The spirit of New Orleans

Rosie Davenport explores the inspiring US home of Southern Comfort as it gets ready to bring the energy of Mardi Gras to UK pubs

Firing like flash bulbs capturing stars on the red carpet, the American tourists' cameras click-click through the windows of the coach, relentlessly recording every detail as we drive past battered homes, long since deserted in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

Everything looks so ordinary and familiar - schools, playgrounds, an occasional shop - yet alarmingly apocalyptic. Where has all the life gone? The scene is so surreal, it could be a film set.

In 2005, 80% of New Orleans was left under water (though amazingly its historic centre escaped unscathed), claiming 1,500 lives. Beamed around the world, scenes of the wreckage - and claims of subsequent Government neglect - have created a modern legacy that couldn't be further from the centuries-old heritage of this most unAmerican of cities.

From the wealthy French settlers who colonised it in the 1690s to the pirates who once congregated on its streets selling booty seized on their voyages and the voodoo practices that survive today, its history has bubbled away, enriched by every new layer.

Steeped in decades of decadence blurring cultural and racial boundaries, the people of New Orleans have rallied to preserve the city's unique atmosphere and ensure it is not overshadowed by the disaster.

Wandering the grid of streets in the old French Quarter (named alternately after saints and sinners, which sums up New Orleans' attitude to life - you're either one or the other) there's a tangible sense that this rich cultural mix is still very much alive.

Music seeps out of every window and door, live musicians carrying it along through the streets, bars nurturing it as if it's the most precious thing on earth. Many bars don't ever close their doors - one place that opened in 1952 had never shut (it didn't even have a lock) until Hurricane Katrina forced the evacuation of the city.

It's this energy - and the irrepressible spirit of its inhabitants - that Southern Comfort, created here in 1874, and wants to "own". And it's easy to see why.

If provenance and an unusual story can trigger an emotional response that yanks at our purse strings, New Orleans is a potent

essence any brand would want to bottle.

Transporting the city's vibe to the UK has one very obvious vehicle - the annual Mardi Gras street carnival, where locals party and parade on ornate floats over 12 celebratory days leading up to Ash Wednesday. Fat Tuesday (Mardi Gras in French) is the final crescendo, with revellers dancing in the streets and at masked balls, buried under the weight of strings of beads thrown from passing floats.

Catching as many beads as possible is the name of the game, and people will do anything for them - men drop their trousers, women also flashing their flesh.

Injecting personality

It's the most extravagant demonstration of the sum of New Orleans' varied parts - and where Southern Comfort owner Bacardi Brown-Forman Brands (BBFB) sees an opportunity to inject some personality into the spirit, moving it on from something "very iconic, but sleepy".

It will be spending £1m of a total £3m budget for the year promoting Southern Comfort (SoCo) and Mardi Gras in a month-long push kicking off in February. And the great boost for the trade is that all its plans focus on pubs.

"It's been staring us in the face," says Lois Ireson Southern Comfort brand manager in the UK and South Africa, who heads a dynamic team driving the brand forward here.

"Mardi Gras is totally ownable by us because it's from New Orleans and so are we. We can genuinely align ourselves with it. We haven't previously associated ourselves with part of the calendar, but we can own February.

"We're not worried about what people know about New Orleans - we are aware it is a long way away.

"But we do want people to start associating us with Mardi Gras - we are trying to bring over this vibe and feeling."

Traditionally, February has been all about Valentine's Day in pubs, but this can be polarising, she says, because it's one-

dimensional and only appeals to a certain romantic audience.

It's one of the reasons why Ireson believes the big operators are so willing to get behind BBFB's plans.

"Hopefully February is the time to bring people out of hibernation. Throughout the month there will be lots of Mardi Gras events to look forward to in the UK, so consumers should really get the feel of it.

"In the managed accounts we're doing the King and Queen of Mardi Gras, where

customers give their beads to the two people they would like to be crowned Mardi Gras royalty for the night."

Unpretentious brand

The campaign has understandably struck a chord with NUS bars, too, where it's a perfect match for the 18 to 24-year-old audience, but Ireson is keen to emphasise that all the 400-plus party events planned will take place in pubs off-campus, "bringing trade to the trade".

The idea is to establish it as a pretension-free brand, and not one that's just big in London. So there are no plans to lecture licensees on the intricacies of making world-class cocktails that are simply impractical to produce on a busy Saturday night.

"In the past we have created fantastic cocktails that make us feel great - but if they can't be replicated easily in a pub, we're not helping the trade," says Ireson.

"We've held lots of successful regional events. Not many brands do things outside London but we want people to see SoCo as a brand for them."

While experiential marketing - reaching out to consumers with something personal and unique - is the focus for suppliers, she argues that when brands run events, it can be difficult to achieve traction because consumers often fail to take in who was behind them - the brand becomes wallpaper.

"Driving awareness is the main goal - getting the brand out there with a new energetic feel. I want consumers to know SoCo was behind the event they attended."

To cement this connection, TV adverts will appear from the last week of January alongside regional radio

activity, including a competition to win a trip to the real Mardi Gras celebrations in New Orleans. And then there are the PoS kits, including 186,000 SoCo-branded beads, which customers will get to take home, like a souvenir of the night.

The aim is to build an event consumers begin to associate with February, in the same way as St Patrick's Day in March, and to ramp things up next year if this proves successful.

While the TV campaign will not be Mardi Gras-specific, Ireson says this may change next year if things go well. It's refreshing to hear a company even considering spending money on an expensive TV commercial to talk about activity that is only happening in pubs.

"It's about our brand identity," she says. "SoCo started in the on-trade, and that's where you change perception of a brand. If

we do something in the off-trade it will be

value-added, not about price."

Ultimately, the strategy is about recognising what pubs do better than anywhere else.

"Mardi Gras is all about a big party, and the best place to have that is in your local."

Southern Comfort in the on-trade

l Southern Comfort is worth £94m in pubs.

It accounts for 30.4% of the £305m

speciality drinks category in volume terms, where it competes with brands including Malibu and Pimms

l Value sales were up 0.8% last year, against a drop of 1.9% in its category

l It ranks as the eighth best-selling spirit by volume, seventh best by value

l Over 2.3 million nine-litre cases are sold worldwide, of which 153,000 are sold to pubs in the UK, its second-largest market.

Spirit formerly known as Southern Comfort

Southern Comfort is a liqueur-based spirit blended with whiskey, spice and fruit flavours. It was created in 1874 by bartender MW Heron, the son of a shipbuilder.

Tasked with improving the taste of whiskey that had deteriorated during its journe