Jose Cuervo Tradicional, created in 1795, is telling a personal story with a new marketing campaign celebrating the company’s history of craftmanship handed down through 10 generations of the Cuervo family.
Jose Cuervo still uses the original recipe and distillation process from José Antonio de Cuervo himself. The new campaign provides a platform for the family to continue spreading the love of tequila as respect for this iconic Mexican spirit continues to grow said Lander Otegui, Head of Marketing at Jose Cuervo.
“Cuervo Tradicional is the most recognized super-premium tequila in Mexico and has been a staple there for hundreds of years as the original 100% agave recipe. Most are unaware that we introduced tequila into the U.S. decades ago and popularized it with the margarita; the time is now to celebrate our founding father story and share it in a way that everyone can appreciate.”
The “Father of Tequila,” a multi-year, multimillion-dollar campaign, puts heritage and provenance at the center of all forthcoming initiatives, including TV, digital and experiential.
Consumers can experience that history first hand by traveling to Mexico and taking the one-of-a-kind, luxury Jose Cuervo Express train from Guadalajara to the town of Tequila and visiting La Rojeña, the oldest distillery in Latin America.
Jose Cuervo worked with award-winning, global advertising agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky (CPB) to create the campaign, leading with 15 and 30-second TV spots, which will air from today and throughout the year.
“Many spirit brands claim ‘the first’ or ‘the original’ so it was our goal to not just remind people of Cuervo’s origin story, but make history resonate on an emotional level with tequila drinkers,” said Tom Adams, Executive Creative Director, CPB. “We were inspired by the age-old cocktail party question: If you could have a drink with any historical figure, who would it be? We thought of a party with the most prolific pioneers in art, music and science. Of course, Jose Cuervo would host it.”
In under 20 years, 100% blue agave tequilas have gone from being a small slice of the U.S. market – 8.6% in 2000 – to 57.2% last year.
Jose Cuervo is the best-selling brand in both the U.S. and around the world, and, just last month, Cuervo Tradicional won Gold at the prestigious San Francisco World Spirits Competition. Over the last year, Cuervo Tradicional has shown strong growth at +20.9%, significantly outpacing the growth of the 100%-agave tequila segment, which grew 12.2% over the same period.2 As a result, Cuervo Tradicional was named a 2018 “Hot Brand” by IMPACT, the leading source for exclusive data on the alcoholic beverage industry in the United States, for the third year in a row.