Proximo + PGA Tour
Pitch, Experiential & 360
Contribution: Pitch leadership, concept, creative direction, copywriting
When Proximo Spirits—the parent company behind Maestro Dobel Tequila and Bushmills Irish Whiskey—inked a sponsorship deal with the PGA Tour, they issued a competitive RFP to develop on-course activations. I led the winning pitch and helped build a multi-year, multimillion-dollar partnership. But first, I needed to untangle the strategy.
Making the brief cristalino-clear
The original brief left me scratching my head. Dobel, a luxury tequila brand, wanted to engage affluent, acculturated Mexican-Americans at PGA events in order to increase liquor distribution. Problem 1: you won’t find many affluent Mexican-Americans at PGA events. Problem 2: even if you could find them, how would targeting consumers help meet a B2B objective?
To unmuddy these waters, I interviewed experts across the liquor and golf categories. Turns out, there was a fair amount of “industry shorthand” in the brief that I didn’t understand. I ended up proposing three distinct audiences, each with different KPIs, to hit the real, unstated business objectives. When we pitched, I included a detailed consumer journey that showed how we’d lead each audience to take action.
It worked. We won the business. The client said we were the only agency that considered the impact of targeting multiple audiences, and that our strategy played a major role in their decision.
The bar and beyond
We sprang into action and created a touring bar in a few weeks that embodied the brand’s upscale, modern sensibility. That foundation grew over time to include a full lounge, sweepstakes and digital gamification. Then, the program expanded beyond the golf course with a full in-market 360 takeover, including print ads, OOH and liquor store displays. To date, the Dobel Tequila Club has served over 100K cocktails at 40+ tournaments—and it’s still going strong.
A lasting mark on the brand
During one check-in call, the client asked if I could, somehow, write a single line of copy that wove together their disparate brand threads: the “world’s smoothest tequila,” “the mastery of eleven generations of tequileros,” and of course, pro golf. Their brand agency and TV agency hadn’t been able to crack it. In response, I wrote what became the Dobel brand’s enduring tagline: SMOOTHNESS MASTERED.
Back on the pitch
The success of the Dobel-PGA program led Proximo, the parent company, to invite us to another competitive RFP—this time, to win the existing Bushmills-PGA business from another agency.
I led the pitch. We built a pop-up bar that blends the brand’s confident and sunny personality with weathered, Irish-pub touches that nod to the brand’s history. You can still grab a 20-year single malt at the “Original Irish Whiskey Bar” at PGA events nationwide.
