It's 'Honey Deuce' Season Again

What I Learned from a $10 Million Cocktail

The US Open straddles the unofficial end of summer and first week of Fall, or what some like to call Honey Deuce season. For those who have attended, you know the Honey Deuce is the iconic cocktail and official drink of the Open, and it will surpass $10 million in on-site sales at this year’s event (CNN: The $10 million cocktail everyone is drinking at the US Open)

Those of you who know me well know that I spent the formative years of my career working on Grey Goose Vodka in media and strategic partnerships on the agency side. Straight out of college, I took a job as an Assistant Media Planner at a small, independent agency and was assigned to the Sidney Frank Importing Company account.

I’d never heard of Sidney Frank or Grey Goose, which had just recently been created by the famous spirits industry entrepreneur, but I quickly observed that as a privately held company, Sidney and his team were willing to take risks and move more quickly than most publicly traded companies ever could. They believed in this fledgling brand and invested heavily in marketing and advertising to support it. My colleagues and I were given permission to think differently and bring new ideas to the table. We did, and we had a lot of fun doing it.

In 2004 the brand was acquired by Bacardi for over $2 billion dollars, which at the time was the largest acquisition in the history of the spirits industry. My new clients at Bacardi were savvy marketers and continued to embrace the entrepreneurial spirit that made the brand so successful. In the years that followed, we broke new ground in branded entertainment and sports sponsorship within a highly regulated advertising category. It was during this period that the long-standing partnership between Grey Goose and the US Open was born.

While I'd love to take credit for the stroke of mixology genius behind the Honey Deuce, it was actually Nick Mautone who created the signature blend of Grey Goose, lemonade, and raspberry liqueur topped with three honeydew melon balls. The now-famous cocktail was part of a multi-platform sponsorship deal that my client’s and I developed with the USTA (United States Tennis Association) back in the mid-aughts.

Last week when I began to see the latest version of the Honey Deuce branded cup appearing in the press and on social media, I got a bit nostalgic and decided to take a look back in my files. I found this extract from an old meeting agenda document:

I can’t say I remember whether the meeting took place on Biscayne Boulevard in Miami or at my agency office in New York, or exactly how much we debated all the variables, but it seems we came to the right conclusions Aleco Azqueta and Steve Messer . The wheels were in motion on that day and the rest, as they say, is history. So many great people contributed to making this sponsorship and the Honey Deuce a reality and I’m sure, like me, they will always consider it to be a career highlight.

It's been nearly two decades since the Honey Deuce appeared at the US Open, and a lot has changed in the world of marketing and media. Data-driven decision making and the relentless need to prove ROI is beginning to overshadow the entrepreneurial spirit that drove the growth of Grey Goose and the creation of one of the most successful sports sponsorships in history.

The decision we made nearly two decades ago wasn’t spit out of a marketing planning tool or supported by a sophisticated attribution model, and it certainly didn’t guarantee any results. It was a group of people coming together, thinking long and hard about what we felt was right, and trusting our gut. There’s nothing wrong with the tools and data that we have at our disposal now. They can add tremendous insight and value, but we need an equal measure of good old marketing instinct… like a well-balanced cocktail.

So as we enter Championship weekend at the Open and you look ahead toward the new work-year, remember to take some risks and be bold. Leave it all out there on the court… you may just serve up an ace, or a ‘Honey Deuce.’?

I’m curious: do you have a Honey Deuce story of your own, when trusting your marketing instincts paid off?

And if you’d like to encourage someone you know to be bold, or just know someone who loves the Honey Deuce, please tag or share.