Bloody Drinks “The Bloody Bus” Activation

The Brief

We were approached by Will and Harry, the chaps behind Bloody Drinks, to collaborate on a drink brand activation to celebrate 100 years of the Bloody Mary cocktail.

Incidentally, Bloody create our favourite canned Bloody Mary cocktail. It’s one of the only ones we’ve ever tried that’s true to its freshly-made counterpart.

With this in mind, we were already keen, but Will and Harry also had a tantalising concept for a pop up bar and restaurant.

To celebrate the Bloody Mary’s centenary Bloody partnered with Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce to create 1921 limited edition cans.

Cocktail aficionados will know that though the recipe has been adapted over the years, Worcestershire Sauce remains a key ingredient in the Bloody Mary cocktail.

A partnership just made perfect sense.

Along with Lea & Perrins and seafood legends Claw & Hammer, Bloody Drinks needed our assistance to operate this pop-up in the iconic Covent Garden over Halloween weekend.

Halloween weekend would see the end of London Cocktail Week (extended to last the entire month as in 2020) so it was the perfect time for a cocktail themed activation.

Having Lea & Perrins, along with Claw and Hammer, the seafood restaurant in Tower Hamlets and sister venue to Randy’s Wing Bar on board seemed like a match made in heaven.

Oh, and Bloody had a final ace up their sleeve.

They were planning to bring The Bloody Bus: a vintage, red double-decker Routemaster bus with built-in restaurant and bar.

The Extraordinary Experience

We worked with Bloody Drinks to curate a “Monster Mary” serve, incorporating Bloody Drinks’ limited edition Lea & Perrins serve.

These delicious cocktails were garnished with seafood elements from Claw & Hammer; crayfish, lobster, crab claw & smoky sausage in the company’s New Orleans style, along with chilli, pickled okra, Nocellara olives and fresh lime. Flamboyant to say the least.

Alongside this hero serve, we served a selection of friends of the brand, namely: MOTH, Signature Brewery, DASH Water, Square Root, Perrier-Jouet and East London Liquor Company.

However, getting a routemaster bus from its home depot in Wales into the centre of the capital was quite the feat of logistics. Drawing on years of experience in large scale event delivery and asset management, our team managed the transport of this branded asset successfully installed it into London’s busy Covent Garden.

The secret of a good activation is an eye-catching focus point to stop the general public in their tracks.

It’s fair to say The Bloody Bus more than delivered.

Across the four days of the event, there was an estimated 40-50k footfall impression walking by the bus, with passers-by stopping to marvel at the pop-up restaurant.

Inside the bus, our bar team served over 1100 drinks, and the Claw and Hammer team dished up over 500 tasty serves.

About Bloody Drinks

Harry and Will met at Manchester University and immediately bonded over their love of a good Bloody Mary.

However, they despaired at the lack of really tasty options of their favourite cocktail.

After lots of experimentation they decided to batch up their own version, launching The Bloody Classic in canned form in 2019.

Bloody Drinks were featured in the London Evening Standard as the best canned cocktail of 2020, along with coverage in The Telegraph and The Independent.

Find out more about Bloody Drinks

About The Cocktail Service

We are experts in large scale event delivery and drink brand activation.

We’ve worked with clients like Red Bull at Latitude and Wilderness Festival, and overseen the bar operations at major festivals including Houghton Festival, Camp Wildfire, and Warm Up.

Combining years of experience in the events business, with a nationwide network of staff and regional logistics hubs across the UK, we offer 360 management of your festival or large scale event bar.

Want to work with us? Find out more