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Bacardi has launched a marketing charm offensive to court the public, by creating a live theatrical experience that tells the story of the Cuban family who first created the famous rum.
"Amparo" takes the audience on a journey back in time to pre-revolutionary Cuba of the 1950s, chronicling the journey of the Arechabala family (who first distilled the rum in 1938) to the United States after the confiscation of their company by the communist government.
"Our core objective was to spread the word about our story and make sure consumers understand that we're the authentic Havana Club," said Roberto Ramirez, global director of rums at Bacardi. "And the best way to tell a story is through characters, and letting people experience it for themselves."
By bringing the Arechabala family's story to life, Bacardi trying stake its claim to the US market for the Havana Club it sells, made with the original recipe that it purchased from the family in 1994.
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Pernod Ricard too sells a version of Havana Club, since it joined hands with the Cuban company Cuba Ron in 1993, which continued to sell the rum after the Arechabala family escaped the country. It claims that its version is the authentic one as it is distilled in Cuba with Cuban ingredients, and also owns the brand trademark.
The immersive experience - replete with heritage, drama, live music and bespoke cocktails - first premiered in Miami, and made its way to New York City at Bill's Townhouse this week. Bacardi wants to also take the experiential marketing push to other audiences and cities later this year to continue spreading the word.
I had a chance to attend a show for Business Insider. Here's what it was like.
I arrived at Bill's Townhouse in New York City at 7 p.m., for the 7:15 p.m show. There were already people ahead of me on the line.
As soon as we got in, we were treated to a cocktail reception where mixologists stirred up signature Havana Club cocktails, including the Havana Café, Airmail and Guava Daiquiri.
I got the Havana Café, and got a Cuban cigar imported from the island to take home with me.
We then went up a staircase into a room that was set up a ship at sail, where we saw how Jose Arechabala arrived on Cuban soil from Spain.
We were divided into groups and handed different colored skeleton keys, which were meant to lead us to a different spirits or characters. But the spirits were veiled, and we had to wake them up — with Havana Club, of course.
Each group experienced a different facet of the Arechabala family's story depending on the characters they were following, similar to Sleep No More.
My group had a green skeleton key, and we followed Ramon Arechabala, who was the one that escaped to America when the revolution broke out.
We got a peek into Ramon's life, including how he met his wife, how their business was seized when the revolutionaries came and how they managed to take his family’s rum recipe with him out of Cuba.
We also witnessed the heartbreaking moment when they realized that exile was the only option left for them.
But it wasn't all tears, the whole performance was also full of live music and dance.
And a lot of shots. We got at least three shots of Havana Club through different parts of the theatrical performance.
It was a super fun experience, brought alive by the cast, crew, and creative team behind Amparo, who apparently all had some sort of a link to Cuba, including director Victoria Collado and playwright Vanessa Garcia.
