Every issue for the next few months we are going to focus on a Wm Grant Brand Ambassador. We are kicking off the series with a Q&A session with Mark Thomson – Ambassador to Scotland for Glenfiddich.
What does your role entail?
It’s a really varied role. Ambassadors at their very heart are educators and diplomats. I am a diplomat for Glenfiddich in that I talk to many different people about the brand and educate along the way. I suppose I am also an influencer, although I don’t really like that term.
There’s lots of travel. My job is to get in front of people and talk about the brand allowing them to understand it better. Brand ambassadors also have to bring to life what marketeers create. They come with the brand world, which can be difficult to understand, it’s the ambassadors role to filter it to the audience. That audience may change all the time, so the delivery is different, but the message remains constant – through this, I help build brand advocacy.
What are the biggest challenges?
I’ve been the ambassador for Glenfiddich for nearly six years and people often refer to me as the Glenfiddich ambassador and interestingly not Mark. You do lose a bit of your own identity along the way and you have to work at not letting the role become you. These days one of the biggest challenges for me is getting up in the morning. It can be a struggle because you never really switch off. This is partly to do with social media. Yes, you can turn your phone off, but I can have messages from 8am – 10pm every day and at the weekend from people all over the world – someone from Japan or Australia, or the U.K. asking a question about the brand. Being constantly ‘on’ is a challenge. Even on holiday I am scanning the back bar looking for bottles of Glenfiddich.
Travel too can be tiresome. Usually when I am travelling I ask that I am not seated next to one of our guests (without them knowing obviously!). The reason being that the time spent travelling is ‘protected time’. Many brand ambassadors have a routine when travelling – they relax by watching a movie, or catching up on a bookmarked article.
One particular trip whilst boarding a flight , Ronnie Cox sat in the vacant seat next to me – he is the brand ambassador for the Glenrothes and a bit of an idol of mine. His group were at the back of the plane, mine to the front. When I explained to him I would be putting my headphones on as soon as we took off, he said “That is delightful to hear I was going to do the same,” and we proceeded to ignore each other for the duration of the flight until touchdown allowed for pleasantries to start again. Ambassadors who have been doing the job for a while get round the travel challenge and that is one of our tricks.
What do you love about it?
I’ve been in the whisky industry around 15 years yet I never get tired of helping people on their whisky journey and seeing that ‘eureka’ moment on someone’s face. It depends on where they are on their journey. Sometimes people want advice about what to drink or what cocktail to try. You‘re almost giving permission to try whisky a
different way. Even something simple such as it’s ok to add ice- it’s encouraging them go and experiment and have some fun.
It’s great working with experienced cocktail bartenders who want to get behind our brands, the production and flavours. It’s a super feeling giving someone additional tools for their skillset – to create great drinks – which in turn helps their career.
Then there is the top tier – the whisky geeks – the thing I love about engaging with this particular group is that you can relax. With many people we give our knowledge, time and experience, with geeks it kind of levels out. You learn as much (about whisky) from them as they do from you. They make me explore and research. Whisky is a fabulous category to work across and so enriching. Each day I can learn something new and I love when people take it in a different direction with new expressions, experiments, flavours or even packaging. It is certainly a colourful world and the people behind it are often just as colourful.
What did you do before?
I’ve been with Glenfiddich for nearly 6 years. Previously I ran my own company doing whisky tastings all over the UK and also I did brand advocacy work with companies such as Maxxium, Pernod Ricard and Wemyss as well as training the Scotch Malt Whisky Society. Prior to that I worked in hospitality – pubs and restaurants around the U.K. This led me to specialise in drinks. Initailly wine was my passion, then whisky got me!
What is your favourite drink?
I love whisky, wine, beer and sherry – things that have had time and attention put into them. I certainly love well-made drinks with bags of character which tell a story.
What is the single bit of advice you have had which has stood you in good stead?
I think there is a lot of advice I should have listened to, but ignored much to my detriment. My advice to myself would be to stop and listen more.
A few years ago, a very good chef friend I was helping asked me to prepare some string beans – just top and tail, which I did. But upon completing the task, he came over and threw away six – exclaiming in his gruff French accent, “Mark we work too hard to eat brown beans’. When I looked closely there were tiny wee brown dots on them.
More a reminder than advice- we do work too hard, and we should take time to recognise and celebrate our worth.
Just to wrap up- I do hope everyone is cool and surviving out there in these most testing of times and hope we can catch up over a dram soon.
I’m here to help and if I can put bums on seats with a tasting or training, please give me a shout -between reasonable hours of business 😉 @singlemaltmark