High Theater

Ellen Slauson likes to sit in the back of bars. That way she can hear what people really think of the show she’s putting on up front. As senior director at Chicago agency Upshot, Slauson spent the summer dispatching tap dancers for House of Seagram’s Absolut Kurant. The Absolut Tap campaign introduced samples and new recipes for the currant-flavored vodka that’s too tart for many American palates.

“It’s fun to eavesdrop on people way in the back when they’re trying to figure out what’s going on,” she says. “Then they get into it, and it’s great.”

While Seagram’s hip-hop tappers beat a path for Absolut samplers, Campari Apertivo dispatched red-painted models and portrait artists to amuse diners in chi-chi restaurants, and give away aperitif samples. RJ Reynolds continues to sponsor Camel Nights in trendy bars with edgy bands. Philip Morris sends “Marlboro Illusionists” to do cigarette sleight-of-hand and card tricks table-to-table.

This ain’t no wet T-shirt contest.

On-premise promos have gone up-scale as liquor and tobacco brands bring an arty image and samples to a select audience. “On-premise has graduated from Jell-O and mud,” one agency exec quips, as more brands adopt high-brow guerrilla performance as a promotion strategy.

Tobacco marketers keep scrambling for turf in bars, the last bastion of marketing to the over-21 crowd (promo, July 1998). Liquor brands make only about 30 percent of their sales on-premise, but bars are the home of trends and the hard-to-reach. Promotions that get 21- to 30-year-olds drinking new brands reverberate later at retail.

Other fashion-sensitive brands like apparel and fragrances may start hitting trendsetting clubs, while alcohol and tobacco brands “get a little more conscious about which bars they’re taking and how they get them,” says Kevin Berg, president of KBA Marketing, Chicago, whose clients include United Distillers and RJ Reynolds.

Marketers are “moving more aggressively because on-premise is an important platform for future marketing activities,” Berg says. “There’s less clutter, and it’s a clean way to carve out a hard-to-reach audience.”

“The psychographic lifestyle you reach there can’t be reached anywhere else,” says Mitch Berk, president of Entertainment Marketing Inc., Chicago. “By the time someone decides to come to a bar, he’s taken off his mask as a serious daytime person. He becomes a lifestyle target, not a demographic target.”

What’s your sign(age)? Such audiences are ripe for promotainment. At its best, an episode goes something like this: The bar is crowded but not sweaty, punctuated with lively conversation. Suddenly, performers walk quietly into the room (dancers, drummers, magicians – insert your choice here) and patrons turn to see what’s going on. The show begins, and 10 minutes later the kids are clapping along, ready to taste a little of (insert your brand here).

At its worst, there are more performers than patrons, or the crowd gets surly when the manager dims the disco ball for a “Brought to You By …” interlude. Agency field reps try to avoid that by choosing locales and times carefully, and keeping copious notes on what worked, or didn’t.

And then, of course, there’s the performance itself.

“If you come in with a corporate message, it’s like running a fast car into a brick wall,” says EMI’s Berk. “It’s too in-your-face. You have to talk in a way that’s relevant to their psyche” as well as the brand.

“It isn’t good enough to just say ‘Here’s a show, and here’s my product,” says Upshot evp Jeff Davidoff says. “How does the performance further the brand? It’s very important that the connection be brand-correct.”

For Absolut, its high-pro1/2le print ads set high expectations among consumers. “We’re very cognizant that we can’t come out with a hat and t-shirt promotion,” says Russell Aronson, Seagram manager of marketing services. Performance is “not about how many drinks we can sell in a night – it’s about building the brand.”

Absolut Tap paired two familiar icons – vodka and tap dancing – with a twist. Upshot recruited its hip-hop tap team, three brothers, off an el platform in Chicago. The dancers trained five teams that traveled the country for 1,000 performances over 18 weekends. A team would dance and drum (on Absolut Kurant bottles) for about 15 minutes, and leave. Then two samplers passed out mixed-drinks in take-home shotglasses, recipe brochures and logoed sunglass cases. They’d stay ’till they handed out at least 48 samples, usually more.

Bar managers don’t want their own wait staff wasting time with freebies, but they like free entertainment. And performances buy brands sampling time they wouldn’t otherwise get.

Simplicity, straight up Upshot had a few caveats developing Absolut Tap. “It had to fit the brand image; create its own space; be disruptive enough to get attention, but not so disruptive it turns the bar on its ear; and it had to fit in a van,” Davidoff ticks off. “People new to performance gravitate to ideas with huge production values. It sounds great in the conference room, but doesn’t execute well.”

Seagram sales reps and Upshot field managers used a performance video to sell in three performances per account. Seagram picked the bars. Sell-in was easy because Absolut Tap was simple, and turnkey for bar managers, many of whom bought into “Absolut Nonsense” drumming performances last year.

“They used to shrug and say, ‘Oh, another t-shirt promotion’,” Aronson says. “Then we show them the tape, and they get pretty excited.”

Seagram planned to run “Nonsense” in half its markets this year, but ran Tap nationally instead. “Nonsense” ran three years via The Idea Foundation, Norwalk, CT. “It’s a great promotion we may use again, but we don’t want people to say, ‘I’ve seen this before.'”

Such high-brow sampling is expensive, but worth it. “The quality of interaction with consumers – especially when you have to teach them about the brand – makes it cost-effective,” Davidoff says. “This is the best medium to teach people, because drink trends are born in bars.”

It’s also really labor-intensive. EMI ran a summer program called Malibu Island Boogie Nights for Malibu Rum in 24 markets with nearly 1,000 events – Carribean-style parties with live music, limbo dancing, and games. “I remember trying to negotiate it down, because of the terror factor of doing so many events,” Berk laughs. “But more is better.”

For Absolut Tap, Upshot’s on-site managers call Slauson immediately after shows to report on performances that night. “Every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday I get five voicemails after midnight,” she says. “You have to be unbelievably paranoid and thorough” to execute a multi-market campaign, Davidoff adds.

Paranoid? Try selling cigarettes Tobacco marketers won’t talk about their bar promotions for fear of tipping off competitors. It’s slow work, establishing territory one bar at a time, and guerrilla campaigns are easy for a deep-pocketed competitor to quash. So cigarette promos are executed quietly, a quick hit for the brand and chance to grab names and addresses for the database.

Philip Morris introduced Marlboro Illusionists in 22 markets this year as part of its on-going Bar Nights effort. Marlboro sponsors bands and parties in most of its bars, but sends Illusionists to “smaller, more intimate settings,” says spokeswoman Tara Carraro. “It’s simply added entertainment that’s sponsored by Marlboro.” Such venues aren’t suited to the prize giveaways, couponing, and name collection common to Bar Nights events. It’s pure branding. EMI, Chicago, handles Philip Morris Bar Nights.

Philip Morris may extend its Marlboro Illusionists campaign next year. Magicians go from table to table, doing sleight-of-hand tricks with cigarettes and playing cards on a mat bearing a Marlboro logo. It’s more low-key that the Bar Night parties Philip Morris continues to sponsor nationally, and gives the brand close contact with consumers.

RJR sends Camel Club teams into night-spots to offer free Camels to patrons smoking other brands. Bartenders who smoke get free Camels when crews visit. RJR pays club owners a marketing allowance up to a reported $17,800 per venue for exclusivity.

The urgency to stake out exclusive territory in the best clubs feeds the secrecy among tobacco marketers. Tough legislative scrutiny hasn’t helped, either.

“Tobacco marketers feel bars are their final frontier, but it’s hard to say how long that’ll last under tighter legislation,” says Paul Stanley, president of PS Promotions, Chicago. “What they really need to do is control retail environments in supermarkets and mass-merchandisers.” The key to that may be promotions that expand tobacco brands’ presence at retail. Still, bars are an easier venue to target adults without being criticized for reaching kids.

Put It on my brand’s tab At least one agency, KBA, is making national promotions more efficient by organizing a network of nightspots. KBA’s United Nightlife Network includes 2,000-plus bars and nightclubs in 30 markets. KBA signs each bar for ongoing participation in marketing programs, then books entertainment and buys media for the bar. In exchange, KBA can bring in promotions without the standard sell-in. “We give bars a chance to be part of an on-going marketing network, to tap marketers’ [promotion] budgets,” Berg says. “The bar benefits from outside marketers making its entertainment stronger.” The brands benefit from bars’ open-door policy with KBA.

That makes it easier to do long-term programs rather than one-off deals. “The bar environment is a medium,” Berg says. “You pick bars like you pick magazines, and buy a media plan for the year.” That means low-key activities or P-O-P for an on-going presence, with an occasional big event.

Jim Beam Brands runs Jim Beam Backroom in 10 markets, sponsoring up-and-coming bands once a month in local clubs. Tags on radio spots drive traffic to clubs. Agency GMR Marketing, New Berlin, WI, hired on-premise managers in each market to oversee on-going activities with Jim Beam’s sales reps.

Beam’s younger brand, Pucker, opts for rock ‘n roll to create a buzz among twentysomethings. “Pucker Rocks” sends an “entertainment center on wheels” and a miked guitarist into clubs to play a half-hour of rock, followed by sampling crews who give away T-shirts and other merchandise. “Pucker is a social, interactive brand, and [the performances] have been very successful in young-adult accounts,” says Jeff Snyder, GMR director of account services. “Pucker Rocks” expands to 12 markets next year from eight this year.

As more marketers and agencies navigate the night scene, consumers may get turned off by commercialism. Promotion pros who juggle the bar’s image and the brand’s with the right entertainment will keep being invited to the party.

There’s no sign yet of a velvet rope keeping brands out.