The MHW Mark Podcast
Welcome to the MHW podcast, bringing you conversations with experts and leaders in the alcoholic beverage industry. Covering topics ranging from selling alcohol online, creating a new brand from scratch, and what you need to know when you start doing business internationally. Hosted by Jimmy Moreland and a rotating cast of cohosts from the folks at MHW.
The MHW Mark Podcast
Breaking into the Las Vegas and Miami Markets - with Eddie Rivkin
For our final regular episode of 2024, we're talking awards. Specifically, the Las Vegas Global Spirit Awards, and the just-announced Miami Global Spirit Awards. Founder Eddie Rivkin joins MHW's Brigid McCabe and host Jimmy Moreland to talk about what awards mean for both new and established brands, and how to capitalize on a good showing at an awards show.
More about the Las Vegas Global Spirit Awards: Website
More about the Miami Global Spirit Awards: Website - USE PROMO CODE MHW25
More info about MHW at https://www.mhwltd.com/
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More info about MHW at https://www.mhwltd.com/
Follow us! LinkedIn | Instagram
Welcome to the MHW Mark podcast, where we take deep dives into various aspects of the alcohol industry. My name is Jimmy Moreland. Mhw is a US and EU beverage alcohol importer, distributor and service provider. Co-hosting with me today is a returning favorite, mhw's Bridget McCabe. How have you been, bridget?
Speaker 2:Hi, I've been very well. I love the holiday season, so I'm very happy to be in the thick of the end of the year.
Speaker 1:We're into it. We're finally getting a little bit of snow up here in Maine. How are things in New York?
Speaker 2:It is getting colder, but no snow yet.
Speaker 1:Well, we've got a really fun conversation today with a lively guest. Shall we say? What are we talking about today?
Speaker 2:One of my favorites. So this episode we are discussing blind tasting competitions, why they exist and how brands can utilize them to help sell their brands in the US market. You know the US has a very diverse customer base and all different kinds of categories that enter, so the ability to merchandise and show that your taste of your product is better is going to be helpful at both the digital and e-commerce level, as well as brick and mortar in store. We're also specifically touching on the uniqueness and the credibility of the global Vegas spirit market, which is international just by nature of the amount of tourism that happens there every year. Mhw handles the back office compliance services for the Las Vegas Global Spirits Awards and we have a very exciting announcement from our guest about new developments in the Miami market. Mhw does have a distribution presence down in Florida, so we're excited to share this news here. And in general, awards and the ability to credential your brand is a topic that's really near and dear to my heart.
Speaker 2:When I served as brand manager for Purity Vodka now almost a decade ago, that brand was really built off of the concept of being one of the most award-winning ultra-premium vodkas in the world. Now you know the brand is in over 15 different markets. They received hundreds of gold and double gold medals over the years, and I also had the opportunity to serve on the Las Vegas Global Spirit Award panel a couple of years ago. So it's something that I've seen and come into fruition in the marketing space as to something consumers are looking for and we live in this ecosystem where everyone is looking for an Amazon review or they're looking to see what their peers are saying about it. This is the ability to have some of the best palates in the world. An international panel of judges really let you know what is the best vodka, what's the best gin, what's the best, you know, cachaça. It really spans the entire category. So excited to have our guest on here.
Speaker 1:I have a question about. If, say, say, I'm a brand and maybe I haven't had the opportunity yet to have these best palettes rate my product, but I'm still trying to get out to market, is it an issue of order of operations and you just have to do it in this order, or is there a way to sort of? Is it just through marketing? Is it just through, you know, liquid to lips, as you say?
Speaker 2:That's a great question, jimmy, because I think it is one that most brands wonder. Do they have to come to market to the US and flow through the three-tier system, you know, and be on the shelf before they can enter these competitions? And the answer is no. You could be an international brand and you could have never even set foot in the US.
Speaker 2:But MHW being the compliance provider for a lot of these competitions, we can apply for your certificate of label approval for the TTB federal level and basically get like a temporary exception for your product to label approval for the TTB federal level and basically get like a temporary exception for your product to come in.
Speaker 2:Sometimes it, you know, doesn't even have like its formal packaging complete for what it'll look like in the US, but they want the formula tasted. So you know that will come in through MHW. We'll make sure that you have everything you need for customs clearance and logistics for the shipment, that it's compliant not only within the federal level, but you need a state wholesaler so we'll kind of guide the producers through that process. Then, once they get to the tasting table with the judges, it's really up to the liquid to kind of stand on its own and to get that medal. But we've seen hundreds of brands that have medaled in various competitions, that have used that as leverage to then say, okay, we have something here, these are the markets that we want to enter into. And then they've already had that working relationship with MHW so they can get started with us, to get their LLCs here on the ground, to get everything started.
Speaker 1:To give listeners a little bit of a preview of the conversation you talk about during some of these competitions, that you've judged some of these competitions, and I guess that's some of your background there. I want at some point to really do a deep dive with you on judging competitions because it's just something that's interesting to me. I know that I do not have the most refined palate, but it's just interesting to me to listen to people who do have these really strong palates, to be able to pull out all of these notes out of things and I'm just like, really you're tasting all of that. That's fascinating.
Speaker 2:Right? Well, there's a whole rabbit hole you could go down with. There's things like WSET, which is the Wine and Spirit Education Trust. They have multiple levels of training in wine and spirits. You know my good friend and the founder of Laura Badish PR, the Badish Group we love Laura.
Speaker 2:Badish. We love Laura Badish. She's been on here as a guest. Yeah, she does MHW's PR as well. You know, good friend of mine, she has essentially established a mezcal university, so with I believe we had the other guest who had established that.
Speaker 2:So you know there's there's a multitude of different options you could go down and of course, you could become a trained sommelier in wine.
Speaker 2:One thing I do notice across the board and not just with the Las Vegas Global Spirit Awards and Miami Global Spirit Awards, but a lot of the others as well is if you're deep in the industry, if you have a lot of industry knowledge, if you're a retail buyer who's been a buyer for 15 plus years, if you're a head mixologist at the Cosmopolitan, as it may be for the Las Vegas, if you run a distributor company, those are all opportunities where you know you may not be sitting there blind tasting spirits all day long, but just throughout your career you've had the opportunity to try a full range.
Speaker 2:You have learned through the brands that you work with education on the production process. You know the different flavor notes that might come through. So Purity Vodka when I worked there, I mean I can't tell you how many taste tests we had to do on the marketing and sales end to be able to recognize our own vodka against other vodkas. People say that that is a category that is classically supposed to be tasteless, colorless, odorless, but that is not necessarily true. Most of the vodkas out there, depending on what bases are used for it, for the production process, you can taste those underpinnings of flavors and notes and to be able to recognize them, I still believe to this day, if you put the top 15 vodkas in front of me that are performing on the market, I could still do that. So that's why they put me on the clear spirits judging panel.
Speaker 1:Well, if you put the 15 best scotches in front of me, I will say thank you. Well, if you put the 15 best scotches in front of me, I will say thank you. Well, let's get to work here and introduce our guest for today, because it's a great conversation. Our guest today is the founder and CEO of Las Vegas Global Spirit Awards, which showcases and celebrates the best of the beverage industry. Welcome to the show.
Speaker 3:Eddie Rivkin. Thanks for having me. Nice to meet you, jimmy Bridge. Great to see you, as always.
Speaker 2:Great to see you.
Speaker 1:It's great to have you on here, Eddie. Can you give us just a little bit of a background?
Speaker 3:about yourself. I read out your title, but can you just tell us who you are? Well, I'm a 35-year Las Vegas local, so I don't drive on the strip anymore. I moved here in 1989 from Michigan.
Speaker 3:I've spent a good part of the first part of my Vegas time in the casino business. I started out as a blackjack dealer, making about $11 a day in tips downtown at the El Cortez, and my last position was a casino shift manager wearing a suit and tie and walking around and acting important. My time in casinos led me into marketing and sales and making a ton of friends in the liquor and the spirits and wine space and it sort of transitioned me when I burned out of the casino world into clubs and managing clubs and general managing and beverage director and things like that. And then the most fortuitous bounce and the luckiest bounce and I guess if it's in Vegas, you know luck should be a part of the story. I absolutely 100% lucked into this concept the Las Vegas Global Spirit Awards. And you know, knock on wood, this is the ninth year, so I must be doing something okay.
Speaker 2:So it sounds like you've lucked into the concept a little bit, but there had to have been some element of inspiration behind this. So what inspired you to launch Las Vegas Global Wine and Spirits Awards?
Speaker 3:You know that's a great question but honestly it was not inspiration, it was truly luck. I was the general manager of arguably the coolest tiki bar in the world called the Golden Tiki, here in Las Vegas. The owner of the bar was a huge rum collector and WSWA at that time was rotating between Las Vegas and Orlando and I thought that, you know, maybe if I could score a badge I'd be able to help him add to his rum collection. So I literally just went to talk to some rum brands and see if there was anything really cool in the market, and what I found out was that none of the brands that were being presented at WSWA had distribution. And then a light went off because I play in a card game, a poker game. Imagine that luck Vegas poker game. It's just. It's just a Vegas story, but I play in a card game with some distributors and I'm thinking to myself well, now I have a brand who wants distributors and I have friends who are distributors and the idea started to sort of ruminate a little bit.
Speaker 3:And I met somebody at the convention who worked for a company who represented some of these brands. And I met somebody at the convention who worked for a company who represented some of these brands and I said would you take me around and introduce me to some of them? I just like to hear their stories and see if there's any really good rum out there. And this gal called Andrea introduced me to a rum brand and she said this is an award-winning rum and I had never heard of award-winning for spirits. And I'm like, oh, wait a minute. And then the light bulb got screwed just a tiny bit tighter and the light got a tiny bit brighter and I had her explain to me the concept and they go well, they entered this competition in San Francisco and they won a gold medal and it's been huge for them in publicizing their brand. And that was the moment when all the ingredients were in the mixing bowl and I knew I was on to something.
Speaker 3:But I also was acutely aware that there was no chance in the world that this wasn't being done in Las Vegas at the time. Las Vegas is the alcohol consumption capital of the world. They don't care what New York says, they don't care what Los Angeles says or London or any of those other places. 50 million people a year, plus the 2.5 million who live here, drink and we this city is that. And the next morning and we, this city is that.
Speaker 3:And the next morning I went to my lawyer and I told him what I had found out. I said do a title search for me, see if there's anything like that going on in Las Vegas. A day later he goes dude, nothing like that's ever been done in Vegas. And with that I started my business with $425. I formed an LLC. I had no idea at all what I was doing, but I knew that I was going to do something for the first time that had been done in Las Vegas and that, according to all of my really smart friends in the casino industry and out, is the key to the kingdom If you can be the first, you can be everything. And that is the true story and that's the luck of it. It was absolutely a lucky break that I figured out something and that it hadn't been done in Las Vegas.
Speaker 1:Before you touch on the volume of beverages that are consumed in Las Vegas, is there anything else that sort of sets Las Vegas apart from your New York's and your Los Angeles's and your London's and so forth that make it important or a special contributor on a global scale in the beverage alcohol category?
Speaker 3:Well, listen, I'm a shameless shill for my city, right? You're a patriot and it's pretty much everything in Las Vegas. Los Angeles has an outstanding mixology clientele. New York, london these are world capitals for mixology. What separates Vegas a little bit from those is the fact that 50 million people come from everywhere to here, is the fact that 50 million people come from everywhere to here. So our mixology is absolutely 100% on par with any one of those cities the craft, the art, the everything.
Speaker 3:You have places like Herbs and Rye, which have won awards at Tales of the Cocktail, the best cocktail bar in the country. So we have all of the things that all of the other cities have. So we have all of the things that all of the other cities have. But what we have that those other cities don't have are people from Dubuque, iowa and Butte, montana and, you know, france and Germany and Iceland and Greenland, and people literally from all over the world come to Las Vegas and when they come to Las Vegas they imbibe and they try stuff and they do stuff that they wouldn't dare do where they live. And that gives us I don't want to say a leg up, but it gives us a separation from the more traditional American cities when it comes to mixology and spirits and things like that.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and I think it's the diversity you touched upon too, the fact that every nationality and culture comes to Las Vegas to imbibe. So because of that, there's also that imprint from all these different cultures. I know, for example, some of the judges you have on your competition. You know are experts in Japanese spirits and work in Vegas. They're experts on. You know are experts in Japanese spirits and work in Vegas. They're experts on. You know Brazilian spirits and you can really find like a full melting pot of all kinds of spirits and wines in Vegas, which is very cool.
Speaker 3:That's a fantastic point. The diversity of our guest, our visitor, our like I say it's like my city the diversity of the 50 plus million people who come to town dictate that we have to be experts at literally everything From Piscos that come from Peru to Sake and Sochu and Aomori from Japan to Baijiu, from China, from Cachaca, from Brazil, if you name it. You want to have some ties to where you come from when you come to Vegas, but the city cultivates curiosity to try new things.
Speaker 2:And so covering how brands can benefit from entering your competition. They win a medal at your competition. What do you recommend that they should do to merchandise it for maximum impact, and how do you support in that process?
Speaker 3:The medal is. It's really important. And I tell the simplest story. If a couple goes into a liquor store and they decide that they want to try mezcal for the first time and their budget is $50, and they walk into a Lee's Liquor here in Las Vegas and there's 10 mezcals that are $50 and some of them have really cute labels and one of them some of them have sexy labels and some have plain labels. That doesn't help them. But if one of those 10 has a bottle sticker on it that says Platinum Award winner Las Vegas Global Spirit Awards, they're going to buy that one.
Speaker 3:Americans like shiny things. This is just the truth. The medal is a huge publicity tool for you. You should splash it literally everywhere you can think to splash it on every single bottle that you produce of that winning brand, on every social media campaign that you launch, on every digital, at every promotion. Everywhere where your brand can be seen in the public, you should advertise that you won a medal, In this case in the Las Vegas Global Spirit Awards. It absolutely is a huge asset to a brand's ability to improve their optics and to sell more, Because if you've been in a liquor store in the last 20 years, they're like Walmarts, they're wall to wall, every single name. There's 150 vodkas, there's 500 tequilas. But what sets you apart? What sets you apart is success, and winning a medal and investing a very, very small amount of your marketing budget into the competition space can provide you huge dividends, huge wins when it comes to visibility and direct sales to consumers, because it does set you apart.
Speaker 2:I know you, eddie. You also have a consulting business on top of this. So I do say, if someone wins a gold medal for their rum, how could they work with you to understand where in the market to launch? What are next steps in terms of their sales process? How can you help them on that side of things?
Speaker 3:In my years I've come to realize that there are millions of competitions and it seems like there are new competitions popping up literally every week. You know, sisters of the Holy Grail, spirits competition. I don't know why people think that they can just open their doors and be successful, because I can tell you it doesn't work that way. But the key to competitions and the key and what separates my competition from the others is, I believe, that I have to do more for the brands after the competition. You have to have a distributor. If you're in a three-tier state, it doesn't matter if the judges of the competitions are buyers for the biggest chains in the world Sam's Club, costco, you name it. They could be buyers for the biggest restaurant chains in the world Landry Club, costco, you name it. They could be buyers for the biggest restaurant chains in the world Landry's, with 600 restaurants. But if you don't have a distributor in that state, you can't sell. So I identified that and I have offered limited opportunities for select winners in the competition to be offered distribution in Las Vegas. And that's the key to the kingdom, because you can't do anything without it. Now the offer is not for everybody. The offer is based on what the distributor is looking for to add to their portfolios. But it saves you tens of thousands of dollars and having to knock on doors and try to get meetings and because, like you said, bridget, the judges that I have are globally recognized. If a distributor isn't familiar with the competition, all they have to do is look at the judges panel and say, oh well, yeah, if that got a platinum from that group of people at least I know the juice is good. And that's the first step.
Speaker 3:The story is everything else. Yes, you have to have marketing money. Yes, you have to be committed to going to that market and doing ride-alongs with representatives, because nobody can tell your story better than you. It's hard work launching and in this city I'm not going to sugarcoat stuff for you. This is the most difficult market and the most competitive market in the world. You have to be committed to two or three years of real hard labor if you want to get established.
Speaker 3:What can I do? I have a big Rolodex, 35 years worth of friends. I don't go out and beat the street anymore, but I can call just about anybody and say, hey, I have something I'd like you to try and if it's good, we trade favors in Vegas, like kids trade bubblegum cards. So I can help you with making sure that your brand gets into the locations. I can help you get key accounts, both off-premise and on-premise. I can help you get key accounts both off-premise and on-premise. But most of all, I can get you into the doors. I can open doors that you couldn't open because these people are friends of mine and at that point you have to take over and do the work. You have to be committed to doing the hard stuff and I'm not going to lie, it's hard, it's tedious, it's time consuming, it's frustrating, but if you want to be in this market, those are the sacrifices that you have to make.
Speaker 3:I've been very fortunate to help launch brands and get brands settled here. I get the liquid onto the lips of the influencing bartenders in the craft cocktail scene here in town. I get their spirits onto the bars in the cool places in town and that's the beginning of the process. The biggest misconception is that a small brand thinks that they can go into MGM Resorts, a big casino company. Mgm Resorts, a big casino company, and a lot of my time with new brands is tempering their expectations right, because MGM and Caesars and hotels like the Fountain Blue. Those are King Kong right.
Speaker 3:If MGM Resorts loves your product and they say they want 75 pallets a year and you can't produce 75 pallets, you're out and this is you know. This is hard truth talking. I manage their expectations. Let's get you into some off-premise accounts. Let's have some tastings in liquor stores and getting some liquid on lips of some civilians around town. Let's try to make a buzz. Let's grow your brand very organically with all of our feet on the ground and go from there. You're not ready to go into Yankee Stadium on Saturday night and pitch game seven of the World Series. So if you're willing to commit the time and you're willing to work with me over a couple of years, we can do it.
Speaker 2:I'm almost hearing here that there's two parts of the process. The first if they enter into the competition, it doesn't matter if they don't have a single relationship in the US in the beverage alcohol category they have a fair shot, totally blind tasting fair shot. And then once they get that medal, it's all about relationships in this business and how to sort of leverage that, so being able to get into the right places being introduced, understanding, I think, to your point that it takes organic and grassroots efforts. You need, you know, feet on the ground, you need to start to connect with industry professionals, but I think you know this kind of steers me back to the question about the judging. You know this is truly a double-bind process and I've had the honor and the opportunity to judge for the clear spirits categories at your competition in the past. Since that's my background and I've been really humbled to be next to some of the greatest names in beverage alcohol, can you walk brands listening through how the judging process works and how you can assure that it is a completely double-blind process?
Speaker 3:Sure, the process is very elegant in its simplicity. There are two completely separate rooms. The samples are kept in a very large room six, seven, 8,000 square feet where they are unboxed, inventoried, verified that there is no damage and then each entry has an ID number and the ID number correlates with the order that it's presented to the judges and the judge's scorecard. There's an entire team of volunteers whose responsibility is do nothing but make sure that that evolution runs smoothly. The judges sit in a completely different room. They have their laptops in front of them. Scoring is done digitally now, thankfully, we don't have to cut down forests of trees. The preliminary judging are panels of three judges each. They're presented with nothing more than a glass with a number on it and correlating information on their score sheet. They're given what it is, obviously, they're given its ABV, they're given its age statement and, if it applies, and other modifiers as required. If it was sherry cask aged or something like that. We want the judges to know exactly what the sample is, but nothing that can tell you where the sample is necessarily from or any of the things that would get you to sort of wonder what it is that preliminary judging. The process is very simple Three judges, eight to ten samples in a flight. The judges score them individually. So you're sitting at a table with two other people. You decide platinum, gold, silver, bronze or no metal for each of the ten. Each of the other two judges does the same.
Speaker 3:When all 30 scores are available, the person who's in charge of the table opens a conversation about each spirit. The first spirit in the flight was number 1234. It was a bourbon 90 proof. Judge A, you had it as a gold. Judge B you had it as a silver but I had it as a platinum. And this is the integral part of the conversation that we'll have about judging. This part of the judging is when the final score is determined and how it's determined is the three judges have a conversation about that spirit. I thought it was a silver because I got ABC, but the platinum judge says I got D, e and F. And then the silver judge says wait a second, I want to try it again. And the interaction between the judges three excellent palates talking about a spirit Judges. Three excellent palates talking about a spirit Judges. They can go up or they can go down. When they get more information from other experts, they come to the conclusion If it's three goals, it's a gold. This is easy stuff, right. But if there's a difference of opinion, they talk about it and I don't want to say that they lobby or they negotiate, but they share all the information on how they got to what they got to come up with the fairest score and that's the score that goes forward and that's their final score.
Speaker 3:In the case that something is absolutely exemplary platinum medal, 95 points, or the judges have the opportunity to push that forward, that entry forward to a sweepstakes round. The sweepstakes round is held the second day. It features only the best of each of the preliminary panels and at that point all the scores are thrown out. The judges don't know what the score was when it arrived. At sweepstakes. The samples are retasted by the entire panel of 15, 18, 24, as many judges as there are, and there's no more scoring. It's simply an up and down vote. If we have three vodkas, how many judges believe number one, two, three, four was the best vodka? And it's a simple up and down process and that's what determines the best in class. And then from best in class you have best brown spirit and best white spirit. From that you have the best in show and then the chairman also selects. He has the opportunity to select what he believes is the best in show. If it were to be different?
Speaker 2:That second day it was really really cool process. And the second day I mean it is very iterative. There's a lot of conversation that goes into it, a lot of comparing scores, making sure that everyone's on the same page. I mean it is very professionally run and very well done. So you know, I think it certainly gives every brand a fair and equal shot. So if you're it doesn't matter, if you're new to market and you've never sold a case in the US, you have an equal opportunity to you know a 25 million plus million case brand. So I would definitely advise to all of our listeners, if you have the opportunity.
Speaker 2:It's a very low fee to enter, to get in, and we actually have a promo code for our listeners here. You can use promo code MHW25 and that will give you 15% off your entry. And Eddie is also available. We'll post his contact information in the show notes and on the social media posts. If you have a large group of spirits to enter, he will always work with you on entering that at a lower fee. So I think you know. Now this brings us to a great pivot point where MHW is working with Eddie on a new market. So can you share a little bit more about that news, eddie.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'm I've sort of on my whiteboard to the side over there Always wanted to do a second city and even though, like I had said earlier, the competition space is overcrowded with not as prestigious and well-known competitions, I decided that this year was the time, so I couldn't think of a better, more natural sort of sister city connection vibe. So in March of 2025, the Miami Global Spirit Awards will make its first appearance onto the competition scene. I am over the moon. The location is absolutely fantastic. It's going to be 80% new judges, mostly from New York and up and down the East Coast. I'll bring some of my Vegas people with me to make sure that we do things exactly the same way to maintain continuity. But this is an unbelievable opportunity for overseas brands, because it's come to my attention that Florida is five hours closer to London than Las Vegas, and five hours on an airplane is an awful long time. So if you're a brand in Europe, if you're a brand in South America, we have a website in Spanish. We have all of our information available in Spanish. If you're a non-United States brand, this is your chance, because I have distribution opportunities available in California, texas, florida, new York, new Jersey, massachusetts and a couple other states coming on board. So if you wanted to take your shot at entering the United States market, if you believe what you do, this is the opportunity. The judges will be an incredible mix of international and United States-based judges. Distributors from multiple states are going to be on the panel.
Speaker 3:For this year we're doing something another sort of sure. I'll pat myself on the back and say groundbreaking in the spirits competition space. I've created an e-commerce platform where select winners from the competition will have the opportunity to join a membership-based e-commerce platform and immediately be sold in 42 states around the country. And this goes back to the beginning where I said what does the competition do for you after the competition? And the premise is brands need help with just about everything other than making juice. So if I can be the guy that can get them into the United States with an importer, having MHW do my import and my compliance, I've got the distribution network. I have an e-commerce platform. It's a package where, basically, if you make good juice and you want to take a shot and you've got the money, I can bring you into the United States and launch you probably in 90 days. And that is what sets Miami apart from every other competition and we'll work the e-commerce platform into the Vegas competition as well, because it's 42 states. Basically, the control states are the exception. So if it's a three-tier state and this is, you know, getting super techie with suppliers but if you're looking to get into three tier states this will save you literally tens of thousands of dollars of your time, but more than that years of your life trying to sort it out.
Speaker 3:Your importers in the middle block of our little Brady Bunch podcast here right, the distributors are my field. Everything that you need to launch in the United States is now available to you for a very nominal marketing budget fee to enter the competition. I want to make this perfectly clear. There are no guarantees. It is not offered to everybody. There is no shortcut. You can't call me up on the phone and say, hey, I don't want to enter the competition but can you help me with distribution? Because I'm going to say yes and then I'm going to tell you I'm going to charge you a hundred thousand dollar consulting fee and you're going to say that's crazy and I'm going yes, but if you're stupid enough to give it to me, I'm stupid enough to take it. Spend the $450 or $500,. Take your chance in the competition and have the portal that I've created to success be available to you that way. That's why I created the competitions to help the brands and that's why I deliver more after the competitions to be a part of their growth and success.
Speaker 1:So how can brands who say they do really well in Miami, how can they leverage their shiny new metal in the Miami market using both MHW and your upcoming feet-on-the-ground sales service?
Speaker 3:Well, in order to succeed, you have to have boots on the ground, and there are multiple ways that brands do that. The misconception for all the suppliers is that the distributor is your sales team. They're not. They take orders, they fulfill orders, they do your back of housework, they keep you organized inventory-wise and all of that other stuff, but they're not salespeople. We're putting together a program where we'll have boots on the ground in each of the states where we have distribution. It's part of your marketing commitment every month and part of that money you'll have, basically, a brand ambassador, and that brand ambassador is only going to represent brands that have won the competition.
Speaker 3:There are other big distributors and you all know who the big distributors are, so there's no reason to name them. Their book could be 10,000 spirits or 20,000 spirits or even more. For you personally, if you make a bourbon, one of these big distributors might have 150 bourbons in their book. Have 150 bourbons in their book. What's different about the model that I'm working on and I'm creating is this representative will only represent winners from the competition. So they might have two bourbons, they'll have two tequilas, they'll have a vodka, they'll have a liqueur, they'll have a couple of RTDs, but you as a supplier, as a brand, will have direct access to somebody who only has one or two things in your specific space. So when he goes and calls on these accounts these restaurants, these bars, these casinos, strip clubs, whatever it is and they say, hey, we're looking for a bourbon, he's not going to pull out his laptop and show him 150 bourbons and try to pitch the one that has the most promotion money. His only job is pitching and selling winners from the Las Vegas Global Spirit Awards and from the Miami Global Spirit Awards. So it's a unique opportunity. It's kind of in its infancy. It will be ready to be launched by the end of the Miami competition we're hoping around April but it gives brands the opportunity to have a salesperson and that's the thing that they don't have.
Speaker 3:And that's to me. Between having sales, having e-commerce, having distributors, I can't see a reason in the world if you made a spirit and you were serious about getting out there and whatever your goal is whether it is to sell everything you make or it's like a tequila brand owned by a question and earlier having somebody be your preacher of your brand so when you come to Florida and you have I want to make this clear. You have to come to market. You have to come to market at least twice a year we would prefer once every quarter and you go on what they call ride-alongs, where you go around with our rep and you go see 15 or 20 people and he talks about it from the business.
Speaker 3:But people want to hear your story, your personal story. Yeah, we started this wine in a bathtub and I found out I loved making wine and you know, thankfully we had enough money and we bought a winery and we became wildly successful. The story is everything and it's what separates you from everybody else. So you have to come to market. You have to come to Florida, twist your arm. You have to come to Las Vegas for a few days and meet some people and help us open some accounts, because the deals that you go see they close at a way higher rate than when just a rep's going in making calls on people.
Speaker 2:And I think the credentialing factor is so important in this, the fact that your representative can say we only represent gold medal winners.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So they have dominated against hundreds of other spirits in the category. This is the one that came out as the winner is already going to credential it, because some of the like I've noticed this when I've gone on ride-alongs in my past life when I worked at a vodka brand some of the off-premise, many of them, I would say, don't even taste. They don't they. If they tasted every you know rep's product that walked into their liquor store, I think they would be permanently drunk all day long. So they don't taste. What they want to know is is this going to move? Does it taste good? But they're not going to be the ones to do it.
Speaker 2:And so I think having that credentialing factor to say yes, this won. And then we decided to bring them into the portfolio that just gives a leg up on the retail side, into the portfolio. That just gives a leg up on the retail side. And then, of course, we know from what you mentioned earlier, having the necker or it on the you know labeling is going to help with the consumer part of it. So it just all the way through the tiers. I think this is going to be a home run.
Speaker 1:Instead of our usual, normal question, we're going to throw a little bit of a curveball, and I think that we're going to have some fun with this. So, eddie, who's your pick for the Stanley Cup this year? Do you think the Golden Knights have what it takes? Come on, man.
Speaker 3:Listen. Hockey is my life outside of my work here. I'm going to shamelessly plug the Hockey Nights in Vegas podcast because I'm a credentialed member of the Las Vegas Global Knights media. I travel on occasion with the teams. I was asked this question last night in an interview setting and my answer is if the puck gods are kind to them and they remain healthy when it comes to the important part of the season in April or May, they are absolutely one of the five or six teams that can win the Stanley Cup. It's the most difficult trophy in sports. You have to win 16 games. You basically play every other night for about two months to get Lord Stanley's Cup. But I've been blessed to see it happen in my home rink a couple of years ago and if they're healthy, they'll be one of the last people at the dance come June. How's?
Speaker 1:that for fair. I wish you luck. I'm not much of a sports guy, but moving from Houston up here to Maine, I at least can hopefully start cheering for some colder sports. Go watch black bear hockey.
Speaker 3:Black bear hockey. Is this a euphemism? No, no, the University of Maine are called the black bears. Okay, and the University of Maine always has one of the better collegiate hockey teams in the country.
Speaker 1:All right, eddie Rivkin, giving me some knowledge about my own Hockey knowledge, dropping hockey knowledge Well, I appreciate it. Well, I want to say huge thanks to our guest, eddie Rivkin, for coming by and dropping some knowledge. Links again to the Las Vegas Global Spirits Awards will be in the description and Miami.
Speaker 2:And Miami.
Speaker 1:And Miami. All of that will be in the show notes, regardless of how I said it it be. All of that will be in the show notes. Regardless of how I said it, It'll all be correct in the show notes. So, Eddie, thanks again for your time and your hockey knowledge as well. Thanks, Jimmy.
Speaker 3:Bridge. Wonderful to see you, as always.
Speaker 2:Good to see you.
Speaker 3:Congratulations on the beautiful little bouncing baby that you have.
Speaker 2:Thank you. Hopefully when you're feeling up to it, you'll bless us with your presence on a panel in one of these cool two cities that I'm working in.
Speaker 1:Absolutely Thank you so much, eddie, and thank you listeners for joining us on the MHW Mark podcast and thanks again to Bridget McCabe for joining me in hosting.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much. Always good to be here.
Speaker 1:This podcast is produced by me, jimmy Moreland, with booking and planning support by Cassidy Poe and Bridget McCabe. It's presented by MHW. Find out more at mhwltdcom or connect with MHW on LinkedIn. Lend us a hand by subscribing, rating and reviewing this podcast wherever you listen From myself and the whole team at MHW, thank you for a wonderful year of conversation. We wish you a safe and happy holiday season. We'll see you soon. Cheers.