Marit Brønn

What do Dubai and Norway have in common? One is a Muslim country in the Middle East and the other a social democratic country far up in the north of Europe, but they both have some of the strictest alcohol laws in the world. We in Norway are what is called a “dark market”. So how do we build our brands, create loyalty and brand awareness when we are, in fact, not allowed to promote alcohol?

§ 8-6a. Prohibition of distribution of alcoholic beverages for marketing purposes.

It is forbidden to distribute alcoholic beverages to consumers for marketing purposes.

§ 8-12. Prohibition of sales with a discount.

It is forbidden for holders of a sales permit to give special discount offers when selling alcoholic beverages.

§ 9-2. Advertising for alcoholic beverages.
Advertising for alcoholic beverages is prohibited. The ban also applies to advertising for other goods with the same brand or characteristics as alcoholic beverages. Such goods must also not be included in advertising for other goods or services.

The above are paragraphs taken out of the Norwegian law on alcohol or the Alcohol Act. There are eleven chapters in all. I don’t know how or even if they promote different alcohol brands in Dubai so I won’t go into that, but I thought I could share some insight on how we do it in Norway from a brand activation manager’s point of view. 

To go into every aspect of being a dark market, the rules and regulations would fill the whole zine. But suffice to say, whatever you think we can do, we most likely cannot. There are of course some loopholes, grey zones where we can communicate to our customers. For example, a trade magazine advert is permitted. We can put in ads as long as they are neutral. Journalists can review our products. They will reach out to us and ask for samples. But we are, under no circumstance allowed to contact them and ask if they want to review it. 

However, we can communicate with the industry - it’s an exception and seen as educational. It obviously helps us a lot, but it can be extremely time consuming. We can’t post on Instagram or Facebook (because regular consumer can see it) so we must reach out in person or via personal invitation to events and tastings. There are so many aspects of being a dark market and I can’t cover it all but I’ve tried to put down some words on how we work with the bartenders in Norway to build our brands.

I have, on more than one occasion in my professional career, thought that it would be so much easier if I worked in a country with more liberal laws on alcohol. I wish we were able to host a party outdoors, in the streets or a public park. I wish we were, as in other markets, allowed to fully brand a bar at a festival. Because the goal when working in marketing for an importer is to get visibility for your brand, for people to see and understand which brand they are being served and to remember that brand when they are buying a bottle to bring home. But we can’t. So, we must be creative and think outside the box. We find other ways.

We create experiences and we invest time with the people who buy our products. The bar and restaurant owners, the hotels and the bartenders. But with way smaller budget than other countries - you don’t get the big budgets when you can’t advertise.

The thing to remember is that the content is more important than the brand. Probably not the most popular thing to say when I build brands for a living, but I strongly believe that if you don’t have great content it will be harder to sell your brand to your consumer. The same way a cocktail bar sets a concept for their bar or the menu, we do with our brands. Only that with big commercial brands we usually have global strategies and concepts set for us.

But you can’t blindly implement global drink strategy or activation strategies the same way in every country, because they rarely work for every market, and certainly not in a dark market. We take the essence of the global strategy and then adapt it, so it works for us, for Norway. I usually start with the questions: what do we want to communicate? Is it educational or is it an experience? What’s the theme of the event – sustainability? Provenance? Maybe it’s a product launch? When we’ve set a theme or a concept we create the content and then the details, drink menu, food, music, choice of colours and materials. All to amplify the concept and the brand. It’s event marketing really. You want attendees to leave with a feeling they will remember years down the line. That is my mission for every event that we do.

One of my favourite events to plan and host is the Jameson Summit. This is a concept we created a couple of years ago to reward the bartenders that have worked with us and Jameson and that are good advocates for the brand. It’s a full day of interesting seminars with both local and international guest speakers. We start with breakfast and coffee and work our way through the day tasting drinks, listening to interesting people talking about interesting subjects, ending the day with a dinner and a party. We usually invite around sixty bartenders from across Norway. And as I said, it’s one of my favourite events to do because we get to spend a full day hanging out with great bartenders, catching up with old friends and getting to know new ones.

The reason I talk about this is because I think the main reason we get our message out to the industry in a country where you can’t mass communicate through social media or any other channel, is the importance of a personal relationship with the bar industry. To have a familiar face behind the brands they are pushing in their bar. And this isn’t just something I say, from my “side of the table”. We get feedback from bartenders telling us how much they appreciate that we spend time with them, hanging in their bar or taking them out for drinks and not only to talk shop but to get to know them and what they are all about. 

More and more over the years, the Norwegian bar scene and especially Oslo has been getting recognition internationally for great cocktail bars and good concepts. I think that if someone from this industry in another country hears of Oslo, they would probably think of Himkok – the highest ranking bar in Scandinavia by 50 Best Bars and the winner of countless awards. Back in the day, they might also think of the bar at The Thief hotel who also hosted the Nordic Bar Show. There are of course so many other great cocktail bars in Norway but I think they were the ones that seriously started to get Oslo and Norway on the cocktail map internationally. Previously we have always been in the shadow of our older brothers, Stockholm and Copenhagen, but if I can be so bold to say, I think we have surpassed them now (not at all biased).

We as suppliers have been invited along on the journey, through cocktails, collaborations, and guest shifts. We work together with the bartenders and invite “Industry Royalty” to come over for guest shifts and events and we link in our brands. We try to facilitate and provide for the industry and in return we get brand recognition and loyalty. It’s a win-win and a very fun journey to be a part of.

We invest a lot of time getting to know the person behind the bar or on the floor. But it’s not that awkward “you should sell my product” kind of thing, it is out of respect for the guys and girls that work hard to create great experiences for their guests. We enjoy getting to know them. It works being personal and not “pay our way out of it” by using an agency to do the job for us. We don’t have a new brand ambassador coming in every year. We don’t have the budget to send every bartender in Norway on a branded trip to Mexico. So, we hang out with them. It’s as easy as that. The best assets we have are ourselves. Or time and a mutual trust that both parties want to create greatness.

That’s what we’re trying to do here.