Self Promotion Drink Topper’s
My idea for my, self-promotion came about because of the job I upheld whilst attending university. I took up bartending. At the All Bar One in Cheltenham, there I became enamoured with promotions out of the establishment’s sheer desperation. I ended up with the role of head bartender for a job that I had no intention of ever keeping. Every weekend would be taken up by these “cocktail masterclasses” where I had to entertain groups of women ranging from 5 people to 20. showing guests how to make cocktails and letting them make their own was drunken chaos. One time the bride from a hen-do even gave me her number. Safe to say working there was a unique experience. With a fascinating customer base of ranging from drunk driving Gypsies, who were driving a horse and wagon. To enjoyers of Columbia’s largest export in the 1980’s in public toilets. Whether it was the almost weekly visits from the police or the numerous gas leaks. My part-time job was never boring.
During this time, I saw a great amount of branding, mostly drink-related, but nonetheless, I realized that one of the best ways to sneak promotion into my part-time job was to use sugar paper. Sugar paper is used every few years as a promotion tool, but each time a brand such as ‘absolute’ would be poorly utilised and not spread any meaningful message. I proposed that I could use this as a way of advertising, and I began to plan how to better use them.
Here is what my sugar paper toppers would look like when placed on top of the cocktails I make.
Advertisers drink, they drink a lot. My expertise in alcohol has come in handy many times when making conversation whilst I was doing my placement at Havas. There are several times All Bar One has hosted events for creatives, this provides the opportunity to deliver my self-promotion to the guests. On several occasions, parties have hired me to host events, so far, I have worked for two different weddings, allowing me to build a rapport as an independent contractor. As I continue this career alongside hunting for advertising work, I will be presented with more opportunities to work at creative-based events. I am currently in talks with the company ‘poptop’ that networks mixologists such as myself with events in London. There are thousands of creative studios in London that use this company to acquire people such as myself for work parties. This allows me to enter these companies and bypass the standard hiring processes by familiarising myself with many of their staff. At the same time, I will be able to slip my self-promotional material into their drinks. My idea revolved around sugar paper toppers that are often placed on drinks, I wanted to create something that would catch the eye of drinkers, instead of the meaningless corporate art that is found on most sugar paper toppers.
Firstly, I began to consider the types of things we find in our drinks. As I worked in a bar for the past three years, I came across numerous occasions of flies flying into drinks and floating on the white foam of a beer or a cocktail. Whilst I can guarantee none of the drinks left the bar with a fly in, the guests love to claim so. Every time someone lifts their drink, their drink appears in their direct eyeline. Human eyes are brilliant at detecting something floating in your drink less than a meter away.
From this, my ideas began to expand. I wanted to create something memorable and funny. From my initial idea of a fly, I began to expand into other pests, whilst not as common, rats have appeared in numerous consumables, such as KFC chicken.
Our eyes are trained to identify small pests in our food and drink, I wanted to use this to make my self-promotion spotted almost immediately after the drinker brings their beverage up to their eye level.
