Hustle and pour

Kirk Spahn needs buzz for his new Vegas liqueur, Ty Ku. How to get it? Guerrilla marketing at Sundance, of course.

Xania Woodman

Park City, Utah

"It's a festival, not a market," asserts Sundance Institute founder Robert Redford's black-turtlenecked headshot from the front page of the Park Record newspaper. Try telling that to Las Vegas entrepreneur Kirk Spahn, creator of Ty Ku, the only all-natural Asian aphrodisiac liqueur. What began three years ago as a grad-school assignment is now something of a phenomenon. 2007's Sundance Film Festival will play a vital role in Ty Ku's growth, whether Redford wants it that way or not. That is, if Spahn can even get his liquor into the all-but-teetotalling state of Utah.


Undercover Brother

Spahn arrives on Friday, January 19, at his base of operations, the lemon-yellow so-called Vienna House in pastoral Heber City, with just four cases of Ty Ku and a lot of nerve. It's contraband, really, since his product is only licensed for distribution in Nevada and New York by Southern Wine & Spirits. Utah's state laws have stymied plans for Ty Ku sno-cone machines and free-flowing product at Sundance's public events, but that does not preclude him from serving it privately or from giving it as a personal gift to celebrities and trendsetters.

At least that is what he's telling himself.

Though never officially launched, Ty Ku seems to have lifted off without its investors having to throw money at the problem of getting the buzz going. Honest and down-to-earth, Spahn has been doing much of the relationship-building himself in Las Vegas, while Ty Ku co-creator Trent Ulicny develops the next round of spin-off products in New York. Spahn, who jokingly refers to himself as a "bootlegger," is rarely seen without his monogrammed Ty Ku man-bag. He regularly secrets a few bottles of the green stuff with him wherever he goes, offering samples to the right kinds of people.

At 9:40 p.m. he sets out for Harry-O's nightclub, the temporary home for Tao Las Vegas and New York during the festival. One bottle already sustained damage when Spahn mixed pre-party cocktails, displaying Ty Ku's versatility—pair it with Patron Silver, for example, for the Mexican Samurai. Ty Ku's unique bottle springs to green, glowing life each time it is picked up, courtesy of a bulb in the base—another little detail that has made Ty Ku fans of such notables as actor Jamie Foxx, who requested five cases at his birthday party in December.

Since bottle service is not allowed in Utah, even if Spahn could get Ty Ku into the thirsty public's hands, it would be in 1-ounce metered doses. Spahn has only 23 and a half bottles of Sundance's would-be It Drink, and he has to make it last three more days.


Natural and Naughty

Saturday night, Spahn makes a stop at ChefDance, where chef Kerry Simon of Simon Las Vegas is sending out a dense chocolate dessert and Roc-A-Fella Records and Rocawear impresario Damon Dash is getting his first taste of Ty Ku. "Talk about someone who started a business from scratch," Spahn whispers. Dash is known as a guerrilla-marketing master, the back of his coat tonight advertising his movie Weapons, premiering at the festival.

"Yeah, send me a case of that," Dash says, passing the bottle to his curious female guests before turning the conversation to investing with Spahn. Already, Ty Ku has seven investors, including NFL players, NASCAR drivers and a Fortune 50 CEO. Since everyone at Ty Ku must add value, including the backers, this is very good news.

In 2004, Spahn's Columbia University graduate school business professor was so blown away by the Ty Ku business plan—a group project that earned Spahn, 29, and Ulicny, 29, an A—that he, too, wished to invest. Building both a beverage and a brand from the ground up, they are in uncharted waters, creating a whole new breed of alcohol product: the sake-based liqueur.

"I love the idea of creating a new category of health-conscious alcohol," Spahn says. He sees Ty Ku as a healthy alternative to the sugary energy drinks and liqueurs that pack on the calories and almost guarantee a hangover. Among its more than 20 ingredients, Ty Ku brings together pomegranate, yuzu, plum, white cranberry and prickly pear with oolong and green teas. Vodka and sake are added, as are the purported aphrodisiacs damiana, ginseng and dragon's eye, bringing the luxe concoction to a whopping 20 percent alcohol, or 40 proof.

The moonshine mission continues as a bottle of Ty Ku travels the red carpet with DJ Jus SKE, then to his rig on stage. Dash takes a swig onstage while Diddy holds the green bottle and sings "Mo Money Mo Problems." Six bottles make their way to actress Sienna Miller's dinner at the Green House, as will three more the next night for Justin Timberlake. Earlier Saturday afternoon, Spahn, still in full snowboarding gear, ran into friend Alex von Furstenberg on Main Street. In the driving wind and snow, the fashion heir left with a new camouflage Ty Ku hat to match his pants.


To Market, to Market

On Monday, there are just two bottles left. One is going back onstage at Harry-O's, the other to the Heineken Green Room.

"Starting a brand from scratch is probably one of the hardest things you can do," Spahn says. "Education is the most important thing. Forget about ad buys, forget about throwing parties—if the bartender doesn't like it, you're done." And as for expensive PR stunts? "It's ephemeral. I think people can see through that." One exception is celebrity buy-in. Glossy pictures with celebrities beaming from behind the frosted-green obelisk—those are important, especially at Sundance. The now-coveted camouflage hats weren't a bad idea, either. What's more guerrilla than camo?

When asked about Ty Ku's guerrilla marketing plan, Spahn will inevitably reference Malcolm Gladwell's book The Tipping Point, in which the author introduces the concept of "connectors," or "ambassadors" in liquor lingo. "Ambassadors are people who feel the brand," Spahn explains, adding that they are not necessarily paid. They are young, influential, respected and have access, like Ty Ku investor Harry Morton, a prince of the Morton family empire and master of his own kingdom with his Pink Taco restaurants.

Spahn credits Morton with recommending Vegas as a proving ground. Ty Ku—the name is a mélange of notions, including tai chi and haiku—has since been present for events at Body English, Tao, Tryst, Light and Jet. "And Brazilian models love it," DJ Jus SKE adds with a twinkle in his eye.

In addition to Ty Ku's mysterious appearance all over Park City the past three days, the unmistakable bottle was spotted at the Fred Segal Suite, the North Face Ice House, the Marquee and Saturn Lounges, and at the Jane Magazine House. According to Spahn, actor and CineVegas film festival chairman Dennis Hopper said it was "the coolest bottle he has ever seen."


Vegas' Bootlegger Tycoon

"I like feedback," Spahn says. "My first question is always, ‘What don't you like about it?'" To get the formula right in the first place, Spahn turned to a world-famous master bar chef, Francesco Lafranconi, director of mixology for Southern Wine & Spirits, who worked Spahn through flavor profiles and hundreds of formulas before arriving at the current one.

On Tuesday, Spahn is in high spirits and heading to New York to update Ty Ku's business plan before returning to Vegas to implement it. "We will succeed and fail, in my book, on how Vegas receives it.

"More than anything, it was definitely an education," he says of his first Sundance. Along with all the contacts Spahn made this weekend, he takes with him new problems, good ones. "We're a small brand. [Sundance] has been great, but it comes down to Vegas right now."

As the Ty Ku team prepare to officially launch—finally—the need will come to legally sell Ty Ku beyond simply Vegas and New York. "If it ignites, you wanna be ready to go national," Spahn says. Next year, Spahn hopes, Sundancers can look forward to an official Ty Ku DJ spin-off, out in the open and with Utah's stamp of approval. And, of course, the sno-cone machines.

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