THE WHISKY CONNOISEUR
“I have a penchant for the finer and refined whiskies”, says
a gleeful Nelson Aseka. He is Africa
regional brand ambassador for Jamesons, Chivas ,Royal Salut, The Glenlivet and
Ballantines which are premium whiskies owned by Pernod Ricard, a French company.
Being the face of such strong brands, he is forgiven for using jargon like ,’luxuriously
rich or smooth’ to describe whisky.
Born and bred in Eldoret, he attended Moi Forces High school
and later joined Kenya School of professional studies to study IT. He was
employed AMREF in 1998 to practice IT. He worked as an independent it
contractor between 2005 and 2007.Working from the comfort of his home he had a
lot of free time and he would meet up with friends on weekends.
Majority of Kenyans in their prime years live by the mantra,
‘work hard, play hard’. They work relentlessly all through the week and will
throng the clubs and pubs on the weekend to catch up with colleagues over a
drink or two. Nelson’s search for a premium drink came long after countless
night- outs. He always ended up hung over and lethargic after drinking what was
bland and distasteful beer or wine. ”Why should I pay to suffer? I needed to
find value for my money,” he says.
Two of his other friends felt the same way and joined him on
his quest to find the ‘it’ drink. It was not easy and after some years they
stumbled on what they thought was the drink to beat. This magic drink tasted
like heaven. It was music in your mouth and it had no hangovers whatsoever.
They bought at least one bottle in every pub and they made people drink it. They
had a huge following in a span of a few months. People wanted to be associated
with them and the drink had some kind of demand. The margins were remarkable. With
the revolution spreading like bushfire, bars and outlets stocked the drink,
more events were created with its name and Nelson and his friends became a
brand. They were known as the ‘Jameson's crew’.
“We had to make people try it. We were not in it for the
profits and we didn’t even know which company manufactured the drink”, says
Nelson.
Due to the increased demand, the company that owned the
brand got wind of the news that some whisky aficionados in Kenya were
advertising the brand. They were greatly impressed and looked for Nelson and
his friends through their distributors, Viva Distributors and even visited them
in Kenya.
This company is Pernod Ricard which was formed in 1975 after
a merger between Pernod and Ricard which were French companies. These two
companies were competitors that merged. These companies dealt with premium
wines and spirits of the world. Pernod Ricard has 48brands in their portfolio
among them Chivas, Ballantines, Jameson, Malibu, royal salute, Glenlivet and
Martell. These are super premium drinks targeted at the highbrow market.
Nelson‘s roles include coordinating and mentoring brand
ambassadors in Africa, participating in product launches and events, sharing
product education among others. He is a master in Scotch whisky and he has been
to Paris, London, Scotland, Madagascar and a host of African countries.
Nelson says that loving what he does and having passion is
what has made him excel. He also points out on the relevance of a brand having
a face, “People love speaking to people than a brand. It is more effective to
talk to a person than to read off a power point presentation”.
That was the story. Jameson appointed a new brand ambassador , George Karanu, a former Safaricom employee. Im working on getting an interview with him but that is a story for another day...
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| Aseka and the new brand ambassador George. |
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| photo credit shttps://www.facebook.com/JamesonWhiskeyEastAfrica/. |
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