Working with new products is always a bit more of a thrill in experiential marketing, particularly in the spirits industry. You get to watch as people try something for the first time, and that one taste is all it takes to cement some ones opinion of a drink forever.
And this is why I see experiential marketing as valuable. You get to control that first drink experience. Rather than some ignorant bartender mixing some awful concoction, you get to have some one whose only job is to know your product saying “here, try this, notice how it has a smokey aftertaste that compliments these foods and is fitting for these occasions.”
No one is going to try something again if they hated it the first time, so if you get to define that first experience, why wouldn’t you?
Photo Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/quinnanya/3702902687/