The 2018 workshops started in July and as well as the UK, it has now been launched in Austria and Germany, while France is due to undergo its first workshop later this year and the US is in the planning stage.
“We want to give bartenders something different, because it’s all well and good going into a bar, talking about the brand for a while and then demonstrating suggested serves and a tasting. But there’s no added value for them in that format,” said Humphrey.
“That’s why we’ve done things with bread making for example because it teaches bartenders something new while also linking back to the brand through the use of red winter wheat which is used in the production of Maker’s Mark.”
Wax workshops are also part of the programme which show bartenders how to personalise wax candles, linking to the wax tops on every bottle of Maker’s Mark.
Humphrey added: “We kicked off the first workshops last year in the UK and Germany followed after that. It’s a slightly different format there because although the core of the workshop is similar, we can’t just drop it into every market and expect it to work. It has to be tailored with either local or more accessible ingredients or adhere to the current trends wherever the workshop is taking place.
“I guess the most difficult part from our point of view is getting airtime. There are so many brands doing activations that there’s probably two per week in every bar.
“We now have a lot more liquid available in the UK and so what we did to set us apart from other programmes was sit down with bartenders and ask them what they wanted to gain from it. So now when we host a workshop we can ask them again for feedback to see how we can improve and ultimately make it a success.”
