- The problem
- The plan
- Three decisions
- What came out
The problem
The brand had the thing that matters, which is a family in Jalisco that actually makes the tequila, and it was posting like a brand with nothing to say. Bottle on a background, over and over. Against competitors who outspend you a hundred to one, a bottle on a background is invisible.
The objective was not reach. It was to make a premium, authentic brand legible to a U.S. audience that had never heard of it, using what the big brands cannot buy: the people who make it.
The plan
01
Gap analysis
What the big brands say, what they never say, and where a small house can stand without competing on budget.
02
Content that tells it
Move from product to story: the craft, the family, the reason this bottle exists at all.
03
Measure and repeat
Track every format weekly, keep what performs, drop what does not. No format survives on taste alone.
Three decisions
The founders on camera.
Reels with the owners telling their own story turned out to carry the most engagement by a distance. Their voices did what an ad cannot: they made the brand credible.
People and places instead of product shots.
Product photography alone was not working, so we shot in everyday scenes, in locations around Boston and New England that the audience recognizes. The tequila stopped being an object and became something happening in a room.
The bars that already poured it.
Collaborations with restaurants and bars serving the tequila, with content shared from both accounts. Each piece reached two audiences and the word of mouth did the rest.
What came out
Six months, one brand, and the lesson I have carried into every commercial job since: the asset a small brand has is the truth about where it comes from, and most of them are spending money to hide it behind a product shot.