By Elizabeth Segran

For two nights in October, an old-timey emporium suddenly popped up at the Cyclorama, a historic building in downtown Boston. Overnight Hendrick’s Gin created a magical world from scratch, inviting hundreds of Bostonians to experience, taste, and observe weird, delightful things.

At the event, you entered a curiosity shop where you could play with taxidermy, ancient magician’s manuals, and old photos that looked just a little bit odd. A shopkeeper in an elaborate, bustled dress took you through a secret passageway in the bookcases where you finally arrived at the party. There, something fun was happening in every corner: An in-house limerick writer was crafting poems on demand, a tightrope walker was tiptoeing on a row of Hendrick’s bottles, and everybody was tippling delicious old-fashioned cocktails.

Had you died and gone to hipster heaven? Not quite. The branding experts at Hendrick’s Gin have developed piercing insights into what makes today’s hipster’s tick. Hipsters have increasingly sophisticated sensibilities, finding ways to express their individuality by discovering beautiful, idiosyncratic clothing, music, and art from the past. Hipsters have always been into vintage, but lately, bartenders in trendy neighborhoods have had a decidedly Victorian sensibility, sporting waxed handlebar mustaches, pinstripe vests, and pocket watches.

Hendrick’s Emporium of the Unusual was designed with this quirky consumer in mind. The brand has made itself an expert on hipster culture, observing it with an almost anthropological fascination.”Our target is driven by curiosity,” says Hendrick’s senior brand manager Kirsten Walpert. “They are a bit provocative and daring; they love to discover new things and share these discoveries with friends. They are a little bit outside of the ordinary so mainstream brands might not be able to capture them.”

Hendrick’s, meanwhile, clearly has: William Grant & Sons, the Scottish distiller that owns the brand, as well as other higher-end liquors, such as Glenfiddich whiskey, saw its operating profit jump 10.6% last year. According to the Scotsman newspaper, when noting the sales spike the company “highlighted the ‘phenomenal success’ of Hendrick’s gin, which it said had been built on ‘word of mouth and careful nurturing of the brand.'”

Read the rest at Fast Co

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