La Aurora

Content Development, Marketing, Product Management, User Research + Testing, UX/UI/Development

Refreshing a 100+ year-old brand

With slipping brand awareness in the US, how do we help a 100+ year-old cigar brand expand their sales outside of brick and mortar shops, manage a complicated regulatory system, and build an audience beyond the traditional cigar smoker?

  • 01

    Taking La Aurora DTC

    La Aurora, the Dominican Republic’s oldest cigar brand was growing ever more frustrated by their supply chain. While their average cigar sold in a retail store for nearly $12, that generated roughly $1 of revenue for the brand. They were growing the tobacco, aging it, hand rolling the cigars, and distributing them throughout the world and despite being over 100 years old, they were capturing just 8% of the revenue associated with their product. The solution: go direct-to-consumer to complement their existing retail distribution.

  • 02

    Expanding for e-commerce

    First, we had to help La Aurora expand its audience beyond the traditional cigar smoker (male, middle-aged). This included exploring new segments like occasional smokers and experimenters, as well as a re-introduction to cigar experts. The next step?  Helping these new customers find the perfect cigar.

03

Finding the cigar for you

Since customers can’t truly experience the product through a website, we needed to figure out ways to help them make what are usually sensory-driven decisions. We developed quizzes and onsite tools to help users define flavor notes and other personal preferences, helping match the right person with the right cigar.

04

Smoking content creation

To support the site and multichannel marketing push, we worked across various capabilities, from production (photoshoot, CGI), to CRM email flows, digital and print ad creative, social influencer strategy and management, packaging design, and more.

  • Photoshoot

  • Marketing emails

  • Social media strategy + content

  • Branded packaging