Featuring Mike Arons, Carriage House Imports

Michael “Mike” Arons started working at Carriage House Imports, Ltd. straight out of college in the fall of 2006 (University of Indiana, Kelley School of Business). He began as a Marketing Assistant learning all aspects about sales, marketing and the regulatory complexities associated with the alcohol industry where he then progressed to become a Marketing Manager and now I’m the Director of Marketing for the company. Mike works directly with Carriage House Imports’ regional sales team to develop and implement marketing strategies that benefit both B2B and B2C objectives. Carriage House imports, markets and sells products from Europe, including their flagship brands of Verdi & Sparkletini and Figenza Mediterranean Fig Vodka. Mike was a part of the original team (2010) that helped conceptually develop and market Figenza which has now become the Fig Vodka market leader in the U.S. distributed in 24 states, with double digit growth year-over-year.

 You joined Carriage House Imports right after college. How did you land that job?

Well it’s been a long journey, a lot, you know, it’s a roller coaster ride, like any business, but I started when I was in, I was at the Kelley school of business in Indiana university and it was, that was my second semester, senior year when you’re kind of like looking for a job. Pursuing those opportunities.

And a brother, my brother had a good friend who’s in the wine spirits business. And I had got wind that he was looking for a marketing assistant. And at that point I didn’t really want to go to law school or anything else. I wanted to just kinda learn maybe a new industry. Obviously, you know, when you’re 21, you know, alcohol is really exciting.

You’re like, oh wow. I want to be in the booze business. It’s not all still, it’s still a business that is, is tricky. But I said, And I gave it a shot and I didn’t care what I made at the time. I was given an opportunity and worked for peanuts, Mar you know, and Todd carp and the carp family who owned carriage house gave me an opportunity.

And they kind of just kind of built the marketing department or worked my way up in the marketing department. So. That’s amazing. And you have, you know, two great brands under your umbrella. So could you tell me about the Ginza and Verdi sparkle? Teenie chorus? So Verde is our flagship brand. Steve Karp was the owner of the company.

Introduced Verde and 93 it’s been around for over, you know, almost 30 years. He expanded into a sparkle, teeny flavor portfolio. It’s an imported Italian Spumante from Northern Italy and Nelly. And it is, you know, it is a value price sparkling, but it is an L in an elegant package, started out as a banquet type product with Verde going a lot of catering halls in New Jersey, New York.

And then it expanded into, you know, key account retail, you know, big box chains. But it really started here. You know, people go to weddings and have Verde and be like, what is that stuff? That was great. Semi-sweet light refreshing. It has a resealable core closure, which is patented. Sparkle and the bottle for seven days.

And it became popular into a really viable business. And then using that platform with Verde, he was able to expand it to other brands that we’ve tried, but one really stuck. And that is our partnership with a Bain in Germany. Mainly cures and Ruediger Bain. And we developed a, he had a fake vodka that he had in Europe that we said, well, let’s premiumize it and let’s make it beautiful.

And let’s, let’s fix her a beautiful fruit and huge Italian contingency in Greek contingency. So let’s use those Mediterranean fruits and create a beautiful package. And he did just that. We’ve had a few iterations of the package, but again, Is kind of like my baby, cause you know, Verde was here before me.

I just, you know, feel like I’m part of the ride again is, is, is my journey, you know? And that’s, you know what we really are focusing and we are coming out with a sister brand after a decade of working with this project, we’re coming out with a sister brand, but. I can’t tell you yet. It’s going to, I mean, it’s going to be another a region of the world, like, you know, Figgins is a Mediterranean fig vodka and pomegranates.

So I’ll say this, we are in the, so the reason why I began this so successful and we have a cult following is we’re the only, we were the first. You know, as a mid tier company to go out and just do the Palm already exists. And there’s other pomegranate products to go out and replicate.

That is not our strategy. Our strategy is to build something that is unique. Something that never no one’s ever tried. And that’s why fig and we made a delicious product. I will say it’s versatile, it’s tasty, but the sister brand is also gonna have the same elements. It’s going to be beautiful. It’s gonna appeal to people like, wait, I’ve never had.

So that will be, if you could follow us Facebook and Instagram, you’ll, you’ll start to see we’re going to do a, we’ll do something there to promote it. And hopefully by the summer, we’ll have it live. I mean, right now it’s full-time job getting that up and running, but we’ve already decided on a package side on the, on the taste profile.

But again, going back to that, Doing very well, 24 markets, you know, built it on premise with cocktails and then organically building the off premise which is, you know, retail in our industry. And it’s organic. I mean, to see that it’s very hot, it’s not easy in our industry. You have big players who can knock you off shelves and do certain things to, to, you know, make it prohibitive to build a brand like ganza, but people like it.

And that’s why we’re here.

You sponsored one of our first in-person events back in 2011. What do you remember about it and how would an event today be different than that one?

It was, yeah, that was our first meeting, which was really cool because I really, as, as, as it pertains to events, it was a really great. It was at that point in time, I think we talked about it was small and I want it small because we have done these big trade shows and you get no mind share with the trade shows.

So this small event, really, and it was all women, I think it was single women. You were doing the single thing, single women. Okay. There is some dating element to it. Right. But the, the value was the intimacy, the room, you know, We did, we did special cocktails, one of the first events where we really honed in our craft cocktail concept.

You know, at that point in time, we were like, so fixated on just getting into like these high brow accounts in New York. And I’m going to tell you, we lived in learn that was not our, that’s not our approach today. You know, and that type of event showed me like, wow, we really need to be going back to the basics, whether it’s a fake cop.

You know, before, you know, the Mediterranean mule, which is our flagship for forgets. It didn’t really, no one knew about a meal back then. No, that’s a thing. But like, but like, it allowed me to like, I guess we, what did we, what did we serve fit? Cause maybe the Sunkist, which was, which is muddled orange and Figgins up, but the, the.

The demo that you brought to the table was like eye opening. I’m like, wow. She knows you are, you are the the middleman to that demo. That is what brought me back today. You know, the platform we’re looking to promote for ganza and Verde, which is, you know, and then you’ve expanded since then, but just seeing what you’re able to do on a smaller scale is excellent.

Do you foresee going back to events like what’s happening with events?

That’s a great question. You know, let’s, let’s, we can do all the marketing. We’re going to talk digital on this call, but it’s all always about liquid to lips. Okay. You know, you can’t, I didn’t forget that didn’t get built because I did.

I showed purple pretty bottles online. That’s just a supplement to building it’s all about liquid to lips. Do I know what the conversion rate at events are? Of course not. Do I like data? But the reality is if you don’t do the tastings in the stores, if you don’t do, you know, the events and, and they don’t have to be every event, you know, I get solicited for food and wine shows left and right.

We love the food and wine show in New York. We did, we did it for many, many years, so it’s exhausting, but it’s worth it because you get a lot of people all over. Like where can I get this? Where can I get this work? And I get this. So the vents will come. But we’re very, I’m very specific with the events.

I’m not just going to do every event. You know, a beer festival makes no sense, you know, a barbecue festival makes no sense for us, you know, but these may be a boutique spirit festival or there’s certain ones that, that do make sense for at least give us some brand exposure.

Online alcohol sales have spiked in recent years and there’s no signs of it slowing down. What are some ways in which you are addressing this demand?

I mean, for us, it was cyclical, you know, like that, I mean, not cyclical, cause it was a unique anomaly in a sense, but it was a year of inflated sales, which made it actually harder for us to predict a supply chain issues.

We had a big supply chain issue. I’ll give you an example. In last year with we had to air. You, you know, everyone’s been reading about the containers, stuck at the ports. We’re an importer. We have to deal with that. We have a whole logistics department that deals with containers coming off of a multiple ports being, you know, shipped to port, waiting at port, then going through customs and then disseminated through a trucking system.

Again, it’s a very, it’s very elaborate. And it’s very complex. And obviously there’s added cost and you’re dealing with all that, but we realize that again. Even though we were going to take a loss on it. We had to, we had to Airship, I think, three containers. So we did three flights from, from, from I think, Munich or Hamburg to Newark that were all.

So you can only imagine the expense of a cargo, you know, all in cans bottles, or, you know, so that, that was a unique circumstance, but it was also a good learning, you know, we have to invest, we partner, you know, we split the costs. But. You know, with our partner and it was something we said, we got eat it.

We got to deal with it because guess what happens when you, when a brand like for Ginza is not available? Not that there’s other, you know, they’re not that there’s many other fig VOC is out there that were, there are replacement parts and it’s any other. It’s a replacement part. So if you go in and you’re not on the cocktail list and you’re out, if again, so they’ll just pull you off the list.

I mean, someone counts or we have good relationships with them. So they’re going to, they’re going to maintain that relationship with us. They don’t, they know what’s going on, they’re aware, but at the same time, they need to make money and needed to have a versatile cocktail list. And if we’re not, if we’re not available for order, you know, it’s a problem.

So fortunately we’re only out of stock for a few months in certain markets, but it was may, it was very problematic last year. And I’m so glad that. Ship those containers because it maintain those relationships. And now we on a better ordering pattern, but they, those supply chain issues still exist. And, and that demand was great.

It was, it was a blessing in 2020, but it became a. Detriment a little bit in 2021. And you everyone’s seen the numbers, how everything was spooning, your consumer 20, but 2021 was not, you know, there was, there was a rebound and there was a lull. So it wasn’t all, you know, in even an art industry, it wasn’t all just like butterflies and flowers, you know, like it’s.

Virtual tastings have become very popular during the Pandemic. Is this an area in which you have participated or are seeking to explore?

So we’ve never done virtual tastings with consumers. We have, we have presented to wholesalers, which is by the way, our wholesalers, our, our, our, our customers. I mean, that’s the . Component that, you know, it’s a three tier system. We’re at the top of the food chain we sell to wholesalers and the wholesalers sell to the retail network and, and restaurant network.

You know, with that said is we had to do virtual general sales meetings, which was always like this, this is, this is the norm now. Right? So general sales meetings then became virtual. So we did that consumers. We actually didn’t do a lot of the tasting stuff. I mean, you know, we thought about it and I think that is in our future too.

We were still trying to, we’re still trying to take the temperature. But yeah, yeah, absolutely want to like be more. And that’s where you come to play, like to be more involved with our consumers view, organic influencer marketing. But as far as our distributors go, we, we have done, we did, we did a live, we do happy hours with our team now virtually more than ever.

And we do happy hours with our, with our wholesale partners. So they feel involved and, and we, we actually like sent a, like, we’ll send a gift box to our wholesale teams, craft spirits. And they’ll do an unboxing and then we’ll have all the ingredients and we’ll do the mule. We’ll do the fake Cosmo and we’ll do a, you know, the fig lemon, Nona was just, you know, lemonade again.

But, but we give them all the ingredients in advance. So when they appear on the screen and they give us that 40 minutes of their time, everything’s in front of them. Now we’re going to be doing that with the customer as well. And maybe, you know, now that we’ve lit up an e-comm platform and now that we have your partnership, you know, full speed ahead.

You know, giving our . Core customers a 10 of them alive, virtual with a new cocktail and we’ll send them kits is totally on our radar. It’s a great idea.

What are some of the dos and don’ts associate influencers must adhere to when promoting alcohol?

So, yeah, I mean, you’re not going to see any we’re very, I mean, we, we are by, we, we are by the book in that sense. We don’t, you know, we stay very neutral on political, you know, we don’t get involved with politics. We’re a brand, you know, we want to make sure that, you know, it’s about. The branding, the taste profile, the origin, the story, but also fun and fun.

You know, I don’t think weapons and dry drinking and driving are fun. I think fun is like a backyard. Barbecue. That’s very, you know, something like that, but you could still be outside the box, you know? You know costumes and stuff, but, but, but you know, with, with alcohol, you do have to be careful.

For instance, I liked, I do like doing on, on social media giveaways and gift cards and stuff. That’s where things get, you know, I can’t give away bottles. I can’t give away samples. I can’t that type of stuff like where other people like yo free. If I sold sneakers, I can give away a free pair of sneakers.

The first 10 people that respond get 10 free pairs of sneakers that engagement’s lost. So the only thing I could really do. Or, or companies like us there’s, you know, you can do gift cards to support accounts. You can do gift cards at sport restaurants and retailers. That type of thing is on our radar. Or you can give away, you know, cocktail vehicles, you know, what I’m referring to is, you know, martini glass were branded for their bar.

Alcohol brands are still prohibited from advertising on TikTok. What are your predictions for the platform and how, if at all, can you leverage it?

So yeah. Well, the interesting thing about tick-tock I would like to talk to you about this is, and I’m happy to give them a plug there. They have 2 million followers and Tik TOK, so they don’t need a plug.

But the Gianni drinks is, was John Rondi and his father built a great platform to that is a, it is a universal platform to sell. They have their own whiskey and they have, they, they, and they’ve supported brands and partner with many, many brands organically. But the reality is. They’re doing it in a, in a benign way.

They’re doing it in a very low level way, but you can’t as a brand advertising as a brand, as a brand page, but influencer partnerships are still totally viable. And I think that’s okay. I mean, he’s, he’s a great example of, you know, he’s done live feeds his own products and he’s. Getting them and he’s showing how a cocktail he’s making it.

He’s making friendly. It’s fun. But you, as the advertiser, couldn’t technically, it’s still a gray line and we wouldn’t, you couldn’t pay him to go on up. Cause there’s too many young people. Yep. Yes. I mean, I own it. I don’t actually understand. I mean, if they just had an age gate like Facebook and Instagram, I mean, they could just do this.

I mean, I’m assuming there, I think. I think it’s going to happen in the next 12 to 18 months. Right? That’s what I mean, they’re leaving a lot of money on the table as a, as a social media platform. You know, they are. They got a young demos where everyone’s excited and juiced up about it, but I’m on there looking at, do it yourself projects.

I mean, there’s plenty of 21 plus people on there now. So they just have to figure out a way to age gate. It like every everyone else is doing. I mean, do you agree with that? No. I agree. I just think that, you know, there’s a fine line between saying, okay, if this Johnny drinks just took begins and did it himself, that’s fine.

But for you to go and pay him, it’s still yeah. As a brand, I have to be very careful on how yeah, we can’t mean that it has to be organic, you know, a hundred. But as, as a brand, you know, I thought about it, like in the next six months, I want to have a tick-tock page, but I can’t do that. I can’t have one.

That’s just very sparkling or I can’t have one. It’s just again, though. Right. At least I don’t think so. I can have a branded page. I mean, you could go on as yourself and just, you know, right. Yeah. I can go on myself and just show balls and forgets. Right. You know? And but as far as tick-tock, I think it’s a huge asset and it is a future they’re going to change the laws.

So, yeah. So you’re like a little bit like I’m very particular with your influencer selections. Can you tell us a little bit more about that? You know, it’s a good dig. It’s a really good, I think it was awesome.

How do you get so knowledgable and passionate?

Well, it’s a process, right? So my position in this company as a director of marketing is if I’m given a budget, I’m going to spend it like, it’s my money. Okay. I don’t care if it’s a thousand bucks or 40,000 or a hundred thousand. So if I’m going to spend it like my money, am I going to spend it on 20 influencers?

I really believe in, I’m sorry. Where am I spending on 10 and then 10, maybe, you know, 10. And I’m like, eh, well, I’m just lazy and I don’t really want to go through the work. And then, you know, as our first campaign, if I get the 20 that I really believe in, I’ll be able to make a better decision. The next time we partner, then if I did, if I took 10 that I was uneasy.

That’s the way I looked at it also, I’m like, well, how is this going to be a good trial? If I don’t give it a really good shot, you know, with the 20 that I really believe in, you know? So for them. Going through the process of analyzing engagement, likes, and, you know, reading through the follow-up and seeing what they posted over the last two months and where they’re going with their pages.

And there, it was amazing to see someone, obviously, I think I was just saying that as a joke, cause I know that I made you guys a little crazy going back and forth, but there is a method to the madness. Because again, and I want to reiterate, I’m sure it’s clear to anyone. If, if anyone would listen to this from our industry understands that we’re a mid tier company.

I mean, we’re, we’re our, you know, we don’t have, we have unlimited budgets. We have to worry incubator. We’re doing things the right way. People with bigger budgets or loosey goosey, probably just doing influencer campaigns and the next, you know, just throwing money at people, you know, is that great for their bottom line that may not impact them at all?

No one will ever see it. The CFO, doesn’t say a thing here. We’re evaluating every spend to make sure it’s it goes the distance or gives us enough information to make the next decision better. Okay. And so how does, do you think influencer marketing forget our campaign, but how do you think it impacted.

I think it’s all brand awareness and repetition. So w w did I like the next week, see like sales go through the roof? Of course not. I mean, this is, you’re only talking to me, the 20 influencers of do we get a lot of eyeballs and impressions and was there some good organic. View was able to share that on our page.

Of course, those are the things I’m paying for. We’re paying for it, right. Or those are the that’s the partners you want to make. You want to humanize the brand. That’s the way to humanize it as well, giving some other personalities as part of it, we could humanize your own brand and our own page. Right?

Like, but it’s our now. When you give narrative to 20 other people, then you start building like a collective, like, like environment. And more than just humanizing, just the brand, it becomes a community. And I can’t tell you that the next week we saw impact like followers spiked and all these things I can say.

Doing it several times a year. And I think we have a campaign coming up next week where it’s more of a co-op campaign, but I’m excited about that. Mixing it with co-op and doing your own proprietary box is so by the way, the boxes you guys do are phenomenal. I mean, on a few extras and they that presentation and seeing it also premiumized as the bread, even though we’re a 6, 7, 6 99 product sparkling water.

You know, it still humanizes, you know, the, the, I guess the brand in a way where like the guy who has a gift, oh my God, wait, I got a gift during the holidays. Like, it was like this beautiful gift that people are like, whoa, what is that? It’s colorful. It’s got that rainbow effect. So the impact is still longterm.

I mean, it lives on their sites and, and, you know, we hope that it’s a more brand awareness play versus direct, you know, sales. Yeah. I think the video assets alone are whole acid in themselves. Because as we talked about before, you could reuse all those assets across social and they all spoke to different audiences.

So they’re appealing to all different types of consumers. So when it comes to alcohol too, and I don’t think we did this, we kind of did demos more behavioral and psychographic, but geo-targeting like for you, I think like with again, a large part of your footprint is New Jersey. How does geo-targeting come into play for you with, with influencer?

You know, generally, like, so like you mentioned again, and I’m going to let’s park that for one second. Bertie’s a little different, we have full distribution, 48 states. So it’s easier to kind of pick every, but you know, every influencer anywhere we do have areas and types of personalities that we like, but I think with the Ginza, you know, it kind of, the same thing still does apply because influencers attract people, you know, a Southern influence could attract someone of these coasts and we’re still trying to expand and get people to talk about figs and fig Vaka and you know but at the same time you want to fish where the fish are.

Right. And our fish is begins of being in stores and being available. And if people see it, they’ll also make that relationship, you know, they’ll make that connection. And I think. It doesn’t, I’ve communicated to you how important it is to me. But at the same time, I feel though it’s, that’s the whole beauty of digital and influencer relationships is it’s broad.

I mean, again, you can reach someone in Montana, you can reach someone North Carolina and you can read, I think two is the boosting, right? So if you get an influencer and you know that she’s a New Jersey, but going on top of that and allocated the media dollars to boost, you can literally boost, I’m trying to think about alcohol, but you could boost to people just in specific.

Yeah. Yeah. That’s a huge component. That in two’s going to be a huge part of our digital marketing push is going to be doing more, you know, targeted ads, but utilizing some of the influencers, I, me creating a video or, I mean, obviously everyone commercials braid, you know, we know our narrative and we know the branding, but having someone organically with a video kind of pushing, you know, the, the story and what we’re trying to do with the sparkle, teeny flavors, which are so.

Yeah, I mean, and they’re colorful and they’re fun. And they, you know, with all that said, I think working with influencers and boosting and advertising with them is is a priority this year versus just doing static and even doing my own videos of like, you know, you know, a bottle like dancing around, like that’s like, that’s like, that’s like the that’s that’s that that’s an old method.

So working with these influencers and being partners with them, because then they may take ownership to. Well, we loved one of them. I mean, we’ve all loved that one influencer. So maybe at the end of this podcast, we could somehow figure out how to integrate that video into this. Now that we’re on video, because it was great.

And it seemed like it was like a paid for like huge commercial, like, I mean the amount of effort and thought that went into it. That’s what I also look for in, in the, in the followup. Like everyone did a great. Every influencer that you found in amazing job, but there was a few that took it to the next level.

I mean, one of them was willing to give away a gift card to their local retailer. So like, she was th this, this girl was so engaged and she did multiple outfits and it was like multiple stories and, and that type of commitment to partnering that just shows like she cares about her job and her, her yeah.

So it was like, mean something to her. And she had a lot, like. But I just felt that was that, that type of stuff, that type of energy, because I have that energy. So I get it. Like I looked for that.

Name an influencer you love to follow but hate to admit you do?

Let me, let me make a blanket saying your first of all. I follow a ton of people that I wouldn’t even call. Like they’re, they’re not guilty pleasures because I’m in the business. So I have to, I just follow them. Like it’s not, it’s not even like that. I guess my guilt per personal, I think you’re asking is more as a, you know, as I’m a big.

I’m a big fish fan, which is a a jam band that I’ve been seeing for over 20 years of my life. And there’s a lot of micro influencers within the scene that I, you know, they may have 5,000 or 10,000 or 15,000, and they’re all like nerdy. They’re like, they’re like really smart people, but they’re like, they’re nerdy, nerding out for a band.

And but I still follow. And they, they gave me my tour dates before they come out. They give me my updates. You know, they get me my, I know when things are going to get canceled because of COVID before they come out. I mean, it’s a whole, it’s a, it’s a, it’s a whole underworld, you know, it’s like anybody could, anybody, people have that with video games, but bands are common.

You know, people, you know, there’s, you know, whether it’s lady Gaga, metallic, or a band like fish, I mean, they’re big, but, but the underground, you know, You know, seeing in the Twitter, you know, fish Twitter is, is a guilty pleasure. And if I told you how many of these people, I followed probably like 40 or 50, and I probably have a Twitter hashtag just for it.

That’s a guilty pleasure. And I’m proud of it because it does provide entertainment for me outside of work. So I don’t always have to think about the booze business, you know but that’s the thing, but everyone needs that, right? Everyone needs that. I think, you know, segment of their life that has to be separate.

You can’t be, you need a balance and, and everyone needs a hot, you know, you know, and and sports of course, but that’s not a good everyone’s. Everyone follows, you know, the big deal in sports writers and stuff like that. I am a big, by the way, I am a big proponent of. I love Twitter from an informative standpoint.

I’m not really sure how it would equate with our business. I know you know where that’s going, but that is a conversation I’d like to have with real events put as awesome for in-person real events up to the minute. Yeah. I love a lot of information. I think it’s game changing. A lot of people don’t respect Twitter as much as I agree.

I mean, there’s so much information on that. And I know I’m going a little bit to the minute. It’s the only thing that’s really up to the minute up to the minute. I mean, news stories, you know I just it’s been it’s, especially with this COVID thing and everything kind of, it also, you know, like, like social media, everyone digs, you know, everyone digs on it saying, you know, it’s, it has a negative impact.

I mean, you gotta look at the positives of all of it, you know? I mean, all the good it’s done connecting people, friends and raising money and things like that. I think people forget about, and everyone’s like, well, you know, this guy it’s bullying. That is a whole issue, but not that social media, there’s good in all of it.

Right. It’s connected us. It’s made life easier. It’s brought people together and save lives. So yeah, I would like to say that for our industry, and I know it’s in one of the talking points. We’ve never had as a company, I’ve never had an opportunity to directly impact the customer. Like I can now obviously social media’s been around now, but now we’re also avail e-comm is developing and we have our own e-com platform with and we’re going to be building one for Verde, being able to sell and directly work with third-party retailers to directly market and sell our brands to directly.

I don’t have to worry about a billboard on route and on, on the, on the. Working, you know, I mean, I don’t have to work. I don’t have to worry about that billboard. I have no idea. I don’t know what the conversion rate is, but I do know that email marketing and all the things, all of the things I’ve been around for years and we’re in an antiquated industry is finally catching up to our industry.

You know, you still need to sell through retails. The retailers still needs to be involved because it’s the regulations, but now being able to work directly and targeting with social media, you know, following the do’s and don’ts, but. Well access, we have access now we, and, and, you know, I mean, I can’t afford a Superbowl ad.

We’ve got the super bowl coming up. I can’t, you know, we’re not, we’re not a big, you know, we’re not gonna be able to just do commercials, you know, during the Olympics, you know, that’s not our lane, so we’re, can we, as a mid tier company, we got to go to the low hanging fruit. I want to talk. Someone, you know, long you know Metro, New York, you know, attack, you know, Italian immigrants.

Who’ve had fig trees in their backyard. Those are the people who may or may not really want. They won’t forget. Enza, you know, that would be the low hanging truth. Go to the Greek restaurants with Greek, Greek, and figs and stuff like that. Like, like I can now target that demo and say, Hey, we’re here. You know, like, you’re like, wait a minute, wait, I’ve been, I love figs.

You know, I had a fig tree, everyone that like that we hear from victory, my backyard. Well, The fake people will think trees in their backyard. I couldn’t do that with a billboard. I can’t do that

on a billboard and hope for the best to be there, you know, like actually going into their feed and like working with, you know Chefs and stuff. I don’t know. There’s just like a lot of more, so much you could do channeling it in and being more targeted. I mean, now everyone’s heard that it’s cliche to say, but you have to everyone’s needs to realize in our industry it’s antiquate we have an antiquated three tier system you know, every.

Since prohibition laws control the, every say zone laws and there’s controls states, the government runs and there’s, you know, independent markets where it’s more independent and there’s franchise markets and there’s, and there’s Walmart chain driven markets, you know, like it’s just it’s can, it can be daunting for young, young little brands, but as a company that’s been through the mud on that you know, we’re incubators and we have fun with it because we’re real and we’re honest.

And we, we just do. That’s the thing we’re going to every account, we cold call and with digital marketing as a huge asset to us, we can now also, if a great restaurant in New York has a cocktail on the menu, we could do one that like, Hey, we’d love to promote your drink. We’d love to put it on our Figgins and page.

Why don’t we do a bartender feature and we’re going to promote your, we want to, we want to be part of the, it allows us another angle to partner with our our, our on-premise restaurant accounts in a way that we’ve never been able to do before. Well, I think everyone’s like now catching up. I think the past two years, especially have just rapidly advanced.

Especially in our industry with DTC, a reserve bar.com. We just onboarded with them with Kenza. I mean, they’re like the kind of corporate gifting bourbon look, we’re expanding rapidly. I mean that this is happening. I mean, D to C is happening drizzling. Clearly everyone knows that. We partnered with on Verde with goPuff now or expanding store locations with goPuff which is going to be huge.

I mean, that’s on demand delivery, younger demo, all these things, and those are the digital marketing plays that I’m going to work with. Talk to you about after this call about how we work with them and work on a influencer campaign with Gopal, you know, like that stuff I want to talk to you about. So that’s where my.

Well, you are awesome. I love your energy and your passion. Like I kept saying to my team, if everyone had Mikey’s passion, I would hire all of them. So yeah. Yeah. I mean, you got to love what you do, but you also have to, you know, you’re going to put in the work. And I think that if I really believe, I mean, again, it’s like a baby to me, you know, I was here from the beginning.

I mean, Verde is obviously really important too, but again, it’s itself seeing the progress, but we, through the bottle development and the liquid and building the sister brand, I mean, that’s, I mean, it’s an opportunity to, you know, you don’t get this opportunity often where you can be a part of something new at such a smaller level, you know, but there’s, you know, it’s, it’s a risky.

Proposition because we’re smaller, but at the same time, we have a really good blueprint and we have a great team here. Like, I can’t say that enough. We have a great team here, carriage house now. And I think we could do a lot of great. That’s awesome. Well, I can’t wait to see what the new flavor is.

I think it’s a new flavor, so yeah. Oh yeah. We’re going to, it’s a sister brand. It’s not a lot. We, we, we, you know, it’s part of the friends of family. It’s not like it’s not going to be like jalapeno fig or something like that. It’s going to be, but you know, different region of the world, but like this, and this is going to be a different region that you’ve never had.

Awesome. Awesome. Keep us posted. Thank you so much. And I’m sure we will be speaking soon. Awesome. Thanks. Bye.