We recently connected with Adriana Mariella and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Adriana thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. To kick things off, we’d love to hear about things you or your brand do that diverge from the industry standard.

Harridan–meaning bossy belligerent woman–is built on the notion of defying the industry standard. We do this in 3 main ways: redefining what vodka can be with a sippable, flavorful profile; challenging notions of what a female-founded spirit looks like (we’re decidedly not pink and flowery or low abv); and explicitly standing for equity and progress and supporting organizations that push that forward.

I think this is what makes Harridan so revolutionary. Not only is our liquid–named “Best Vodka” by Rolling Stone and Esquire and “Best Top Shelf Vodka” by GQ–challenging perceptions of what vodka can be, our brand itself is shaking the dust off of a somewhat stale category (sorry, but it’s true!).

With everything–from the big campaign down to a simple giveaway–we are always asking “could we do this differently?” While some things need to adhere to industry standard or their difference will be more of a nuisance than a novelty and there are certain elements you just need to have to service distributors and retailers, so much of what is “typical” in this industry is part of a playbook we want to rewrite.

Some spirits brands are approaching their marketing differently (Ford Gin’s “Music to Drink Martinis To” and Mr. Black’s Espresso Martini Week immediately spring to mind). But very few spirits brands–especially vodka brands–venture outside of ingredient stories to truly speak to who their consumers are or are doing the kind of out-of-the-box work advertisers are jealous of. That’s the kind of work I want to make.

I’m incredibly proud of the outsized creativity that we’ve brought to our brand and everything we’ve been able to execute on a startup budget. Highlights for me include: Rethinking merch (we have ritual matches and cardigans instead of the usual tees and coasters), creating “Dry [Martini] January,” launching two different limited edition Reserve offerings (Midsummer, in partnership with the Hoodwitch, and the Paranormal that I mention later on), and creating a brand identity rich in storytelling that immediately tells consumers who Harridan is for and what we’re about.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Prior to joining Harridan, I spent my career learning how to build brands. At some of the country’s best agencies, I worked on brand campaigns for some of the world’s biggest brands: adidas Originals, Kraft, Volkswagen, Cheerios, and more.

I started in account management, which to the lay person means I was involved in every aspect of our clients’ work: I managed client relationships and all parts of the process from brief through to production and implementation in the world. I eventually transitioned into strategy, which is responsible for creating ways to solve business problems and position brands by identifying consumer insights, category white space, and so on. In these two capacities, I became familiar with enough of the process that at Harridan I’m able to be our Chief Brand Officer as well as sometimes graphic designer, comms planner, producer, set designer, photographer / videographer, and event planner (or at least know who to call for what I can’t do). I don’t scare easily and know how to wear many hats.
Very much like my serendipitous entry into spirits, my getting into advertising in the first place was also an accident. (Although, advertising is a bit of a catch-all for smart, curious, and creative people so maybe it was inevitable I’d end up here).

When I left undergrad (where I majored in English), I had dreams of being a professor and had applied to PhD programs. I was delighted to be accepted into a Master’s program at NYU, but unlike many of my friends and classmates who were spending the summer enjoying their last before their already secured jobs began in the fall, I had no plans. A good friend who had graduated the year prior encouraged me to apply to the internship program at her agency, Saatchi & Saatchi NY.

What I thought would be a summer job or something to help pay for my Master’s credits became an industry I could see myself in long term. I stayed at Saatchi & Saatchi for years, even focusing my Master’s thesis on the intersection of advertising, pop culture, and politics. I had a front row seat to how ads get made that few academics had access to, which changed my approach to both my career and my academic study. Since then, I have published multiple peer-reviewed articles on advertising and culture and presented on the topic at academic conferences.
I continue to be passionate about the ways in which brands participate in culture and vice versa, the way people adopt them into their identities, and the way commercial mass media functions as not just a conduit for ideas but also of socio-political change.

Alright – let’s talk about marketing or sales – do you have any fun stories about a risk you’ve taken or something else exciting on the sales and marketing side?

As an occult-inspired brand, we knew we wanted to create something impactful for our first Halloween. Ideally, it would be a stunt that could do double duty as a sales and awareness moment, yet be accomplished on a small budget. After a few of the ideas we were batting around with a creative team didn’t pan out (putting a bar in the center of a corn maze wasn’t easy to execute), in August 2021 they riffed the idea of “aging” our vodka in haunted houses, potentially possessing it. Immediately seeing the talk value in this, we immediately got to work creating what would become the “Paranormal Reserve,” signing on 3 of the most haunted places in America to house Harridan for a month: the Conjuring House, the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, and the Villisca Axe Murder House. At the time, we had about 1,000 Instagram followers – many of whom were our family and friends – so we had tempered our expectations for how many of the 70 bottles we would sell when it went live at midnight on October 13. To our surprise, we sold out of all of them before the sun came up again. It received incredible press attention and was a Webby Nominee in a category that also honored Nike, Fenty, and IKEA. Now approaching its fourth year, the Paranormal Reserve has gained quite the following in the spooky community, selling out each year. Watching this total experiment of an idea turn into a staple of our business has been one of the highlights of building Harridan so far and was a real lesson for me to not underestimate the value of throwing some spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I’ve worked in enough categories to know that while every industry has its pros and cons, the spirits industry is a particularly tough one.

The three-tier system and the regulated nature of the business not only means we have more handcuffs than other industries when it comes to marketing, but it also means that bringing a product to market requires winning over more gatekeepers than you might in others.

For example, a spirits brand not only needs to find retailers and bars/restaurants willing to take it on, it requires finding a distributor to legally deliver your product to those customers. In our home state of New York, liquor store chains are prohibited. This means that someone on the Harridan team has separately sold our product into each and every location where Harridan is carried.

I don’t want to give a cop-out answer that every day in this industry is a bit of an act of resilience, but when you add in the sometimes taxing nature of bar-hopping for a living, the expected obstacles that come with being a challenger brand, and the difficulty of being a woman in an extremely male dominated space… that is kind of the case.

Don’t get me wrong, this industry has some brilliant positives: I have learned more from the above challenges than I’ve felt discouraged, the bartending community (at least in New York) is deeply unique and fun, so many wonderful people have helped us along the way, and it’s a real joy to become immersed in something that 3 years ago I knew so little about. Plus, always having a seat at the bar and a familiar face behind it at some of my favorite places is an invaluable perk that has made me feel even more at home in my own city. I’m so deeply grateful for being able to do this job, but (much like living in New York)… it takes all you’ve got!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.harridan.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/harridanvodka/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adriana-mariella/

Image Credits
Anthony Tripoli Joanna Lin