1966: End of Year Wrap-up
By: Ajani Husbands
Tags: Rum Punch, Ajani Husbands, 1966, South Africa

As many of you know, I left the world of biglaw and launched a rum-based company in South Africa earlier this year, with our flagship product being 1966: Artisanal Rum Punch. As we wrap-up the first year of 1966, I wanted to take a moment to highlight our achievements in the few months since we’ve launched.

Crowdfunding Success!!

In September of this year, after several months of preparation, we launched our Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign, which marked the official beginning of 1966. In the first two days of our campaign, we exceeded our fundraising goal of $20,000 and ultimately raised over $31,612 from 174 backers in less than two weeks! The outpouring of support has been overwhelming. As a plus, the Kickstarter campaign also allowed us to partner with South African artists to help us continue to grow the brand, such as graphic designer Hustle & Funk, and mixed media artist Lesego Seoketsa. We also unveiled our partnership with our official mixologist, Zimbabwe’s sole Black woman professional bartender, Ashler “The Mixologist” Jaya.

Soft-Launch

1966: the official drink of the summer

Following the success of the Kickstarter, we went into full marketing mode and worked to get the word out about 1966. Our astounding, Black-women led marketing team, Nomadic African, took the helm of organizing our soft launch event at Toasted. In short, it was a VIBE. Bloggers, restauranteurs, and influencers gathered together to enjoy 1966 and Caribbean-inspired dishes, and offer feedback before we began the process of going live to the public. Of all the positive feedback we received, our favorite comment that summed up 1966: “it tastes like summer!” You can check out a beautiful preview video from the event on our Instagram page here.

Pre-Orders and Restaurant Features

1966 pre-orders getting ready to go out to customers across South Africa.

The soft-launch event led to some very specific wins for 1966. Most notably, we immediately received order requests from several restaurants in Johannesburg, leading to 1966’s restaurant debut at the opening of 86 Public in Randburg. We’ve also received orders from the owner of Louise & Anna and Even After All and look forward to being featured at each of these restaurants in January.

Moreover, we used the popularity of 1966 from the soft launch to offer a limited number of pre-order sales to South Africa customers, and received orders from across three different South Africa provinces! Thank you to our pre-sale customers, and we hope that you are enjoying your 1966 during the holidays!

Press Coverage

In the three months since our Kickstarter launch, we’ve been featured in a few articles, including a Black-owned brand gift guide:

Be sure to stay tuned to our press page as we get featured in more articles.

2022 Goals

Overall we had an excellent first few months, but we’re planning even more as we gear up for 2022. For the first quarter of 2022, we will focus on three specific areas:

increasing online ordering availability across South Africa by getting listed on takealot.com as well other online delivery services. Entering three spirits competitions to prove that 1966 is a gold-level cocktail. Specifically, the first three on our radar are: 1) the New York International Spirits Competition, 2) the London Spirits Competition, and 3) the SIP Awards. Finding our way into more restaurants in South Africa and expanding availability to Botswana.

Probably the number one question we are getting right now is “when will 1966 be available in the United States????” And my answer to that is SOON!! We are really focused on establishing our foothold in South Africa and gaining traction in some of the surrounding countries. Once we are on solid ground, we will work on making 1966 available to our U.S. customers and other customers outside of Africa.

2021 started off strong, and we look forward to doing even more in 2022! If you’re not already following us on social media, be sure to check us out:

Instagram (← this is the main one to follow)

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