A red carpet, a line of media and hospitality-industry folk, and a white horse in a glittery getup stood outside the Hotel Sax on Monday night. At the door, headset- and bindi-wearing staffers from All Terrain PR stood with clipboards in hand, ready to welcome some 600 guests to the industry launch of Absolut Mango, a vodka that will be available to the public in March.
According to Sarah Bessette, public relations manager at Absolut, the product's "In an Absolut World" tagline inspired the concept for the Chicago industry launch. "The central message to our flavored vodkas is 'in an Absolut world, taste comes naturally,'" Bessette said. "We only use natural flavors in our products." To underscore the real-fruit essence of the new vodka, Absolut tapped All Terrain to produce an event that would capture the spirit of the mango.
For inspiration, producers at All Terrain looked to Southeast Asia—the home of the mango tree. Discovering that the fruit is a Hindi symbol of love, prosperity, and fertility, the production team focused on creating three environments that would bring those virtues to life.
On Monday night, signage (orange, of course) pointed guests to different areas of the hotel's fourth floor, dubbed "Fertility Lounge," "Love Ballroom," and "Prosperity Room" for the evening. Each area contained symbols of its respective virtue—the Prosperity Room housed a money tree, while the circular Fertility Lounge evoked the shape of a womb—and orange lighting, fabrics, and Absolut logos covered the entire floor.
The real attraction, though, was the new liquor. Lines formed at the several bars that doled out speciality cocktails such as Absolut Mango Lemonade and Absolut Mango Fizz (a combination of the flavored vodka and lemon-lime soda), and guests quickly snapped up mango martnis from roving trays.
