Wintertime in Germany is gloomy and rainy. To make Germans forget about the winter and give them a taste of Mexico, we mixed the Mexican thing they love most—tequila (Germany is the #2 tequila importer in the world)—with the weather they hate most—rain—to create the Tequila Cloud. To produce it, we partnered with scientists and engineers to give it a try. It took six months of trial and error to discover a way to create it. How? Ultrasonic humidifiers vibrated tequila at a frequency that turns the liquor into mist. The vapor was pushed up into a plastic structure, where it condensed. Then, liquid rained as drops into a basin, where it was pumped up to repeat the cycle: vaporization, condensation, and precipitation. Like a real cloud. The Tequila Cloud’s computer was tied to real-time weather data, so it rained every time it rained in Berlin.

The Tequila Cloud is a sculpture that reproduces the three cycles of a real cloud: vaporization, condensation, and precipitation. Controlled by a computer, it rained every time it was raining outside, due to being tied to real-time weather data. It was shown in March, strategically, during the ITB, The World's Leading Travel Trade Show®. To stand out, we installed it at Urban Spree, a contemporary art gallery located on one of Berlin's busiest streets (200,000 daily visitors). The campaign started with a post by the art gallery's Facebook Page and posts by nightlife publications. VisitMexico’s FB Page promoted a dark post to their German followers, inviting them to the gallery, and also a Live video, so the rest of the world could experience the cloud, even though they weren’t in Berlin. After a week of implementation, the Tequila Cloud had generated a massive PR storm in Germany and worldwide.

After the Tequila Cloud launched, Google searches for “Mexico Travel” increased by 50% in Germany. It was covered by top local media and it scaled worldwide to 50+ countries and 175+ news outlets, including 80 broadcast stations, in top markets for Mexico, such as the US. It generated 473MM total impressions. A majority of articles elaborated on the cloud’s science, and the tone was overwhelmingly positive. It was a Top 5 story on the Huffington Post. A $60K media buy generated $4.8MM in earned media, amplifying our media reach by 7,833%. People even demanded the cloud in other countries, so they could experience it firsthand. Mainstream buzz extended to celebrities like Chelsea Handler, who tweeted “Hopefully . . . it'll drop frozen margaritas.” It penetrated pop culture—it was mentioned as a pop-quiz question on NPR (6MM listeners per week) and asked to Sports Illustrated’s “Lady of the Day.”