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Cointreau announces the launch of the Cointreau Creative Crew in Nigeria. The Cointreau Creative Crew is a worldwide philanthropic programme curated by Creative Director, Laetitia Casta with the aim of developing women’s freedom and expression and encouraging them to strive to make their dreams a reality. This is to be achieved through the global Cointreau Creative Crew campaign, which encourages individuals to ‘dream, dare, create’. It was launched last year in the UK and will give an entrepreneur a chance to receive a grant of €20,000 to pursue their creative project. Although the campaign is primarily targeted at women, it is also open to men.
Consistently over time, Cointreau has championed the cause of women as they explore their creativity, break free from convention and make their own way in the world. Alfred Cointreau, Heritage Manager and great grandson (sixth generation of the family) of Founder Edouard Cointreau stated that “Edouard strived to create Cointreau for women when it was rare for women to have jobs, when they could not vote and when alcohol was only really drank by men. He wanted to be the first to speak to women through a glass.”
It is for this reason that Cointreau sought to partner with Betty Irabor (Founder and Publisher of Genevieve Magazine) to be at the helm of the Cointreau Creative Crew in Nigeria as the Creative Curator, as she is the embodiment of the Cointreau brand philosophy and lifestyle. The Cointreau Creative Crew consists of a grand jury and committee collectively headed by Betty Irabor. Also on the grand jury are Lami Tumaka (Deputy Director of NIMASA) and Barbara Lawrence (Chief Executive Officer of Insolitus Nigeria). The jury are tasked with the responsibility of promoting and encouraging all women to work towards actualising their dreams as espoused by the Dream-Dare-Create initiative.
Antoinette Drumm, Zone Director – Africa and Med ME, Rémy Cointreau Group companies, said “We are pleased to partner with Betty Irabor as the Creative Curator of the Cointreau Creative Crew. It’s very exciting to launch the initiative in Nigeria as the global campaign has only launched in the UK with Laetitia Casta. She has also enlisted a network of creative and influential talent including actress Eva Longoria to work on the programme alongside her. We are proud and honoured as the Cointreau Creative Crew marks the beginning of the brand’s mission to celebrate creativity and freedom of expression with women across the world.”
During the masterclass which followed right after the press conference, Alfred Cointreau spoke about the rich heritage of the brand; “We are the original triple sec with a 150-year tradition behind us; the distillery was set up in 1849 and from the traditional recipe to the iconic bottle shape, nothing has changed over the years; even though we do introduce limited edition packaging from time to time.” He also emphasised the importance of educating consumers about Cointreau; “Consumers today want to drink less, but drink better, and we want to show them they can do this with Cointreau. We will be working very closely with bartenders to show and teach them about the brand, the heritage, because that’s how we are going to get the message across to consumers.”
The Cointreau Creative Crew remains committed to helping inspire Nigerian women move beyond maintaining the status quo by motivating and supporting advancement in their chosen career fields which is only achievable through the willingness to create and explore new avenues of self expression.
