London Cocktail Week, the Largest City-Wide Celebration of Cocktails in the World
London Cocktail Week (13 - 23 October)
Get involved with a London Cocktail Week wristband and enjoy £7 cocktails in the top 350 bars in London. Launched in 2010 and growing each year, Spirited Marketing was super excited to interview founders, Hannah Sharman-Cox & Siobhan Payne for this interview. Read below for insight into their unique adventure and their passion for drinks - a clear commonality with the team at Spirited!
What was your inspiration for creating London Cocktail Week?
London Cocktail Week was born out of a desire to showcase how AMAZING the hospitality industry is. We dreamt it up back in 2010 and have run every year (yes - even during the last two difficult years) as a large-scale live event ever since! We wanted to show off the very best that London has to offer by working with the very best bars, the very best spirits and giving all the fantastic staff that works so hard a chance to be recognised.
What’s the best example of drinks brands leveraging the exposure of LCW, how did they do it?
We’ve seen some outstanding activations over the years but for us, it’s when a brand truly thinks in 360 degrees. A glorious example right now is Discarded - hosting, for the second year, the World’s Most Rubbish Bar. Great name. Super catchy for consumers. Great imagery. OOH advertising campaign to back up the activation. Strong strategic partnerships with lifestyle media AND great content for the event itself. The team there have been in touch with other organisers during the festival and will be collecting their ‘waste’ products to repurpose into ingredients for their party. Smart marketing all around.
Do you have a favourite cocktail to make at home?
We only make one drink at home and that’s a Wet Martini with a twist. And to be honest - sometimes there’s not even a twist. We much prefer to leave the mixology to the professionals but we’d be remiss if we couldn’t make our very favourite cocktail ourselves. It’s been great to see the rise in popularity of bottled and premixed cocktails but for us - simplicity is best… and nothing beats the time it takes to stir a drink down to the perfect ice-cold temperature.
Which new drink trends have you embraced?
Low ABV cocktails, RTD’s, Tequila, Rum, No-ABV? We’ve always been staunch advocates of No or Low ABV cocktails. We’ve been including it as part of the festival programme for years and are really proud of the inclusivity it allows within our business. We’re not sure rum is truly a trend outside of the on-trade, but Tequila is a different story. Fastest growing spirit category and showing no signs of slowing down. We spent time this year, and will again early next year, in Mexico so it’s a liquid that is close to our hearts. We’re also seeing Asian flavours as a huge trend that is increasing in the drinks people are putting forward for the festival and that’s great with us… Shochu and Sake (to name but two) are such delicious, light flavours.
Who impresses you most within the drinks industry and why?
Anyone who works hard and does good work. We’re so lucky that there are so many facets to this industry so we have friends who work in all sectors from making to marketing - but showing up, day after day, doing good work is key for us. And anyone who manages a good work-life balance. That should be commended much much more than it currently is. Pursue Happiness.