Two weeks ago, key representatives from our creative design studio, and creative strategy team hopped on a plane, bound for Berlin to immerse themselves in the heart of the drinks business – Bar Convent Berlin. Perhaps the biggest calendar events of the year for brand specialists!

A chance to feel out new trends, see which drinks brands brought that creative spark, and explore emerging marketing opportunities in the drinks industry.

Here are our top four highlights:

1.     Stand-Out Creative Strategy

A bit of a dark horse (pun intended) – Horse With No Name, a habanero infused Bourbon, stood out from the crowd with a fantastically detailed and rich reconstruction of the American Fast Food Diner experience.

Complete with milkshake inspired cocktails and an array of POS, with fantastically creative designs, connecting to American culture and music.

What’s the learning? Creating an imaginative, ownable and confidently executed theme for your stand makes all the difference.

2.     Best Brand Activation

Creating a trade show stand concept that connects with the DNA and foundations of your brand, while remaining light and engaging for visitors can be a challenge. House of Angostura managed this brilliantly with the immersive ‘Swizzle Club’, but we’re a little biased on this one as it’s a Wonderworks creative concept, so we’ll take it out of the running.

For us, the most inspiring example of effective brand activation strategy at the show came from Discarded Spirits. Embodying its mission of creating high quality zero waste spirits, welcoming an end to the age of disposability.

Discarded showcased its delicious products and cocktails on the bar, which was built entirely using recycled and second-hand materials, showing that second use can still be beautiful and premium.

What’s the learning? Brand Purpose is powerful and bringing that into a real space is a valuable tool to engage your audience.

3.     Breaking New Ground

It’s always fascinating to see what new and wonderful products there are to discover at drinks events like these.

The highlight for us though – Sgrappa. A grappa brand designed to bring re-appraisal to the category and solidify it as a viable ingredient in the bartender’s repertoire. Bold visuality, unapologetic brand positioning and delicious serves left us excited to see where the brand’s next steps will lead.

What’s the learning? Grappa is absolutely delicious in a sour!

4.     Delightfully Digital

As a brand agency, we’ve felt the steady march of digital progress and are always on the lookout for bold integration of technology to activations. There were a number of impressive examples:

·       A monumental cylindrical digital display at the heart of Campari’s stand.

·       An automated Instagram wall from Absolut, which texted your image or boomerang to your phone to share on social.

·       A VR headset on the Diplomático Rum stand, transporting visitors to Venezuela and taking them on an immersive tour of the distillery.

What’s the learning? For the time being, it seems the focus remains predominately on physical tactics to engage on stand. We’re interested to see how the two can go more hand-in-hand in the future.

As a drinks brand activation agency, we’re always excited to dig into the nuances of activation strategy and learn from the inspiring examples we see. If you have any requirements for your own brand, please don’t hesitate to reach out!