Rahel Lippert Talks Strategy On Launching Patrón El Cielo [Audio]

[00:00:00] Dave Forde: Hey, I'm your boy. Dave Forde - The Connected One, alcohol sales account for over 15 billion in Canada alone. That is huge. It is an industry that can't stop. Won't stop ever innovating. Brands continue to come up with new products as they look to fight to get more of the consumer share. And with me today, we have Rahel Lippert the Senior Brand Manager for Patrón. Rahel. How you doing?

[00:00:32] Rahel Lippert: I'm doing great. Thanks Dave. How are you?

[00:00:34] Dave Forde: You know what? Today it's finally not raining. It's cloudy. It's overcast, but at least it's not raining. So things are good. I'll take it. This is the first time you and I were speaking, so tell me a little bit about yourself, and your journey.

How did you get to Patrón?

[00:00:49] Rahel Lippert: For sure, so I started off, I did my MBA at Carlton University in Ottawa, I knew from the beginning while I started my MBA that I really wanted to work in this industry. I did [00:01:00] absolutely everything I could outside of class to prepare. So I took my WSET Wine and Spirit certification courses.

I worked at a bar. I learned everything that I could about beer, wine and spirits. And I just basically sent out notes and annoyed every beer, wine, and spirits company that I could. I finally broke through and was able to land an internship with Labatt Breweries during my MBA, and then I just stayed persistent.

I kept bugging them after I graduated until I got offered a full-time position. So I spent some time there in sales and marketing, and then I moved over to the spirit sides with Proximo Spirits, who own some of the most iconic tequila brands out there, like Jose Cuervo and 1800. So I worked as a brand manager on those brands.

Then for a little while, I moved over to cannabis. I did a brief stint over there, but I missed beverage alcohol too much. So I was actually really happy when I got a call about a potential role working with [00:02:00] Patrón. Because now in this position, like working on Patrón Tequila this is honestly a dream brand to work on.

[00:02:07] Dave Forde: So basically you've spent the last decade or so drinking, I mean, sorry, working in the alcohol industry.

[00:02:13] Rahel Lippert: Little bit of both.

[00:02:13] Dave Forde: Alright. What is it about the spirit and alcohol industry that you love so much? Because again, you, you purposefully chose this industry and you were here and you again, the look on your face, you are loving what you do.

[00:02:23] Rahel Lippert: I do, um, marketing in general. I got into marketing because, you know, what gets me going is that I love seeing people get excited. I love the feeling of being excited. I love seeing other people around me get excited. It's my favorite thing. I'm not a huge sports fan, but the other night when the Leafs won their series, I live downtown.

Yes. And I, I opened my condo balcony door because I just, I love hearing the sound of everyone cheering. Like it really like gets me going. But beverage, alcohol in particular is such a fun industry and premium tequila, tequila in general. It's, it's all about fun and energy [00:03:00] and, you know, what we try to do on Patrón is really bring those one of a kind moments to consumers.

So like, that's what I feed on. That's what gives me energy is, is looking around and seeing people get excited at our activations, or at a bar or restaurant, you know, getting excited about interacting with my brand.

[00:03:17] Dave Forde: Some people obviously will know Patrón as one of their favorite spirits. You know, you and I talked off off before we started and I can think of so many times, or, or again, I've had many nights of Patrón.

That's good. Um, but tell me, tell us, you know, tell us, for those that may not know a little bit more about the parent company.

[00:03:35] Rahel Lippert: Yeah, so Patrón was acquired by Bacardi back in 2018. What a lot of people don't know is that Bacardi is actually still a family owned company I work with, several people whose last names are Bicardi.

And it's something that you actually really feel day-to-day working in this office. There's an actual genuine sense of community and care for employees and [00:04:00] you really can tell that they treat everyone like family. I also really love the passion that everyone at Bacardi has and of course we actually have a huge and really amazing spirits portfolio, which is great.

So one of the things that I've loved about working here is actually learning more about the very unique history of Bacardi rums. There's a lot that I didn't know, before, so that's been a real upside for me.

[00:04:22] Dave Forde: Now, currently, how many products are there under Patrón? You know, as we said this summer you're launching a new brand.

But how many are there in total?

[00:04:29] Rahel Lippert: Under Patrón, we have our core three brands, which are Patrón Silver, that's probably the one you're familiar with, comes in the Green Box. We also have Patrón Reposado, and in Añejo. So that's what makes up really the majority of our business here in Canada and globally.

But we also have a lot of amazing other products. We do have a line of Prestige tequilas. Some examples like Piedra and Patron Burdeos retail for about $700, $800 here in Canada. [00:05:00] They're available on a limited time basis, so sometimes we'll do small buys, with different retailers across the country.

Then we also have a very special brand that we brought this past year called Patron En Lalique which retailed for about $13,000 Canadian per bottle. So we'll have one bottle coming into Ontario a little bit later this year, if you wanna check that out. And then we do a lot of different innovative products.

Things like smoked tequilas or you know, different blends that we wanna try out to really experiment and see what, what new things we can bring to the consumer.

[00:05:34] Dave Forde: And on that, what goes into new flavor? Like, you know, why are you now launching a new, a new flavor now?

[00:05:40] Rahel Lippert: What we wanna do with El Cielo is really introduce, not necessarily a new flavor, but a new innovative method of distilling.

So Patrón El Cielo is actually very much the first of its kind. It is the only four times distilled tequila [00:06:00] in the industry. Um, and as a silver tequila, what you'll find is that, you know, a lot of the times silver tequilas can have. A lot of bite, a lot of spiciness from the agave. But because of this really unique distillation process and the very small batches that we produce in, we actually were able to bring an amazing level of sweetness and smoothness.

So this is a super, super smooth flavor profile on Patrón El Cielo. Something that we're really proud of. And the other thing that we wanted to bring is an additive free prestige tequila. A lot of consumers. You know, are still learning about tequila as a category and don't realize how many, tequilas across all price points use additives to improve sweetness, or mouthfeel of their tequilas.

Patrón El Cielo is a silver tequila with zero additives, so it is nothing but the best ingredients, and we wanted to package that up in the most premium way possible and share that with consumers. It's something we're really proud of.

[00:06:59] Dave Forde: [00:07:00] Why is this starting to happen? I've noticed this within, within the alcohol category, especially tequila.

Is it, is it the demand from the consumers? Is it the manufacturers? Why, why the change in number one, how they're being distilled? Why is this happening now?

[00:07:13] Rahel Lippert: Tequila's still a regular relatively new category in Canada. Currently only accounts for about 5% of total spirit industry sales. So there's a lot, a lot of room to grow in the US.

Tequila's the number one biggest category, bigger than vodka. So we really believe that there's a lot of room to grow in terms of different styles of tequila that are available to consumers, and that's especially true now that tequila's growing at over 40% in Canada, faster than any other spirit by far.

We think that along with that, consumers wanna learn more about what they're drinking. So, you know, it starts with learning the difference between a Blanco tequila, a Reposado, tequila, and an Añejo. But there's so much more to learn and we really think that the story around additives [00:08:00] and you know, using the highest quality ingredients in your tequila is a really important one that consumers are interested in learning more about.

So we're always happy to talk about.

[00:08:09] Dave Forde: Now as the Brand Manager how are you bringing this new product to the market? What are your plans for the summer?

[00:08:14] Rahel Lippert: Yes. So the campaign is just kicking off now as we speak. So I can't share too many details, but I will say that I am extremely excited and very proud of what Patrón is doing globally.

First of all, to launch this brand. This is a full global launch. We are launching in tandem with the US, with Ibiza, with Mykonos, with the UK, with. And we feel really excited about the scale of this campaign. But really what I'm proud of is the campaign that we're bringing to Canada this summer.

So to start off with we have some very high energy, really groundbreaking experiential programs that are taking place in major cities across Canada. We're gonna start off with our official Canadian [00:09:00] launch event here in Toronto. So that is on June 8th. And we can of course share an invite with you if you'd like to come check it out.

I will say it's not gonna be like your typical launch event. This is truly a launch spectacle. We are bringing it with El Cielo and we're really, really excited. We also plan to have major activations taking place at Montreal Grand Prix, so both on the track and off. And our campaign really relies heavily on working closely with influencers across Canada.

So we have a variety of different influencers that we work with from different walks of life, different verticals. And I think that, you know, together with our agencies, we've been able to come up with some really new creative ways to work with influencers, and help them, you know, bring the brand and the launch campaign to life.

So really excited for that cuz we're trying things that we haven't explored before. Now

Oh no, you, you finish. Um, I'll finish off. I think one other thing, you know, we obviously are really trying to bring the [00:10:00] energy with El Cielo and with our launch, so there are gonna be a lot of activations taking place within nightlife spaces across Canada.

Then, you know, on the flip side, even though our launch campaign really revolves heavily around bringing these high energy and exciting moments to Canadians, we're also very committed to sharing our quality story in a way that's interesting and still fun, but can help educate consumers around tequila in general.

So we have our Patrón national brand Ambassador, Marty Pino, who has been hard at work, activating samplings with all of our retail embark customers right now to try and get us on shelf in the next couple weeks. And we're gonna continue to push this quality messaging throughout our campaign.

[00:10:43] Dave Forde: Now, who is the target audience for Patrón El Cielo?

[00:10:47] Rahel Lippert: Good question. El Cielo is really designed for that discerning spirits consumer, so it's not just tequila. We're seeing people come in from other categories now, and we wanna attract, you know, the [00:11:00] discerning whiskey drinker, the discerning cognac drinker, but basically anybody who's looking to explore what an additive free prestige tequila can bring to the table.

So really these are consumers that understand quality cues and what they're drinking, and they're looking for authentic brands with that genuine quality story to tell. So we feel really confident that these consumers are gonna be really excited by the amount of smoothness and sweetness that we've been able to produce with a silver tequila additive free.

[00:11:33] Dave Forde: Now when you talk about influencers, again, every brand wants to tap into that viral ability, if you will, but yet this is a premium product. Patrón El Cielo is a premium product. How do you go about choosing the right influencers?

[00:11:46] Rahel Lippert: For sure. For us, it's all about matching our personality as a brand, the personality, and the values of those that we work with.

So we work with influencers from all different verticals and everybody has a different job in [00:12:00] terms of how they bring our brand story to life. Obviously, we're a really premium priced product, so we wanna make sure that, um, You know, all of our influencers that we work with are able to confidently speak to the reasons why Patron is worth the price point that it's at.

But you know, we'll, we'll choose different people for different reasons. Some influencers will work with because they're amazing at making cocktails, and they're known in their industry for being authoritative voice on cocktails. And so we'll work with them to help produce some amazing cocktail videos or help educate consumers around different ways to drink tequila.

Different ways to drink patrons specifically. Other influencers will work with because. You know, they have amazing connections in those high energy spaces, like nightlife spaces that we, we make sure that we wanna show up in with a brand like El Cielo. So there's really a wide array of influencers that we work with, and everybody can play a different part in terms of telling our brand story.

[00:12:59] Dave Forde: Sorry, you caught me off [00:13:00] guard there. I was on my phone checking out the looking for the nearest LCBO location. Is it available there today?

[00:13:06] Rahel Lippert: It will be available the week of May 15th at the LCBO and at bars and restaurants across Ontario and across the country.

[00:13:15] Dave Forde: All right, there you go. Boys and girls, the one and only Rahel Lippert, Senior Brand Manager from Patrón. The product is coming to your shelves very soon. Rahel. Appreciate your time today. We'll talk to you very soon. Thank.

[00:13:30] Rahel Lippert: Thanks Dave.