Leveraging its long established art platform in Mexico, Herradura worked with The Hive to invite 80 artists in eight U.S. cities (New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, San Francisco, Austin, Miami and Santa Fe) to transform a Tequila Herradura oak barrel into a work of art as part of the annual Tequila Herradura Barrel Art Collection. A jury-selected pieces of work from each of the eight cities that will be awarded $10,000 and an invitation to the final competition being held in Miami, where the finalist barrels will be auctioned off to benefit Creative Capital, a renowned arts organization. The creator of the winning Herradura Barrel Art piece will receive $100,000 – one of the largest monetary prizes in the contemporary art world.
As part of the campaign created by The Hive, which has a long association with Tequila Herradura’s U.S. distributor Brown-Forman (BF), has partnered with BF, Universal McCann and Kleisner Events to bring the program to the U.S. market for the first time.
In addition to curating and managing all online content for the promotional website, a key aspect of The Hive’s mandate includes developing and executing all artist communications and managing the logistics to safely deliver the art barrels to and from the artists across the country.
“We are honored to bring the program to the U.S. and support artists in their quest to share their legacy with the world,” said Valdemar Cantu, Herradura’s brand manager. “The Hive’s support and creative marketing input has been invaluable in the successful execution of the Barrel Art Collection program.”
“When it comes to developing and bringing to life memorable experiential marketing events, few agencies have the depth and breadth that we do, whether in the U.S. or Canada,” says Rick Shaver, Vice-President of The Hive. “Our guiding principle is always to do what is right for the brand, and for the brand’s consumers.”
Brooklyn, NY-based interdisciplinary artist Kim Holleman, won the inaugural New York event with her entry ‘Casa Herradura Spirit Fountain’. At the Atlanta competition, Oct. 9, husband and wife collaborators Micah and Whitney Stansell picked up the honors with their creation entitled ‘Look Inside’, which features a zoetrope – an early “cinema” device – with a moving image of a running horse inside the barrel.
Art lovers in the eight cities will have the opportunity to see all the art submissions firsthand as the pieces will be showcased at select venues in each city in early 2014.
Agency: The Hive