Brands don’t always need to be changing the world or pushing new ingredients or technology. Sometimes, it’s ok to build something that tastes great and looks exceptional on the table.
“Everything felt too serious or just not reflective of how I wanted to drink. I wanted something that felt chic, social, easy to bring to a dinner party and honesty just looked beautiful sitting on a table.”
Deceptive simplicity
On the outside, Holiday Vodka is beautifully straightforward: a heavy glass bottle, a crisp label, a beautiful stopper and a great, great, great name. Unsurprisingly, however, it takes a lot of thought to get this level of immediacy in a brand.
Anna said she started thinking about launching a vodka after “nine very dry months” of being pregnant. She was on maternity leave from her role at American Express, she was excitedly sipping martinis, and she realised: “there just wasn’t a vodka brand I really connected with.”
So she started planning. Anna knew she wanted to build something that:
-felt Italian – as an homage to her family’s Italian restaurant roots -used exceptional ingredients -and, perhaps most importantly, evoked a feeling almost everyone can get behind:
“The kind of long lunch, great martini, everyone-stays-for-one-more-drink energy that makes you feel like you’re on a holiday, even if you’re just at home.”
Having run international partnerships and developed member experiences at American Express – and also having worked at Taigan.com, an e-commerce aggregator of luxury boutiques – Anna knows that people don’t want to buy ‘a product’.
Every month we go behind-the-scenes on how new bev/alc brands are being built.
“They buy experiences, feelings and moments,” she says. “I started creating Holiday with a question: ‘How do we create a vodka brand that people resonate with and want to gather around?’ rather than ‘how do we sell vodka’?
“Everything, from the name to the design to the tone of voice, was inspired by the idea of bringing people together and elevating everyday moments into something worth celebrating.”
According to Anna, the name was the first piece of the puzzle. Before you’ve even picked up or opened that bottle, it sets the scene for the experience.
Not just another spirit on the back bar
Once you do get to the bottle you can expect a similarly joyful encounter. Heavily inspired by Italian glassblowing – “I’ve always loved how Italian glassware feels timeless and elegant, but still fun and social at the same time” – Anna says it’s designed to work in all the places Holiday might find itself in: a beautifully set dinner table, the beach, a bar cart, or a night out with friends.
And it’s clearly well loved, with many of Holiday’s restaurant partners reusing the bottle as a water carafe.
“A lot of people interact with Holiday almost like it’s part of the atmosphere rather than just another spirit on the back bar,” she says. “That’s always been the goal for us.”
Then, of course, there’s what’s actually inside the bottle. Holiday prioritises total transparency around ingredients and production, making its vodka with just two things: Italian alpine water and soft wheat from Piedmont.
As Anna says: “Customers are smart and intentional, and while alcohol is never going to be a wellness decision, people still want to feel selective about what they’re drinking.”
“Vodka felt a little forgotten”
Anna believes we’re heading into a vodka renaissance.
“People are craving connection and simplicity again; a really good martini, really good ingredients and brands that feel connected to lifestyle and hospitality culture,” she says.
“I kept asking myself, why there wasn’t a vodka that felt chic, social, design-forward, and actually reflective of how people are drinking today? Other spirits have all these brands people feel emotionally connected to with energy, personality and style. Vodka felt a little forgotten in comparison.”
And finally, we asked Anna the two critical questions we ask all NEWBIE brand builders here:
What’s the brutal truth you’ve learned about building a bev/alc brand?
The brutal truth is that having a great liquid and great branding doesn’t get you very far at all. A lot of people assume that if they create something exceptional, consumers will naturally discover it, but that’s just simply not the case in the spirits industry. Distribution relationships, retailer relationships, consumer awareness and consistent execution matter just as much as what is actually in the bottle.
Is there anything you’d do differently?
Looking back, I regret not building out the Holiday team sooner. I had an amazing spirits consultant but the day-to-day ideation, creation, operation and finances were left to me and it was quite lonely and more difficult than it needed to be.
I really started to enjoy and feel the excitement of this business once I brought on my COO Olivia, and our sales team. I thought I could do it alone, but I was absolutely wrong and I’m so happy I finally made that investment into our team.
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