Campari Group launches its Campari Academy in Argentina

Why are we targeting bartenders? Because bartenders, in addition to generating consumer preference for brands, are also opinion leaders and benchmarks for the industry,” he explains. Mariano Rodríguez, Channel and Customer Marketing Director of Campari Group.

¨Campari Academy’s mission is to inspire and influence the bartending community, and the focus of the program is on them. At Campari we have the necessary credentials to carry out this task, since we are leaders in the world of cocktails and in the entire mixology industry”, he adds.

In this sense, bartenders play the role of opinion leaders. ¨Unlike brand Influencers (who generate awareness and positioning), bartenders add up when it comes to communicating new trends in cocktails, encouraging customers to go through innovative proposals, trying new flavors and different combinations¨, Rodríguez points out. 47% of consumer decisions at the bar are influenced by the bartender, according to a global study conducted by the consulting firm Metrix Lab: Consumer Insights & Market research.

The investigations carried out to discover the new consumer profiles that have appeared, especially in the post-pandemic period, indicate that they are curious. Who are looking for new products, with lower alcohol content, natural ingredients, innovative and disruptive production processes, and are concerned about the sustainability of the processes and the origin of the ingredients. That is why it is key to the growth of the industry that the bartender can, through his knowledge, understand the consumer’s search, and thus guide him towards satisfying his expectations in the experience of enjoying a cocktail.

The creative and innovative development that gastronomy has experienced in Argentina in recent years, turning many of the cocktails into the ideal pairing or complement, added to the quarantines caused by the pandemic, and the time that people spent at home, made consumers began to explore the categories of aperitifs and cocktails, and valued the role of the bartender: today there is a more demanding consumer who raises the bar to the bartenders themselves, beyond the fact that initiatives to prepare cocktails at home have also grown and people were encouraged to add ingredients and experiment.

GLOBAL SUPPORT

¨Campari Academy is an initiative of the group around the world that is also implemented in Argentina. Although we have been carrying out initiatives to support the community for several years, today we are formally presenting this program because we understand that it is a key moment to support the new generations that are going to mark the industry’s map in the medium term¨.

Campari Academy integrates the global knowledge of the industry and puts it in value for the local cocktail communities, generating content from a different place than what the undergraduate degree provides. It does not provide basic notions, but trend content, mixology, new techniques, new botanicals, innovative ingredients, circular cocktails based on notions of fermentation (gasifying liquids, but not from the incorporation of CO2 but from natural ferments such as kombucha and kefir, for example). In this way the production of cocktails reduces its negative footprint.

THE PIRAMID

¨If we divided the universe of people who work in mixology into a pyramid, at the top we would find consecrated artists such as Tato Giovannoni, Sebastián García, Sebastián Atienza, Mona Gallosi, Inés de los Santos, among others. At this level, what we are looking for is for them to be ambassadors and recommenders of our brands, influencing the rest of the community and promoting brands from the innovation implicit in signature cocktails. This program allows us to bring established bartenders from other countries to train the Argentine community: next week, for example, Tommaso Cecca, Head Bartender, is coming to Buenos Aires, the iconic Camparino from Milan”, points out Rodríguez.

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Then there are the bartenders who today are generating a great impact in the gastro-cocktail scene, recognized by the community and in many cases leading creativity and innovation behind the bars, also maximizing the consumer experience at the point of sale, for example. , Flavia Arroyo with her knowledge on clarified. ¨We also look for them to be ambassadors of our brands, and we mainly focus on inspiring, connecting and providing training¨, she explains.

¨And then there is the base of the pyramid, which is the seedbed, the staff that has just started working in the bars. It is an industry where there is a lot of turnover, so from Campari Group and through this program we aim to train this level of the pyramid to enrich the consumer experience, educating and linking with job opportunities¨, he concludes.