Brugal (Edrington Group)

Structuring a Performance-Driven Paid Media Ecosystem for a Global Prestige Rum

Industry
Luxury Wines & Spirits

Scope
Strategic Lead · Paid Media Orchestration (SEA/SMA) · Funnel Strategy · Market Prioritization · Governance & Performance Management

Context

Brugal is one of the most iconic Dominican rum houses, founded in 1888 and rooted in the values of craftsmanship, wood-aging mastery, and elevated conviviality. Over the past few years, the brand has been repositioning itself as a global ultra-premium player, launching collector editions (Andrés Brugal, Colección Visionaria), initiating artistic collaborations (Miami, Venice, Italy), and investing in a rich storytelling around Dominican heritage and modern craftsmanship.

But by 2022, Brugal’s paid and organic efforts were scattered, tactical, and uncoordinated. The content and influence teams operated independently from any performance logic, while paid media was underleveraged, driven by short-term conversion requests without any structured funnel or strategic market vision.

Brugal needed more than campaigns. They needed a performance architecture.

My Role

As Head of the Performance Business Unit, I took over Brugal’s global paid media strategy mid-2022 with a clear mandate:

  • Redesign the entire paid media framework, aligning strategy, funnel architecture, markets and KPIs

  • Annual media planning and Multi-market management: US (FL, TX, NY/NJ), France, Italy, UK, Dominican Republic

  • Orchestrate campaigns cross Meta, Pinterest, Google and Google Ads

  • Rebalance the dynamic with organic content and influence teams, creating governance and tactical alignment to unify brand expression across platforms

  • Establish performance accountability and data-driven budget allocation

  • Conflict management with the content/influence BU to enforce strategic and budgetary coherence

What I delievered

Brugal was never just about running paid campaigns. This was a deep transformation project: resetting the way the brand thinks, structures, and activates its media across borders, audiences, and objectives. As Head of Performance, I didn’t just optimize spend, I built a repeatable, data-driven, glocal paid media machine for Brugal.

I imposed strategic clarity, realigned markets and budgets, enforced governance across teams, and turned tactical chaos into a structured funnel strategy driving both brand equity and commercial impact.

Strategic. Structured. Business-first. That’s the mindset I bring to any brand serious about scaling its digital performance in premium markets.

Funnel Architecture & Strategic Realignment

Structured the paid strategy around a clear 3-step funnel:

  • Awareness: Always-On storytelling, Colección Visionaria content, Pinterest activation

  • Consideration: Traffic & engagement campaigns for Maestro Reserva & Visionaria CV03

  • Conversion: Retargeting and on-trade activations for Brugal 1888, Maestro Reserva

This approach replaced the fragmented “conversion-only” logic with a sustainable, brand-building media system that nurtured audiences across their journey.

Tactical and Creative Systematization
We designed each campaign with tailored platforms, creatives and KPIs:

  • Pinterest for premium cocktail rituals & Lifestyle (Serve, Visionaria)

  • Meta & YouTube for storytelling waves (Andrés Brugal, Visionaria)

  • Localized pushes for on-trade & event moments (Texas Push, Casa Brugal Massachussetts)

  • Integrated retargeting on Meta, scaling as markets matured

Market Prioritization by Data, Not Opinion

I redefined our market focus by analyzing data across CPMs, CTRs, audience maturity and brand affinity:

  • Florida & Texas: Balanced awareness and conversion plays

  • NY/NJ: Awareness and traffic only, retargeting introduced progressively based on maturity

  • France: Brand awareness combined with strategic retargeting

  • UK, Italy, DR: Secondary markets, optimized for brand presence

This allowed us to cut waste, reallocate budgets dynamically, and deepen impact where it mattered. Each campaign was tied to KPIs adapted to the market’s maturity and Brugal’s objectives.
→ Example: Florida shifted from costly conversions (€10.54 CPM in 2023) to efficient traffic campaigns with ~€2.63 CPM in 2024.

Paid & Organic Alignment

The content & social managment BU was still operating in an editorial mindset, disconnected from data. I imposed a governance structure to:

  • Align paid and organic efforts on seasonalities and product pushes

  • Redirect content production toward performance-ready assets

  • Defend strategic use of media budgets: Stop inefficient requests that inflated organic vanity metrics

  • Realign campaign timelines, formats, and narratives with performance objectives

I also coordinated the integration of assets produced for influence or editorial (e.g. cocktail rituals, lifestyle shots, product launches) into paid campaigns, ensuring creative consistency and brand elevation.

Highlight Campaigns

  • Andrés Brugal (Editions 01 & 02) – Full-funnel orchestration across Meta & YouTube, with 3-phase deployment (Tease / Inspire / Amplify)

  • Visionaria (Editions 01 & 02) – Premium storytelling on Pinterest & Meta; creative bridge between awareness and traffic

  • Serve – Cocktail-forward creatives with Meta + Pinterest; high CTR and audience engagement

  • Casa Brugal (US & UK) – Lifestyle & geo-targeted activations during IRL events (e.g. Savor St. Pete, Austin Food & Wine Festival)

  • Texas Push – SMA retargeting with best-performing CPM of 2024 (€2.58)

(2022 → 2025)

Results

  • CPM improved by 36% across primary markets

  • CPV halved: from €0.09 to €0.04 across hero campaigns (Andrés Brugal, Visionaria)

  • Landing page traffic nearly doubled

  • Pinterest CTR increased by +87% (2023 → 2024)

  • Built high-intent retargeting pools across US & EU

  • Transformed Always-On from passive reach to active conversion funnel

  • Embedded governance and cross-team alignment into Brugal’s media ops

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