Havana Club readies global experiential push

Rum brand Havana Club is to launch a series of pop-up ‘Mojito Embassy’ bars in cities across the world in a bid to attract new consumers to the cocktail category. 

HavanaClub

The first bar opens today (4 May) in Milan and features Havana Club bartenders showing shoppers how to make a Cuban mojito.

After its two week run in Milan, the bar will rollout across Europe, including the UK, Portugal, Belgium and France.

Each country will have a tailored Facebook app to raise awareness for the experiential drive and grow its online audience.

PR activity and outdoor campaigns will run alongside the experiential campaign.

Havana Club intends to run the Mojito Embassy bars as a long-term brand-building intiative and has not put an end date on the campaign.

Lucy Bonnetier, brand manager at Havana Club International, says: ‘We wanted to restore the value of the authentic Cuban mojito, demonstrating its superiority to ready to serve variants, or those made using rum from elsewhere.

Havana Club International is a 50:50 joint venture between Pernod Ricard and the Cuban government.

The announcement follows a spate of new products in the cocktail category in recent months as wine and spirit manufacturers seek out other revenue streams for their brands.

Earlier this week, Courvoisier announced that it would be spending a large sum of its £15m marketing strategyfor this year on promoting cocktails in the UK, while WKD has launched a range of canned cocktails.

The campaign has been developed by M&C Saatchi Sport and Entertainment and design agency ‘Campaign’.

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