Kahlua Coffee Cream TDN (Thursday Drink Night)

Last night we held TDN at the Mixoloseum, a chat room of the bloggers, by the bloggers and for the people. About 40 cocktailians convened in cyberspace for an advance taste the new Kahlua Coffee Cream and create and share new drink concepts. For those not familiar with TDN it's a great program developed by the OCSWG (Online Cocktail and Spirits Writers Guild), a consortium of 20 or so of the top cocktail bloggers.

TDN is open to anyone and the model is to feature a particular spirit, have attendees create drinks, post them live in a chat room and compare, contrast, discuss. There's a parallel twitter feed with the recipes (@Mixoloseum) and last night we also had a live video feed from Malo bar in LA where we hosted a barful of LA cocktail enthusiasts and local bloggers. Matt Robold of Rumdood organized the physical event at Malo in L.A. and Gabriel Szazko of Cocktail Nerd and Rick Stutz of Kaiser Penguin. Sam Harrigan of Cocktail Culture worked with Matt to set the gig up. We also had a videographer there and will be making a video for posting on YouTube shortly. Andy Nash, Marketing Director at Pernod Ricard for Kahlua (and Pernod Absinthe)joined to answer questions about the limited edition product (only available in O/N/D this year and officially launching to the public next week. KCC is made from real coffee beans grown, roasted and brewed in Mexico.

What I particularly like about TDN is the collaboration we've had with the blogger community. We've turned it into a Social Media Marketing program that benefits the bloggers, their readers as well as the brand. Great interactive content in multiple media channels, appropriately commercial but not too, and a whole lot of fun for the cocktail community. Everybody wins.

There's a counterpart on the wine side called Twitter Taste Live, and we'll be working on that for Jacob's Creek wines over the next few months. Oh, and speaking of Jacob's Creek, we're holding a "Meet the Winemakers" tasting in NY on Monday next week (Sept. 14) for bloggers and the trade. If you're interested in attending please let me know and I'll fill you in on the details. Sphere: Related Content

ATL, BTL, What TL is going on!?

We've had a busy week of meeting with prospective clients and a couple of trends seemed to emerge...

1. Growing recognition of the decline in relative importance of "traditional" or ATL (Above the Line) advertising. Suppliers are recognizing that, especially with new product introductions, advertising is a pretty blunt instrument, and that targeted, measureable tools are more important.
2. Increasing awarness and interest in BTL (Below the Line)tools, specifically Word of Mouth or Social Media Marketing.
BAT's developed some special expertise in the Social Media Marketing space including tools to rank and quantify the relative influence of individual bloggers, and new programs that are "win/win" feed bloggers' needs for content and samples, and brand needs for awareness and links.

Of particular note is the TDN or Thursday Drink Night program developed by Gabriel Szazko of Cocktail Nerd and Rick Stutz of Kaiser Penguin. Check out the coverage of Leblon's sponsorship at Mixoloseum. Sphere: Related Content