BIG BRAND BOOZE
The Story Behind Arby’s Bourbon
Written by DOUG HALL Photography by JIMMY EAGLE
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hiskey is the king of consumer products. It is an iconic gift often given when a good friend gets a new job, a new house, married, or has a child. Because of whiskey’s cultural status, it’s not surprising that brands in other categories embrace whiskey as a way to connect to their customers. I’ve been lucky enough to help create some of those connections for businesses. My distillery specializes in custom bourbon. We can produce it by the glass and bottle, as was done when the American whiskey industry was born in the mid-1800s. As such, we often get calls from around the world requesting limited-edition bottlings. Last year, the most surprising of these requests came from Fallon, the advertising agency for Arby’s fast food restaurants. They asked if we would create a bourbon for them to celebrate their smoked brisket sandwich. The idea was to do a special limited-edition bourbon they could offer directly to their consumers to generate awareness and build upon their contemporary image.
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I had mixed feelings about this request. It was a project we are particularly well set up to do, as we have won double golds in the past with our smoked bourbon. The production process involves “distilling smoke,” taking the best cut of the smoke to craft meaningfully unique flavors. The process is so unique that we have been granted a U.S. patent on it. I knew a project like this would come with risks to our brand image. Also it could be a very hard sell to our staff of genuine artisans. It’s one thing to do collaborations, like we have with Edrington, makers of The Macallan. It’s another to do it with a fast food chain! Lastly, because we would be listed as the producer of the product, it meant we were giving our “craft” endorsement to the Arby’s brand. To me, it meant we had to be convinced they aligned with our core values and they would compliment the Brain Brew brand. This was especially important because we would work together to broadly promote the bourbon through joint interviews with
media, bloggers, thought leaders, etc. I felt if we couldn’t say we loved Arby’s products, then we shouldn’t do the project. After further discussions with Fallon and private conversations with an Arby’s executive I knew, we decided to do it. What tipped us to say “yes” were three things:
1. Arby’s Clear Focus on Product Quality. It was clear Arby’s was looking for a genuine 90-plus point bourbon. They wanted something that was amazing. Now saying they wanted something great and actually following through on that are two different things. Embarrassingly, I had not been to an Arby’s in some time. In order to check on their commitment to quality, I went to an Arby’s and ordered a broad selection of their menu items. I was genuinely impressed by the quality, creativity, and attention to detail.
2. Opportunity for Our Team to Learn. Since this would be a very W W W . ARTISANSPIRITMAG . C O M