It was only a matter of time before a cult brand like Rizla got
involved with Jockey Slut, the magazine for clubbers that also ran its
own club night - Bugged Out in Liverpool.
But the mag’s advertising supremo Jake Redford was determined that the
sponsorship should be more imaginative than simply plastering Rizla
logos on Bugged Out flyers and stringing up banners at the venue. ’The
club’s customers tended to be extremely marketing-literate. Any blatant
attempt to sell anything to them would have undermined the club’s
credibility and certainly wouldn’t have created any warm feeling towards
the product.’
Instead, Redford and Rizla’s marketing agency Cake commissioned a
furniture designer to kit the club’s bar area out with chairs in the
same colours as the brand’s logo. Old black-and-white stills of the
Rizla factory were also projected onto the walls. ’In that way, the
brand actually added to the club’s environment,’ says Redford. ’The
customers really liked it and the sponsorship went on for a year.’
