Skip to content
ANGOSTURA® bitters campaign

Hill+Knowlton Strategies (WPP) · 2015–2021

ANGOSTURA® bitters

Expanding a cocktail icon

Client
House of Angostura
Agency
Hill+Knowlton Strategies (WPP)
My Role
Client-facing account lead

The Challenge

Elevate a heritage bitters brand from bar-back staple to an essential ingredient in modern cocktail culture, lifestyle media and the trade — and prove it in sales.

What I Did

  • Served as client-facing lead on the top-performing, highest-grossing consumer account out of H+K Chicago.
  • Led creative, paid media, experiential and e-commerce agencies — five integrated agencies in all — through FY18, FY19 and FY20 planning.
  • Launched the brand's first-ever influencer program and built a tiered, systematic framework for working with creators and third-party ambassadors.
  • Ran press tours, a bar education program and custom press kits that built credibility with media and the trade.
  • Expanded programming to include social, growing the engagement into a fully integrated global social and PR solution.
  • Helped launch ANGOSTURA® cocoa bitters in 2020, the brand's first new bitters in 13 years, with custom press kits and a national influencer and social push (#AngoCocoa).
  • Partnered with GMR to coordinate trade sponsorships and bar build-outs at industry events including Bar Convent Brooklyn, where the House of Angostura hosted the welcome cocktail.
  • Brought media to Trinidad for the ANGOSTURA® Global Cocktail Challenge, the brand's international bartender competition.
  • Led multiple media tours with press stops at People, Thrillist, Remezcla, Epicurious, Esquire and others.

In the field

Activations, up close.

A House of Angostura bar education session.
The 2020 launch of ANGOSTURA® cocoa bitters. Image: Mizkan America via PR Newswire.
Bar Convent Brooklyn: the House of Angostura welcome cocktail cart.
A creator filming the House of Angostura bar build-out at Bar Convent Brooklyn.
The 2018 ANGOSTURA® Global Cocktail Challenge finale in Trinidad.
Carnival performers at the ANGOSTURA® Global Cocktail Challenge in Trinidad.
Press trip to Trinidad: tasting the House of Angostura rum portfolio.
A House of Angostura Swizzle Bar at a sponsored cocktail event.
The House of Angostura Tiki Bar, featuring The Perfect Purée of Napa Valley.
A bartender-led ANGOSTURA® cocktail demo for media.
A press stop at People in Los Angeles: an ANGOSTURA cocktail demo on the rooftop.
Cocktails with a view of Los Angeles.

Selected campaigns.

Highlights from six years on the account.

2020U.S.

ANGOSTURA® cocoa bitters launch

First new bitters since 2007

The brand's third bitters flavor and first innovation in 13 years, made with Trinitario cocoa from Trinidad & Tobago and launched with custom press kits, recipes for dessert-style classics like the Espresso Martini and Vieux Carré, and an influencer and social push around #AngoCocoa.

Launch releaseCreator post (Instagram)
2018Global · Trinidad & Tobago

ANGOSTURA® Global Cocktail Challenge

The brand's international bartender competition, with finalists from around the world competing in Trinidad. I brought U.S. media to the finale for a press trip that included the House of Angostura rum portfolio.

Results

  • 17.7%

    increase in ANGOSTURA sales by dollars (and 9.2% in units) in 2019 vs. the prior year, during the media relations, influencer and partnership program I led

  • 87%

    of the bitters category's incrementality was driven by the ANGOSTURA brand

  • 1B+

    multimedia impressions secured in 2018

Want the full story? Let's talk.

Email Me Download Résumé