The World’s leading premium brand is proud to announce that:

The future bar experience is hacked

At last night’s spectacular party extravaganza in the Atelier brand lounge, ABSOLUT awarded the winning team of the sensational two-day Liquid Data hackathon competition which has attracted global online attention.

From Saturday night through Monday afternoon, the ABSOLUT brand lounge Atelier in the heart of Stockholm was transformed into an outrageous interactive melting pot and creative laboratory where developers, programmers, artists and other creatives from sixteen nations worked nonstop on digital branding and bar experience innovations, interrupted and interacting continuously with a large number of specially invited speakers, performers and start-up entrepreneurs from around the globe.

At the Monday night party, more than 200 guests from Stockholm’s creative community were invited to road test the elaborate prototypes presented by the teams — innovative and visionary concepts that included interactive digital bottles and various intricate solutions enhancing social interaction and creative inspiration in the future bar experience — as well as an astonishing deceptive art installation featuring pouring vodka frozen in motion.

The winning Team Absolut.bar was awarded for a solution building on established technology that combines social interacting with a bar experience that is at the same time simplified and elaborated. The jury motivation for the prize read:

A solution that is brilliant in its simplicity, usability, and endless options and potential. It intelligently and seamlessly applies road tested technology to connect our brand with bars and consumers, to enhance experience and value.

”I’m floored with the stunning quality of all contributions — it’s incredible what these teams have achieved in such short time,” says Magnus Bidestam, Global Director Trade Marketing of The Absolut Company, who presented the awards. ”We had high expectations but the creative and innovative quality of the concepts and prototypes, as well as the attention and positive response that the event has generated, has exceeded our wildest hopes. This is really something exciting to build on for the future!”

The Liquid Data hackathon was the very first event to animate the new Transform Today brand campaign from Absolut, launched globally last week. The goal of Transform Today is to inspire consumers to recreate their future by exploring the transformative power of creativity, which is exemplified by the creations of the hackathon teams. It is these types of inspirational events that celebrate creativity that will fuel the Transform Today campaign.

The Absolut Company has the worldwide responsibility for the production and marketing of , , KAHLÚA, , and Frïs. ABSOLUT VODKA is the world’s fourth largest premium spirits brand. Every bottle of ABSOLUT VODKA is produced in Åhus in southern Sweden. MALIBU is the number one coconut-flavoured rum in the world, sold in more than 150 countries. As of July 2008, The Absolut Company is a company within the Pernod group, which holds one of the most prestigious brand portfolios in the sector. The head office is located in Stockholm, Sweden.

”It was an event of great strategic importance to us as it explores and extracts the amazing creative talents of the target group that we call urban creative millenials and which is a main focus for us,” says Jonas Tåhlin, Vice President Global Marketing of The Absolut Company who inaugurated the Liquid Data event together with fellow executives Paul Duffy, CEO of The Absolut Company, and Alexandre Ricard, deputy CEO and Chief Operating Officer of .

”The urban millennials are natives to digital creativity and innovation and thus crucial to us in our brand communication,” Tåhlin continues. ” This is one of the things that makes an event like this so exciting as a next generation venture in the great legacy of ABSOLUT creative collaborations.”

Se samples from the teams’ solutions on liquiddata.io.

For more information about the Liquid Data hackathon event, pleases see the pre-launch press release.

For more even information, please contact:

Elin Wibell, Senior Manager Corporate Communications, The Absolut Company, +46 70 190 10 41, [email protected]

The Absolut Company has the worldwide responsibility for the production and marketing of ABSOLUT VODKA, MALIBU, KAHLÚA, Wyborowa, Luksusowa and Frïs. ABSOLUT VODKA is the world’s fourth largest premium spirits brand. Every bottle of ABSOLUT VODKA is produced in Åhus in southern Sweden. MALIBU is the number one coconut-flavoured rum in the world, sold in more than 150 countries. As of July 2008, The Absolut Company is a company within the Pernod Ricard group, which holds one of the most prestigious brand portfolios in the sector. The head office is located in Stockholm, Sweden.