What does your bar sound like? That was the question at the heart of Blended Beats, the activation we created with Monkey Shoulder: a whisky brand with deep roots in music and bar culture. Not a sponsored stage or a playlist, but an experience in which the bartenders themselves became the musicians.

The brief

Monkey Shoulder wanted to bring together twenty of the most promising bartenders in the Netherlands and kick off a competition with a day they wouldn’t forget. A day to meet each other, to get inspired and to leave with real motivation for what came next.

The concept: your bar is an instrument

Every bar has its own soundtrack. The clink of ice, a shaker, a bottle being opened, the hiss of a soda gun, the buzz of the room. We asked the bartenders to record the sounds of their own bar and bring them along. Those recordings became the raw material for the day.

Bartenders at work during the Blended Beats workshop for Monkey Shoulder in The Hague

The workshop in The Hague

The competition kicked off with a workshop in The Hague. Together with the Foltaazje team, the bartenders turned their bar recordings into beats and soundscapes: chopping, layering and shaping everyday sounds into instruments they could actually play. Most of them had never produced music before, and that was exactly the point. Within a few hours, the sound of their workplace had become a track of their own.

The day ended with a group performance, in which every bartender played their own composition. A room full of people who had only just met, making music from the sounds of their bars.

Making beats from recorded bar sounds at the Blended Beats workshop

The competition

After this day of inspiration, the bartenders went back to their own bars with a mission: create a cocktail inspired by the music that is played in their bar — their own take on a Monkey Shoulder Old Fashioned. The cocktail went on the menu, so guests could taste the result, and every entry was judged by a jury. Mark was part of that jury, judging how well each bar had translated its sound into a drink.

The result

One bartender came out on top and won a trip to India: a festival experience including a meet and greet with Fred again.. A prize that tied the whole story together, from the sounds of a bar to one of the most exciting artists in electronic music.

Why it worked

Blended Beats worked because it didn’t ask people to watch music, it asked them to make it. That changes how people remember a brand. A few things that made the difference:

Personal from the start. The raw material came from the participants’ own world, so every track was unique and every bartender was invested.
Low threshold, high level. No musical experience needed, while the production quality and guidance came from professionals.
A story with a tail. The workshop wasn’t the end point but the start of a competition that lived on in bars across the country.
Music as the connecting thread. From recording to cocktail to prize, every step linked back to sound.

Looking for something similar?

At Foltaazje we create music experiences for brands: activations, workshops, events, podcasts and sound logos. Whether you want to bring a team together, engage a community or give a campaign a sound of its own, we’ll think along from concept to execution. Take a look at what we do for brands or get in touch.

Photography: Albert van Beeck Calkoen