T h o m a s D r i v e r

Role: Account Director & Producer

Client: Suntory Global Spirits

Brands: Maker’s Mark, Jim Beam, Knob Creek, Basil Hayden, Roku Gin, Haku Vodka, Toki Whisky

Brief Summary Create and execute a Trade Engagement event concept for Tales of the Cocktail. The concept built affinity amongst Trade while engaging them through interactive educational elements.

Key Deliverables Creative concepting, staffing, logistics, metrics and production execution)

Format: Trade conference (Tales of the Cocktail)

Role: Account Director & Lead

Client: Penfolds

Brand: Penfolds CA Collection

Format: Consumer/Trade - Art Basel

Role: Account Director & Producer

Client: Barilla

Brands: Barilla Pesto

Format: Consumer Festival Tour - Experiential

Role: Account Director and Producer

Client: Campari America

Brands: Campari, Wild Turkey, Aperol, Cynar and Grand Marnier

Format: Trade conference (Tales of the Cocktail)

Role: Account Lead and Producer

Client: Wild Turkey Bourbon

Brand: Wild Turkey Bourbon and Russell’s Reserve

Format: Experiential Event

Wild Turkey’s Behind the Barrel is a custom Trade Marketing program designed to influence key industry leaders. An unforgettable bourbon experience hosted by Wild Turkey Master Distillers Jimmy and Eddie Russell, as well as the next generation of Wild Turkey, Bruce Russell, select bartenders are flown out to the Wild Turkey Distillery in Kentucky to learn priceless the knowledge surrounding the Wild Turkey legacy and create indelible memories with the Russells themselves.

Campari hosted over 2,000 Bar Convent Brooklyn attendees over two days within a portfolio expo booth experience. To illustrate the diversity of the Campari Group portfolio, brands were brought to life within two dual experiences. The front exterior of the booth celebrated 100 years of Negroni with a modern red Campari design and Negroni influenced cocktails. For the secondary experience, attendees walked through a hidden door next to the Campari bar to discover a speakeasy “vault” where we sampled the best liquids from the storied past of Wild Turkey and Glen Grant.

I served as the the lead for Client Service, Production, Creative and on-site management.

Role: Account Lead and Producer

Client: Campari America

Brands: Appleton Rum, Aperol, Grand Marnier and Wray & Nephew Rum

Format: F&B Festival - Consumer

Campari was a key sponsor to the 2019 South Beach Wine & Food Festival with three main activations, Italian Bites on the Beach, Taste of Jamaica and the Grand Tasting Village. Again as the Client Service lead, I was responsible for all creative, production and Client communications creating these custom experiences. Total attendees across all events were 27,000 with over 25,000 samples.

We were tasked with creating an authentic TBS brand experience around the Conan and People of Earth properties at Comic-Con. Leveraging our coveted 20’ x 20’ expo floor space, we concepted and designed a fun, experiential activation that focused on the user experience and engagement that highlighted elements from the shows. Incorporating a custom VR experience, (collaboration to app design, content capture, graphics and sound design), eye-catching fabrication elements and user generated content for a high impact among existing and potential viewers. A live stream to the set of Conan’s studio during Comic-Con was also built into the booth experience with a giant Conan head telescope.

As the project lead, I was responsible for Client Service, producing, creative and on-site management of activation. We saw over 5k attendees with over a 1MM impressions.

To support the launch of Axe’s new White Label, Brand Connections produced and activated a premium event sampling program at the College Football Playoff Championship held in Dallas, Texas reaching over 75,000 in attendance.

The AXE Sponsorship of the College football Playoff Championship fan events put over 32,000 full size samples in the hands of consumers while building significant awareness surrounding the new White Label portfolio

The AXE Activation caused such a buzz at the fan events that it received tons of praise from other sponsors and even a write up in Forbes for it’s unique approach to engaging consumers http://www.forbes.com/sites/aliciajessop/2015/01/14/unique-activations-by-sponsors-make-fans-the-big-winner-at-the-college-football-playoff-national-championship-game/

Role: Account Executive - Producer

Client: Dos Equis

Brand: Dos Equis

Format: Experiential Program - Consumer

Dos Equis‘ core consumer enjoys winter sports and to target this demo, we concepted a ski experience that toured the best mountain resorts in the country. Bringing a 50-foot air bag to the base of these mountains, guests were allowed to overcome their fears and try amazing snowboard and ski tricks with assurance of a soft landing. Post jump, we threw an apres ski party featuring cold Dos Equis. Over 12 mountain resort stops, we hosted over 10k jumps and engaged 20k core adventure consumers, garning over 100k impressions.

Cholula wanted to increase trial for it’s core consumers and key markets. Our solution was to engage these consumers via a variety of tactics such as Food Trucks, Food Festival Sponsorships, Retail and Guerilla sampling, restaurant network distribution, partnerships and social media. This custom program generated over 192k taste trials, 500 restaurant distributions and 7.5MM impressions.

BIC asked us to create a multi-platform media, sampling and activation program to engage with the critical audience of college students around the latest BIC male and female shaver products. We unique media (elevator wraps, lobby clings) at targeted Spring Break hotels, driving college students to a custom on-beach brand experience featuring shaving stations by cosmetologists, themed games, photo ops and other fun activities driving excitement and brand preference. Over 4k students engaged, 250k samples distributed across all sampling networks, 21 days of activation.

As a sponsor at the 2018 Tales of the Cocktail in New Orleans, the largest Trade focused conference int he country, Campari had a major presence throughout the week. Within a 5 day period, we executed 16 events featuring brands from the portfolio, ranging from small sampling rooms to 2-day take pop-up experience in the French Quarter.

Over 3,200 attended our events with over 5,600 samples served.

Campari hosted Bar Convent attendees for 2 days within a portfolio booth on the expo floor.

To illustrate the versatility of the Campari Group portfolio, the brands were brought to life within two different bar environments within one booth space; the upscale elegant cocktail bar styled after the Camparino Bar in Milan and a casual laid-back bar setting, modeled on a typical Brooklyn neighborhood dive bar.

Total Attendance: 3,100 - Total Samples: 1,475

To promote the Rum Rising three-part documentary series, we screened each part chronologically at Trade Festivals across the country. With the premier in New York City, we brought the Jamaican Difference to life with authentic Jamaican food, music, cocktails, dancing and fun. Hosted by Master Blender, Joy Spence, the event drew over 800 attendees and 3,500 samples served.