Massimiliano Uccellatori is the Brand Ambassador of Broken Clock Vodka, an award-winning English vodka. Born in Northern Italy, Massimiliano moved to London and started his career in hospitality as a waiter. He has worked behind the bars of high-end hospitality establishments in London, mixing and serving remarkable drinks. Broken Clock Vodka is a sophisticated yet playful spirit that is crafted by time in North England using traditional 18th-century ingredients. Inspired by English country garden at Shandy Hall

in North Yorkshire, it is distilled in a traditional copper pot still and is infused with slowly ripened apples along with botanicals from the garden which makes it a perfect base for cocktails. 

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Can you tell us a little about yourself and your role as a Brand Ambassador at Broken Clock Vodka? 

I have 15 years of background in the hospitality industry between Italy and London, in which I covered many different roles, all very helpful to have a full understanding of the whole mechanism. I had the chance to work for different types of places, from clubs to Michelin-starred restaurants.

In my background, I also have a bachelor's degree in communication connected with arts and cinema and years in events organization in Rome. 

I specialized in bartending reaching the Head Bartender position at prestigious 5-stars hotels such as the World-renowned Claridge’s in London, where I also had the chance to distill my own gin using the rotary evaporator.

Broken Clock is an independent brand of The Hidgate ltd, with a modestly sized team but a great passion. Brand Ambassador experiences might differ a lot, where you’re not only the face of the brand but also, like in my case, a huge part is taken by sales and marketing. I take part in all the decisions concerning brand development, training and masterclasses, events organization, and cocktails creation.

How did you end up in this role and how has being a bartender in the past helped you to grow as a Brand Ambassador?  

To tell the truth, the quality of life as a bartender wasn’t great. In one of my previous jobs, I met Alex, the Sales Director of Broken Clock Vodka, who was looking for a Brand Ambassador. After tasting the product, having a better understanding of the brand and the project, I could not wait to be part of their team. I loved Broken Clock at first sight.

Being a bartender in the past has been useful. Part of the reason why I was hired was that type of background, other than my experience behind the distillation of a spirit. Also, I have a great understanding of what happens behind a bar or a restaurant, a good base of knowledge, and many contacts. Each of us has a specific field of expertise and different point of view, handy when trying to build a brand. As Brand Ambassador you maintain a close connection with the bar, just in a more flexible and dynamic way, allowing yourself not only to keep alive the creative component but also maintaining the customer service at high standards, meeting many new interesting people as well and being in amazing places at all times.

How do you increase visibility and promote brand awareness around consumers and trade?

At the moment, both visibility and promotion are focused on working directly with venues. Basically, we try to put our elegant and fully bespoke bottle in front of as many people as possible and especially let them taste the spirit. 

We have Broken Clock cocktails on the menus of specific venues where our product suits the type of customers. People need to understand that there are many different brands and styles of vodka, not just a few and that all of them are different. In this case, an important role is played by the professionals working in bars, restaurants, or shops. For a newish product, an extra word from the waiter or bartender will make a huge difference as it will inform the customer catching their attention. To reach that, proper staff training is fundamental. Part of our job is to make staff excited about Broken Clock and happy to promote it for us. We do a lot of incentives/competitions with bartenders, which works very well; they are engaged, they compete with each other to win the final prize and managers are eager to generate business and keep their staff motivated.

For example, we like to find English celebrations in the diary to be connected to a story in which Broken Clock would fit perfectly and work with the venue to make it memorable.

What strategies do you use to gain distribution, increase volume sales and gain cocktail placements? Could you give me an example of an account you recently cracked?

Consistency, determination, and patience are strength points to reach these goals. Nothing with Broken Clock is rushed, we work at our pace respecting each supplier’s different approach to business and now we can count on working with multiple respected suppliers. Broken Clock is a new style of vodka, a new alternative that can really make a change in the vodka market. More people every day understand this and distributors will follow, volume and cocktail inclusions as well. 

To gain distribution we often start from the venues to get the distributors rather than the opposite. We like to focus on the point of sales of Broken Clock as well as working alongside the sales reps and pushing competitive deals to increase the volume. Lastly, we find creative and tailored ways to collaborate with decision-makers and be unique to get cocktail placements. 

Using these strategies we recently cracked some of Britain's most prestigious hotels, the oldest wine & spirits merchants, and a few of the World’s best bars.

What are the 3 things you focus on while pitching your product to buyers?

Firstly, asking questions to understand if our product fits with the customers’ demand and buyers' needs, then secondly applying honesty and empathy. The third is the product with its beautiful story, fantastic taste, versatility, and its unique selling points. Overall, we always try to be authentic, not only with our brand but also with our approach.

What do you focus on in your training and masterclasses? Could you take us through your training module? 

Every new listing is immediately followed by staff training to engage the team members with the product and keep them up to date, with all the information they need to sell it and entertain their clients. We try to keep the training short and fun. We start with a bit of history behind the brand, the story of Broken Clock and its name, production process, followed by a neat tasting and cocktail examples, paired with info on the bottle and some final questions. 

Depending on the requirements of the venue we can include the history of vodka as a spirit and its role in the market and/or a Martini masterclass, which is a cocktail that we consider the hero serves for Broken Clock.

What kind of marketing collaborations do you do with Hotels and Restaurants? Could you give examples?

Just a few success stories are:

-  The Martini flight, following a ‘broken’ history of Martini, from the Martinez to the Dry Martini.

-  The celebration of Gibson Day with an Ad Hoc menu.

-  A vodka-cigars pairing night (yes, believe it or not with Broken Clock it’s possible!).

-  A tasting menu paired with Broken Clock cocktails.

Maintaining relationships with your clients is a big part of your role, what are a few simple yet effective ways to keep that going?

The goal is to build proper relationships which could end up in friendship. What we do it’s not only work, but mainly a passion we share.

Empathy and honesty are key and trust is probably the most important factor as they also need to rely on you. I think the best way to maintain a work-based relationship is to deliver promises, create interesting and unique ways to work alongside, and especially have fun.

What are some of the changes you have noticed in the drinks industry since the Pandemic? How has this affected your brand?

It was clearly a very challenging time, full of uncertainty, but our industry is strong and kept going despite difficulties. As always, the solidarity within the industry showed up, sometimes in moving ways. 

As we know, many places, closed, loads of people lost their jobs and who are now recovering are facing a hard time finding staff, causing long shifts, unfair rotas and overall bad business for the venue or company.

However, we all kept a positive mentality and took the best out of what was happening. We used the lockdown time to focus on social media, brand awareness, and online sales, obtaining good results but also it gave us the chance to sit down and really get under the skin of the brand, working on strategies, brand image, and general communication.

How has digital marketing proved to be an effective tool for you? Can you tell us about your digital marketing strategy?

Digital marketing is a fundamental tool in 2022, something you just need to find a way to make it work. 

Being funny and original, giving people what they would like to see to make them involved. 

For example, we focus the attention on the brand’s Englishness and we tell British stories connected with the brand, together with artistic photos. It’s important to define clearly the image of the brand you want to give away. For us, everything is built organically, from search engine optimization to e-commerce, the website, or social media. It is slower but much more effective and genuine. The perception of trust toward our brand starts from there as well and it’s working.

What are some of the biggest challenges you face? Can you share a piece of advice for future brand representatives?

It took me a while to get used to public speaking. It’s something related to your personality but nothing that can’t be ‘trained’. Time after time you build confidence.

As always, the best way is to learn from all your experiences and mistakes. In my opinion, in this job it is important to be organized, prioritize and ask for help from your colleagues because at the end of the day you are part of a team with a common goal to reach. 

A suggestion I could give, something I understood on the way, is to start this career only if you find one or a portfolio of products that you really like and enjoy. Going around and talking to people about a product you don’t like will be the worst!

What do you mean by lingering vodka? Can you take us through your favorite Broken Clock recipes? 

The goal of Andrey, the Founder of Broken Clock, was to create a sophisticated yet playful sipping vodka that you would be able to drink even neat and at room temperature like you would do with any other fine spirit, finally breaking misconceptions and stereotypes about the category. 

Broken Clock is an Awfully English Vodka crafted by time using a traditional method of production that takes inspiration from the Georgian period, where the word ‘vodka’ appeared in England for the first time in literature.

Starting from a base of 100% British wheat we go through Copper Pot distillation alongside the infusion of botanicals from an English Country Garden in North Yorkshire called Shandy Hall, the former home of the eccentric 18th Century author Laurence Sterne, where he wrote the famous novel ‘Tristram Shandy’. Among the botanicals, the main ones used are three organic and windfall apple varieties.

At the nose, floral, citrusy and fruity notes just like walking into a garden, at the palate subtle complexity, great mouthfeel, incredible smoothness, a hint of natural sweetness, with no sugar or additives added and no burning feeling at the back of your throat. To conclude the tasting, lingering vodka means that the finish is long and persistent, the aftertaste ‘lingers’ and the flavor profiles sit in your mouth for a long time. A very unique vodka in the market!

With its gentle character, it is also very versatile for cocktails. No matter which cocktail, with either vodka or gin you pick, you can easily replace Broken Clock instead, being able to create a full range of cocktails from summary to wintery ones. Including Bloody Marys and our pick of choice: the Martini Cocktail. Try one to believe! Play with Martini styles and vermouths and you'll never be disappointed.

Among the other favorite cocktails with Broken Clock, the Awfully English Paloma with grapefruit soda, lavender, and sage, and the Windfall Mule with good ginger beer and a touch of Cider Brandy to enhance the apple notes.

Header image source: Broken Clock Vodka