Proximo Spirits has recruited Mexico City’s Handshake Speakeasy bar for its latest US marketing activation for 1800 Tequila.
The brand, which sits alongside Jose Cuervo in Proximo’s portfolio, will front the ‘Obsessed with Taste’ campaign, which breaks in the market this week and centres around 1800’s blanco iteration. Also appearing in the push is Handshake Speakeasy’s head bartender, Javier Rodríguez.
The company has released a 30- (below) and a 15-second ad, although details of where the spot will air were not disclosed.
Also running with the campaign will be a “bartender education platform”, dubbed ‘The Taste Collective’, in four cities throughout this year. Sessions will take place in Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami and New York, where “in-person taste analysis” will be offered to bartenders and drinks professionals.
Citing Nielsen for the year-to-date to 14 May, Proximo claimed that 1800 is “the number one super-premium tequila band in the US”.
In results from the first three months of 2025, announced last month, Proximo booked a third consecutive quarter of sales declines; the group’s top line was down 6.9% on the corresponding period a year ago, with the ‘other tequilas’ reporting division, home to 1800, among others, up by 8.7%, albeit on a reported basis.
