Our regular feature, brought to you in association with Duty Free Global from Ireland, celebrates memorable scenes, moments, launches and campaigns related to the global aviation and travel retail sphere.
MEXICO. Our latest choice of images comes from my visit this week to Teremana Tequila, the premium, small-batch tequila founded by Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, writes Dermot Davitt.
It is a tale that blends the power of nature, evocative sense of place rooted in Jalisco State, community and a grand ambition for global growth.
I spent a memorable few days in Jalisco in the company of the Teremana senior team, local production partners the Lopez family and international distribution partner (and Teremana shareholder) Mast-Jägermeister.
I bring you my initial impressions and takeaways here, with a full report to follow.
First, as all Tequila production comes down to the base agave plant, which grows in the arid climates of this region, to visit the fields near Teremana’s distillery is to encounter a nobility in the rows of the leafy, spiky succulent plant that chases the sun from morning to night.
We had the chance this week to walk Teremana’s growing fields with the senior brand team and jimadors who harvest the Blue Weber variant.
Being there, and to view the vast plantation in the stillness of a hot afternoon, with the green leaves flickering with hints of blue, creates an evocative connection to the land, people and community of the Jalisco Highlands.
The Teremana distillery close by offers a glimpse of how this region is projecting its most prized local product to the world. It does this while maintaining traditional techniques – from harvesting to filling the fermenters, the process is surprisingly reliant on manual work – and keeping sustainability as a core value.
As the brand team on site notes, Teremana is slowly roasted in traditional brick ovens for more than 72 hours (longer than most tequilas), before being distilled in handmade copper pot stills, and crucially featuring a no-additive policy in the final product.
Behind this is a lofty commercial ambition that has made waves in the crowded world of Tequila in the short span of six years since the brand was founded.
Teremana hit one million nine-litre cases in annual sales in the USA within three years of launch, a milestone it reached faster than any premium spirit before it.
And travel retail is playing its part in the story, just two years on from its introduction to the channel.
This summer, Mast-Jägermeister brought the consumer stopping power of travel retail to bear with the ‘Crafted with Mana’ airport activation campaign at major hubs worldwide.
This generated over two million brand contacts and sampling for over 10,000 consumers across the trio of expressions, Blanco, Reposado and Añejo – whose soft, citrus to floral notes we also experienced in a tutored tasting on our visit.
For Teremana CEO Richard Black, travel retail represents more than a showcase for the brand. It is part of the key education story about the brand, and alongside must-win domestic markets such as Canada, Australia, the USA and Mexico itself is a channel on which the company is placing a big bet.
Black tells us, “We have had over 20 million consumers interact with Teremana since the launch in travel retail. The team at Jägermeister has done a phenomenal job in getting the listings at all the major operators and then activating the brand in a meaningful way.
“We are only two years in travel retail, so we are still finding our balance and identifying where and how we invest.
“We are seeing success around global travel retail as that window to the world, and we have a platform in our ‘Share the Table, Share the Mana’ concept that we have brought to that business, for example with an actual table at Frankfurt Airport (with Frankfurt Airport Retail).”
This campaign brings to the life the three elements central to the Teremana tequila-making process: Blue Weber agave, the brick ovens used for roasting and the copper pot stills used for distillation that we encountered on our tour.
Black says, “There are not many opportunities in domestic markets to tell this story in such a high-visibility way, but you can do it in travel retail, which is a key opportunity.”
He adds, “Beyond this, the table and other activations are also inspired by the philosophy of our Founder Dwayne Johnson, which is this concept of ‘mana’. This is essentially good energy and bringing people together.
“We believe we can play a role as a tequila brand around driving human connection and bringing people together. Now it takes time to establish that philosophy in the minds of consumers. There is a challenge in driving that education and bringing in that more emotional hook, but that is what we are looking to do in the long term and build a legacy around.”
That legacy is also built around the culture of this region in Mexico. We encountered its rich vibrancy first hand in our visit through some magnificent culinary experiences, a close-up look at national equestrian sport Charrería, and a roving tour of some of Guadalajara’s famed night spots, as Teremana continues to establish its place in the major city closest to its home.
That remains no easy task in a category that houses around 2,300 brands, 90% of them from this same region, with a reset of the global tequila business now taking shape after years of surging growth.
Yet to spend a few days in the company of the passionate and driven Teremana and Jägermeister teams is also to experience a vigour and excitement about what the future can hold, both for the brand and for the category worldwide.
*Our detailed story from Mexico, featuring more comment, images and video, will appear soon. ✈
