Meet the BACARDÍ Brand Ambassadors

They know what’s going on and always get invited to the best parties – they’re the BACARDÍ Brand Ambassadors.

We asked them about uni life and their role on campus:

Ellen Salter, third year, Human Geography

What does your role as a BACARDÍ Brand Ambassador involve?

We go to house parties and people ask us for drinks – we literally just give people a complimentary shot of Fuego, and talk to them about BACARDÍ. 

Me and my housemate Miles (also a BACARDÍ Brand Ambassador) are running a competition in Cardiff for who has the best Fuego Face (the face they make after drinking the shot), so we thought a way to get loads out of it on social media was to get them to upload a photo of them doing the shot and they could be in with a chance of winning a prize – this time round it was tickets for our big Casa de Fuego event.

We’ve been doing that for the past month or so and that’s been really fun. 

We aim to work about three nights a week. Last week we did one with over 150 people there, the more people that go the more bottles we can take and the more photos we can upload. 

What do you think of BACARDÍ Fuego?

BACARDÍ Fuego is a spiced rum spirit drink, it’s best served as a shot without mixer. I think I can taste the vanilla quite a lot, other people can taste nutmeg and cinnamon.

What are the perks of being a BACARDÍ Brand Ambassador?

BACARDÍ have been really cool, if we do our job really well every week, they give us a £50 pre-paid MasterCard if we go above and beyond in our role, the card allows you to go into any bars and you get £50 worth of BACARDÍ drinks for us and our friends. 

What have you got out of being a BARCARDÍ Brand Ambassador?

I think it’s great for meeting fun new people, I think it’s made me more confident, not that I wasn’t confident before, it’s just going up to people and having to explain the drink.

On a different level it has given us good skills. Our managers are in London so we have to organise a lot of stuff ourselves – we’ve got a lot of responsibility which other people might not have in a different job.

Angelika Noicha, third year, Events Management

Where do you like to go out in Liverpool?

Medication but it’s moved to a Friday now, I also like Black Rabbit, Brooklyn Mixer and Level. I go out about once a week. 

What made you want to become a BACARDÍ Brand Ambassador?

When I applied for the job, I originally wasn’t sure whether to go for Smirnoff or BACARDÍ. I wasn’t aware of BACARDÍ at all until I went to the training day in London which was just mind-blowing.

You learn the whole history about BACARDÍ, it’s been going on for over 150 years, it’s amazing and they teach you how the recipe actually survived.

What does your role involve?

Promoting BACARDÍ mainly to societies, I’ll speak to like the rugby union, the football team, the basketball team and find out where they are having a party and pop in and give out sample shots of BACARDÍ Fuego, tell them a little bit about the product. 

What have you got out of being a BACARDÍ Brand Ambassador?

It’s definitely given me confidence speaking to large groups of people on a very casual basis, it’s helped me to develop my professional language, but I do love the networking and I get to meet other Ambassadors.

It’s amazing how many people you meet, sometimes I’ll be walking and I’ll see the rugby team and they’re like “Ah, its BACARDÍ girl!”

How do you drink BACARDÍ Fuego?

Fuego is best served as a shot, and with a little bit of TABASCO® Sauce – the ideal is three drops because this is when the flavours complement each other the best. It’s about feeling the heat of the shot.

Most people like it, some people like to try it with TABASCO® Sauce and some without.

Miles England, third year, Journalism

Tell us a bit about yourself

I’m a third year at Cardiff doing Journalism, I love living in Cardiff. I live in a massive house this year with eight other people, I’ve been doing the BACARDÍ stuff since September so it’s been pretty busy.

What do you like most about Cardiff?

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I like how much is going on all the time. Now I don’t go “out out” as much as I used to, it’s more house parties.

Every weekend we’ve got something going on, because of BACARDÍ probably, we have something going on every Friday and Saturday that we can go to if we want to.

Treatment is a massive house night in Cardiff, but smaller clubs like Buffalo and Welsh Club are so much better for a gig.

What’s the funniest thing that’s ever happened whilst working?

We like to give out TABASCO® Sauce with BACARDÍ Fuego, and if it’s a really heavily boys populated party, you’ve always got that one boy who thinks he can show these guys.

We had this one guy took his own TABASCO® Sauce and must have put like 12 drops of it in his shot. I saw him take the shot and his face afterwards was the funniest thing I’ve ever seen – all his mates were laughing so hard at him.

Everyone has their own taste but it’s best served with three drops – not 12.

Have you tried BACARDÍ Fuego?

We’ve been sent a lot of rum to sample to students and of course I have tried Fuego, I personally do really like Fuego which is a good job because it’s what we’re promoting. Compared to other spirits I think it’s really good. There aren’t many other spirits I would drink as much as this.

Usually we’d enjoy it with a few drops of TABASCO® Sauce but it also goes well with Coke.

What are the perks of working as a BACARDÍ Brand Ambassador?

We got sent like 50 of these tin BACARDÍ cups when we hosted our start of the year party. I think we have about 50 BACARDÍ shot glasses and we got full cocktail making kits so we can sample serving the product.

We were also given a new backpack to get to events which is actually so nice, it’s a Herschel backpack – they retail for 70 quid and we got them for free to help up carry all our things to events. 

What do you feel you’ve got out of the job?

I’m looking to go into Marketing when I finish and I think doing all this has been a bit of an eye opener, made me think a bit more about social media campaigns. 

There’s so much networking, it’s made me think this would be a really fun job to do in general. One of the parties we went to – you never know how many people are going to be there and what vibe it’s going to be. We walked in and they had completely kitted the place out. They had DJ’s that had performed at Bestival and stuff, to be able to walk around that amazing party and just sample free BACARDÍ was incredible.

Alice McGlaughlin, third year, History

Tell us a bit about yourself

I’m a third year at Manchester Met studying History – I love it. I’m going to do a Masters next year if I get in at Manchester, it’s literally my passion.

I love Manchester, it rains every single day but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

My favourite night is Antwerp Mansion, I’m having my 21st there. It’s different every week, you can pick and choose the events, you go to the people you want to see, I’ve never had a bad night there.

What does your job involve?

I message people if they have a social or pre-drinks, people will either completely ignore me (which is nuts because I’m sampling alcohol), or people will be like “absolutely come on down.”

Everyone’s always confused asking me if it’s free or if they have to do something I just say “you just have to try it.” It’s really fun and I’ve made loads of friends through it. I’m really good friends with the other Ambassadors up and down the country.

It’s tough sometimes during third year but it’s worth it, it’s completely flexible. They are always understanding when I have other stuff on. My boss is also really cool – I bumped into him at Bestival.

What do you pre-drink on?

I love to drink BACARDÍ Fuego. We tried a bottle over the summer, me and my mates tried it and then my dad tried it and all his friends. I drink spiced rum anyway but I don’t drink Captain Morgan’s anymore, I drink Fuego and Coke.

Do most people like BACARDÍ Fuego?

It’s great as a shot with TABASCO® Sauce but it’s literally 50/50 those who like the TABASCO® Sauce and those who don’t. Some people just don’t like it whereas some people love it – some of my friends will drink it straight. It’s completely different for everybody but because I’m giving it to people to sample, most people just try it.

We’ve got this ‘Choice or Chance’ app on our phone, and people just spin the wheel and you get one to four drops of TABASCO® Sauce but people like the rugby initiation boys will want to try their own thing, they will want to put half a bottle of Tabasco in their shot.

How long is your average shift?

It only takes like 45 minutes per event or pre-drinks, I use up the bottles and tell them about BACARDÍ, then nine times out of 10 I’ll end up going out with them. 

What have you got out of your role as a BACARDÍ Brand Ambassador?

I always thought that I didn’t like people, but turns out I actually do. I quite enjoy speaking to random people, I’m quite good in a situation where I literally know no one. It’s boosted my confidence, I was quite confident already but it’s given me something else to put on my CV as well. It’s an experience that I would recommend, it’s not about the money it’s about the experience for me