CigarPlaces.com mentioned in the New York Times? Now that’s exciting stuff!
A couple of months ago I received a call from Tyler DeAngelo, Interactive Creative Director of DeVito/Verdi, an advertising agency in New York. He explained that he had been hired by a cigar manufacturer to create a website for a new brand that they were launching, and that his focus was a creative approach to cigars and social media.
He had some new ideas about how to leverage the data that had been collected on the CigarPlaces.com. Given the prominence of his agency, and the popularity of E.P. Carrillo, I was eager to hear them.
Now as much as I would love to say that my life is dedicated to reviewing cigars and cigar friendly places, it’s sadly not the case.
For my real job I own and operate an interactive marketing company in Detroit. I’ve always felt that cigar manufacturer websites typically undeserved their audience (like many other industries – fairly standard brochure websites – no big deal), so I was excited by this intersection of cigars and social media: a brilliant approach! For most of us, cigars are as much about the social aspect as they are about the flavor.
E.P. Carrillo & Social Media
So what’s really going on here? A 42 year old cigar company that dates back three generations suddenly sees the light and decides that social media is the way to go?
Pretty much.
The new brand is being run by Ernesto Perez-Carrillo Jr., 58, his daughter, Lissette, 36, and his son, Ernesto Perez-Carrillo III, 28. This combination appears to provide an interesting mix of established age-old cigar rolling practices, with new-school marketing ideas. See the full New York Times article for more details about DeVito/Verti’s approach.
To see how the CigarPlaces.com data is being used, visit the new E.P. Carrillo website and click on Places to Smoke Cigars. The homepage of the site is a great Twitter / Google Maps mashup that shows a bubble any time someone mentions cigars on Twitter (you know by now how much I love a good Google Maps mashup).
You can find out even more details about the brand by joining their Facebook Page and following them on Twitter.
Congrats to the people at DeVito/Verdi and the Perez-Carrillo family for launching the cigar industry into the social media space. You are accompanied on this journey by an entire new generation of young cigar smokers who are eager to see this concept continue to grow!
