Margarita turns 75
As with the backstories of many iconic cocktails, there’s some debate over the margarita’s origins and makeup. Most often, the credit goes to Dallas socialite Margaret “Margarita” Sames, who reportedly came up with the concoction while on an Acapulco vacation in 1948. She served it to her friends, including Hollywood royalty like John Wayne and Lana Turner, and has been quoted as saying, “A margarita without Cointreau is not worth its salt.”
The 75th anniversary of the drink’s “official version” gives Cointreau a hook for its summer marketing and coincides with an explosion of interest in tequila tipples. (The margarita remains the most popular cocktail in America, per The Drinks Business.)
Rémy Cointreau, which has stepped up its U.S. marketing over the past few years, has tapped into the tequila craze and several other booze trends to promote the “global priority brands” in its stable such as Cointreau, Louis XIII cognac, The Botanist gin and Bruichladdich whisky. Rémy Martin got its first Super Bowl ad in February.
There’s been a wave of activity around Cointreau as well, following its 2021 Big Game debut in 15 markets. The brand’s visual identity has been overhauled—the most significant refresh in 140 years—with a bottle redesign, a dapper time-stopping mascot for a late 2022 ad campaign and a new slogan, “Cointreau changes everything.”
The orange-flavored liqueur worked with Levy—along with chefs Sohla El-Waylly and Nyesha Arrington—for summer and holiday campaigns in 2022. The year-long effort centered on a content hub with Entertainment Weekly, plus digital and social videos and posts, which logged more than 67 million views, per the brand. Retail sales bumped up 9% between July and year’s end, according to Nielsen.
The strength of the partnership with Levy inspired the brand to make another celebrity connection, this time with Plaza, an in-demand endorser seen a few months ago in a satire for MilkPEP in which she shilled for a fake “wood milk” product.
