Why I created a fake vodka to launch my startup’s new product: Kevin Bracken

The man behind using giant pillow fights, bubble parties and glow battles for marketing launched an entire vodka brand to highlight his new venture.

With Speakeasy, Kevin Bracken aims to make planning events easier by helping organizers find venues more quickly. A web startup focused on event space can’t focus on just one splashy launch.

Instead, Bracken, who splits his time between Toronto and New York, where he has worked at Brooklyn-based Refuge, decided to persuade fifty venues to register with the site and use his ticketing platform on a single weekend. He thought the best way to incentivize venues would be by giving them free liquor but knew they couldn’t get enough in time. So, his team invented “Dusty Rabbit Vodka.”

[Next Web]