Tres Generaciones Tequila Sauza
Tequila had a reputation. You didn’t bring it home to mom. Then came the premiums. We were meant to sip them like bourbon. We discussed their bouquets like wine. They were expensive enough to impress a date at a white table-cloth restaurant. But they had watered-down reputations.
Enter Tres Generaciones, from Tequila Sauza. It was authentic, with a recipe passed down from three generations of master distillers. It was smooth, Añejo aged 13 years. And it had all the flavor of a real tequila, unlike some of the brands that softened their edges for a mainstream audience.
The catch? Sauza had just under a million dollars to launch this new brand. How would we distinguish it from other brands while getting enough attention for a launch? Our strategy was to reach taste influencers who want a little edge. So, we went back to the beginning. Not the beginning of tequila, but of our human awakening.
We partnered with renowned photographer George Holtz to reinterpret the story of Adam and Eve.
The project was called “Original Sin,” set in the Blue Agave fields of Tequila, Mexico. The launch was a tantalizing gallery tour of George’s silver prints at the seven most influential photography galleries, including the Staley Wise Gallery in New York and the Fahey/Klein Gallery in Los Angeles.
The marketing campaign had one element: a finely detailed and richly printed press kit. It was mailed to 500 top influencers in fashion, art, dining, and music as an invitation to exclusive openings where they could meet the photographer and sample the tequila.
The strategy generated a tremendous buzz, and the exhibit was published by leading photographic journals Photo, Aperture, S Magazine by Leica, and Meter. It was also promoted by each city's lifestyle magazine, and written about in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, and many others.
Original Sin struck a chord, and the right balance between art and the art of promotion.