQ, Vanity Fair, and Vibe. Nothing is up on xtreme.com yet but watch this space for the new website as well - www.FlauntYourTaste.com - which will carry the commercials. Music for the ads is created by Pharrell.