The InsideOut blog is a collection of our strategy, marketing and online thinking.

Last Thursday I was at the NZ Marketing Magazine Marketing Awards. This year I had a personal interest - I was nominated for the Innovative Research Award.

Unfortunately in my category I was up against 42Below and with all their sex appeal (and probably a much better idea!) they won. So well done 42Below. Geoff Ross also took the Marketer of the year award, which was great. Nice to see the award go to someone really trying to grow a new Kiwi global export brand. Now I’ve written about 42Below before.

I’ve always been impressed by their approach to marketing. They have a true focus on creating a story and an experience outside of just promoting the product. In fact their marketing and PR has largely been focused on generating stories and buzz by being a little bit controversial, because they’re not a big global distributor (yet!) they can get away with it. Also with Geoff’s background in advertising he knows to get more bang for your buck you need to work on the riskier end of the communication spectrum. In addition they also focus on events that build brand loyalty; Their Vodka University and Cocktail World Cup events are focused building passion and enthusiasm for their brands and converting 42 bartenders into committed advocates.

So well done 42Below!