It was a delightful day on Lake Wanaka.

Two American ex-pats in New Zealand pondered life’s possibilities in a broken shed on the banks of Lake Wanaka. In their musings, they dreamed of creating a new vodka, one as pure and distinctive as New Zealand itself. And they did it, sourcing the waters from New Zealand’s purest aquifers and springs and using natural protein whey or “honey milk” as their distillate. After many iterations, they finally settled on a formula worthy of the name of the site where they first imagined this special vodka: Broken Shed.

Meanwhile, stateside…

A Connecticut entrepreneur first sipped a taste of the new vodka at a bar named The Grey Goose (small world, huh?). Captivated by the brand’s crisp, clean taste and smooth, warm finish, he convinced Broken Shed would be a winner. So he went ahead and bought the company. Then he realized no matter how great a product he had, if no one knew about it, it wouldn’t matter. That’s when he came to us.

We strategized.

We put our brains to work. We redesigned the label. We studied the market, the consumer, and the competition. We focused on a target: Millennials. We entered their world. What do they like? What do they do? What drives them? Then we came up with an idea.

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We got social.

Fish where the fish are, they say. And where do Millennials hang out? Of course, on social media, without a doubt.  We fast-tracked Facebook, powered up Pinterest and infiltrated Instagram. We created dialogue. Back and forth, forth and back. And we built the beginnings of a following.

We built momentum.

First we generated a little traction, then fluid forward motion and them – BAM! – the numbers took off. Pageviews for our new website quintupled. We generated over 5 million Facebook Impressions, 91,000 Instagram impressions and our digital ad impressions exploded!

We caught some rising stars.

We asked, " Who are the gatekeepers to the masses?" In this market, the mixologists, no doubt. So we celebrated them, made them into stars, made videos of them, promoted their drink recipes, and created competitions—all on behalf of Broken Shed. And, as their following grew, Broken Shed's following grew as well.

We celebrated the brand.

We planned events. We celebrated mixologists as we celebrated our brand. And you know what? Everyone won. We told our story, pressed the flesh, sampled our products. In this world of technological wizardry and virtuality, good old personal contact still goes a long, long way.

We embellished.

We spread the word and made the brand immanent. We created copper cups, drinking glasses, shot glasses, bar mats, shelf talkers, self-stackers, t-shirts, hats, sunglasses, and more. We stormed the marketplace with a tidal wave of Broken Shed iconography.

And the brand grew and grew and grew.

It started in Connecticut, and then spread to Rhode Island, New Jersey and Kentucky. After that, Michigan, Wisconsin and Tennessee. Then Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont. Then California and Nevada. And we’re not even close to being finished yet. Watch out world, here we come!