Liquid gold, or why archives should matter to drinks companies

Building on insights from my attendance of the joint annual conference of the Business Archives Council and the Business Archives Council of Scotland, let’s explore ways in which corporate archive collections can add value for drinks companies.

Iconic status of many alcohol brands is underpinned by their heritage. In order to win in today’s overcrowded marketplace, it is crucial for a product to be unique – and it is the product’s past that often drives such uniqueness. The history of a company or individual entrepreneur behind it can also help build organization’s identity, illuminate certain aspects of its business culture, inform new product development, and feed marketing creativity. However, the management of brand heritage in the corporate world is habitually assigned to people who lack the appreciation of the delicacy of this task and rarely possess the skills needed to exploit its potential to the fullest: they are usually FMCG marketers, public relations specialists, or hospitality experts – not trained historians.

Whether historical methodology could and should be applied to matters outside of academia is a long and ongoing debate, rooted in the deeper question of what the purpose of history as an intellectual and scholarly practice actually is. During the historiographical revolution of the nineteenth century, Leopold von Ranke – the founding father of modern historical science – has famously proclaimed that he does not aspire to be judging the past nor instructing the present for the benefit of the future, he only wants to show what actually happened. The methodology of reconstructing the events from primary sources and factual analysis while avoiding opinions led to professionalization of history as a scientific discipline, which has profoundly affected the relationship between historians and the world. As the field was developing in the course of the past century, the former began to increasingly address more and more specific audiences, putting a particular focus on their scholarly peers with academic journals becoming the principal medium of knowledge dissemination. Consequently, professional historians not only distanced themselves from present-day issues, but gradually moved away from popular writing style thereby alienating the more general public (a feeling that should be familiar to anyone trying to fight his or her way through highbrow blather of specialized academic publications).

Portrait of Leopold von Ranke, Julius Friedrich Anton Schrader (1868). Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie

At the same time, the interest in history remained high among general public throughout the twentieth century and continues to grow in the twenty first, a trend that is fueled by the long-term global crisis. When the present is gloomy and the future uncertain, people often prefer to retreat into the past – either to escape from the surrounding reality or to look for answers. Today’s abundancy of popular historical literature, history-themed magazines, blogs, TV shows and YouTube channels is a perfect manifestation of this. However, given the self-imposed isolation of academic historians in their proverbial ivory towers, at the very moment when demand is increasing, the ‘supply’ of original and high-quality histories aimed at popular audiences decreases. As a result, interpretation of history is assumed by journalists and amateur enthusiasts. This is particularly characteristic of the drinks industry: when was the last time you read a popular book on the history of alcohol written by a professional historian? The lack of scholarly involvement results in research that is superficial, incomplete, or outright misleading, with most of new publications on the subject representing mere compilations of older stuff and new findings or revision of conventional beliefs being virtually absent (with a few notable exceptions).

The same problem pertains to the ambiguous relationship between historians and the corporate world. While some of today’s CMOs realize the enormous potential of their companies’ individual histories, and several large (overwhelmingly American) corporations – such as Ford Motor Company, Coca-Cola, Nike, or Levi’s – even create ‘brand historian‘ positions in their staffing structures, others are still skeptical about engaging historical consultants and are not prepared to empower them in any way, save for hagiographic functions like writing a company history book or curating a brand museum.

Levi Strauss & Co.'s Tracey Panek, one of the few professional historians who managed to apply her academic background to the corporate setting and make herself incredibly relevant for the business. She is pictured here next to Albert Einstein’s Levi’s jacket, purchased by the company through Christie's auction with a winning bid of  $146,744. Image courtesy of Levi Strauss & Co.

For their part, professional historians are also reluctant to work for the private sector, rejecting the very idea of the use of the past for commercial purposes. They consider themselves first and foremost as academics and are not willing to be selling history as an economic service outside their traditional fields of research and teaching. The historians’ fear is that by engaging in a relationship with a business corporation they will expose themselves to a loss of credibility, and their independence as researchers will be corrupted.  

Such mutual distrust is unfortunate, since academic historians are trained to manipulate numerous and varied sources of information, critically appraise gathered evidence, and produce written syntheses of their work – the very skills that are required by the companies to reconstruct and interpret the past in order to create unique and authentic brand experiences. The more intensive use of such specialists by marketers and integration of their expertise and methods into brand-building processes will be extremely beneficial for brand owners. Luckily, there exists an area in which at least some form of synergy between a historian’s profession and various commercial organizations has been taking place for decades and from which we could draw inspiration. It is the world of business archives.

Business archives are various records and other documents or material objects generated by a business that are permanently preserved in order to provide future generations with information about its development and activities. They are found in a variety of formats and may include order books and ledgers, customer letters, photographs, advertisements, and the products themselves (which in the case of drinks companies can sometimes amount to thousands and thousands of bottles).

Diageo’s Liquid Library, a room in the company archives in Menstrie, near Stirling, filled with over 4,000 whisky bottles dating from the 1880s through to present day. Image courtesy of Diageo

In Germany, Krupp Company used the help of historians to consolidate their archives as early as 1905. Historian William Overman became a permanent employee of the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company (USA) in 1943 to establish what got to be known as “the first professionally staffed corporate archive in the United States”. Even here in France – the country which has always been most skeptical about non-academic uses of history – glass manufacturer Saint-Gobain hired a historian, Maurice Hamon, to lead their ambitious archiving project which started back in 1974.

These pioneering companies were among the first in their respective countries to understand that corporate archives are assets of fundamental importance. Apart from enhancing the company reputation, business archives have many other uses: they can help defend intellectual property, inspire advertising campaigns, enrich engagement with consumers through social media, and support corporate responsibility projects. But the effectiveness of their use to a large extent depends on individuals in the custody of corporate archive collections.

I was honoured to receive an invitation to attend the joint conference of the Business Archives Council UK and the Business Archives Council of Scotland, held on November 7th, 2024, at the headquarters of Edrington Group in Glasgow. Themed ‘Liquid Gold: realising the potential of your business archive collections,’ the event brought together more than a hundred business archivists and industry-leading experts for a day full of insights, networking, and sharing ideas.

The conference kicked off with a keynote from The Macallan, which hosted the event. Cheryl Traversa, Global Archive Manager, and Felipe Ferrari, Senior Marketing Manager, showcased the ways in which the company’s archives supported various activities linked to the brand’s bicentenary celebrated earlier this year. These included projects such as Tales of Macallan, a series of limited-edition single malts paying tribute to the key characters in The Macallan’s story; The Heart of the Spirit immersive digital experience featuring animation, sound design and specialist projection techniques; collaboration with Cirque du Soleil to create a bespoke theatrical experience dedicated to the importance of protecting the nature and staged at the Macallan estate in Speyside; and finally the launch of the high-end TimeSpirit restaurant at their distillery.

The Macallan’s Heart of the Spirit experience

According to Felipe Ferrari, none of these projects would have been possible without The Macallan archives and heritage team. “Our heritage is our greatest source of inspiration, it is the source of truth, because it allows us to create and build authentic and relevant stories that are connected to our DNA”, Ferrari said. “Our creativity is not random; we always look back and dive into our archives and our history. Without it, we wouldn’t be able to tell so many strong and unique stories, we wouldn’t be able to get inspired for our new visual identity, get inspired to have new narratives or new product development”.

Another bicentenary much talked about at the conference was that of The Guardian, which was founded in Manchester in 1821. Philippa Mole, Head of The Guardian News & Media Archive, spoke about the role of archives in the newspaper’s 200th anniversary three years ago. It was particularly interesting to learn from her presentation how dealing with and responding to major unforeseen events such as the outbreak of COVID or the rise of the BLM movement have shaped the contribution of the archives team to the celebration and made it richer and more relevant for today’s agenda.

Anne-Grethe Jensen and Michael-John Jennings from News UK also shared their experiences of using archives to commemorate important anniversaries. News Archives supplied key information and images for both The Sun’s fiftieth birthday and The Sunday Times bicentenary; they were also involved in research that supported the publisher’s special editions, feature stories, and pull-outs dedicated to other historic events such as the centennial of the end of WWI in 2018 or the D-Day’s 80th anniversary last year.

Levi Strauss & Co.’s historian Tracey Panek masterfully elaborated on the ‘Gold’ theme of the conference, recounting several related brand stories. One of them is a great example of how archives shall sometimes be used to set the record straight. In 1857, the company’s founder, Levi Strauss, sent a shipment full of golden coins to New York, but off the coast of the Carolinas the ship sank. After the shipwreck was discovered in 1988, all the gold was brought up on the surface and auctioned off. Two years ago, there was another auction at which they were selling various other items from the ship. One of those items were button-fly trousers found in the trunk of one of the passengers. Because of the association of the cargo with Levi Strauss, in order to build interest for the auction and get coverage in newspapers the auctioneer suggested that these trousers were “the world’s oldest known jeans”. The only problem was that they couldn’t have possibly been a pair of Levi’s jeans, because the firm wasn’t producing riveted denim trousers until 1873. Knowing both the company history and its collection, Tracey was very well aware of this, but nevertheless decided to investigate these trousers in person – only to confirm that they weren’t denim, there were no rivets, and there were absolutely no traces of branding on them. In other words, there was no ground whatsoever to attribute these pants to Levi Strauss & Co., something that the company duly refuted in their official statement.

For many businesses any press is good press, but Levi’s wanted accurate press – which does them immense credit. In general, Levi’s is one of the top companies in terms of appreciating the value of using their archives for marketing purposes, from creating content for social media to inspiring new products and advertising. The ultimate expression of this approach is the current “Reiimagine” campaign featuring Beyoncé, which revitalizes Levi’s iconic "Launderette" commercial from the 1980s.

Next, Kitty But, Head of Archives at Hong Kong Land Corporate Archives, demonstrated how archives can create social memories related to cultural and architectural heritage using her participation in celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Jardine House in Hong Kong as an example. The exhibition and walking tours of the building organized to honour its jubilee involved working with a design consultancy that developed new display ideasand creating digital content that was later made available to all via a mini website.

Fabienne Moreau, Director of Heritage at Hennessy, hosts visitors at the exhibition in Cognac dedicated to the 300th anniversary of Richard Hennessy. Photo by Jonathan Bruneteau

Christopher Kermovant, CEO of Teklia, and Fabienne Moreau, Director of Heritage and Cultural Action at Hennessy, delivered a fascinating talk on how AI can be used to enhance archival storytelling. As the largest and one of the oldest cognac houses, Hennessy possesses an enormous collection of documents dating back all the way to the eighteenth century. Among those, of particular interest to the company are letters of its founder, Richard Hennessy (1724-1800). Written between 1776 and 1799, they comprise 1,425 pages of business and personal correspondence, the content of which at times is very difficult to decipher. This is where Teklia came to the rescue with its revolutionary technology of handwriting recognition – a reliable, quick, secure, and simple way to digitize and transcribe cursive texts, which is especially useful when working with old letters and archive materials. According to Fabienne Moreau, this innovative project helped Hennessy to learn a lot about their founder, better understand his feelings and emotions, and get to know how he ran the company and what his relations with his family and business partners were like. The newly discovered facts were used to enrich the exhibition dedicated to his 300th birthday, which is currently on in Cognac.

Dr. Rachael Matthews, Associate Director for Research & Engagement at Coventry University, spoke about how archives can form a way for businesses to build new audiences through newsletters, which are increasingly used to reach out to people in a digital environment.

Grace Chapman, Heritage Advisor at a multinational consumer goods company Reckitt, shared an actual business case of how from skip diving and cupboard raiding she managed to build up a proper archive in less than two years after taking over the job in March 2023, and how by using the resilience indicator provided by the UK National Archives she convinced the executive committee to invest into this service in order to fully harness its potential.

Clarks advertisement from 1958

Tim Crumplin, Business Archivist at Alfred Gillett Trust and Shoemakers Museum, highlighted the commercial viability of archives by revealing how his re-evaluation of the historical collection of Clarks Shoes from the contemporary business needs angle resulted in the creation by the company designers of new footwear based on influences and inspiration drawn from the past. The perceived luxury and artisanality of these retro-style products allowed to charge premium prices, making the management finally appreciate their archive collection and start using it more actively.

Lisa Mason, Assistant Curator of Modern & Contemporary Design at National Museums Scotland, gave the attendees a perspective of the archives’ user by sharing her experience of organizing in 2022 an exhibition to celebrate 100 years of textile designer and artist Bernat Klein.

A very interesting presentation by Anders Sjöman, Head of Client Projects & Communication at the Centre for Business History in Stockholm, introduced an alternative solution for companies that cannot afford or do not want to invest into having their own archive facility and staff but are still willing to preserve their history: outsourced archivist services. Among the clients of Centre for Business History are such Swedish firms as Absolut, IKEA, H&M, Electrolux, and Ericsson.

Swire’s Matthew Edmondson presenting on stage. Image courtesy of the Business Archives Council of Scotland

Matthew Edmondson, Senior Archivist at Swire, articulated several types of support that his team provided to this global conglomerate headquartered in Hong Kong: brand storytelling, stakeholder engagement, and fostering company culture. Staff inductions, education and philanthropy programmes, media and business partner engagement, improvement of relationships with government officials and state enterprises were identified as the main activities in which company archives were involved in.

How the re-use of architectural archives can be fundamental to regenerative design was discussed by Aymée Thorne Clarke, Archivist at Rogers Stirk Harbour & Partners – a celebrated architectural practice from London, which among other things worked on Macallan’s new state-of-the-art distillery unveiled in 2018.

Finally, David Powell, Archive Manager at DC Thomson, and Kay Foubister, Acquisition Curator at the National Library of Scotland’s Moving Image Archive, concluded the day with insights into unlocking the potential of early TV adverts for classic British comics.

The conference finished off with The Macallan tasting experience. Image courtesy of the Business Archives Council of Scotland

It was very inspiring to listen to these incredible professionals and learn how they are helping to inform decisions and shape strategies within their organizations while remaining true to themselves as historians, by making sure that the stories that they tell are accurate and authentic. The presentations were very diverse in thematic scope, yet several recurring topics were evident. First, most of the reported activities in which archives and archivists were involved had something to do with anniversaries, which represent a perfect occasion to showcase a brand’s past and link it to the present. Second, digitization is key – in terms of not only being able to communicate a company’s heritage to larger audiences, but also allowing to make it more accessible by internal stakeholders such as product developers, marketing teams, and agencies. Third, it is crucial to win over the hearts and minds of top management and turn them into advocates of archival preservation and research. The best way to do this is to always keep in mind the commercial interests of the company: what heritage professionals offer must be relevant for the business so that its leaders see value in it. Otherwise, they simply won’t spend any resources on such initiatives and no matter how rich and colourful the history of their brand or company is, it will remain known only to select few.

Every business needs skilled professionals to run its day-to-day affairs: accountants look after company finances, lawyers protect its legal interests, human resource specialists handle people-related concerns. A firm’s historical heritage also needs to be managed by trained experts. Only those companies that stick to this principle – by employing professional archivists to safeguard their documentary heritage and by seeking advice from qualified historians to interpret it in a meaningful way – will be the ones making the full use of their past, gaining a strong competitive advantage, and thus truly standing out in the marketplace.

Acknowledgements:

I would like to thank the ‘Liquid Gold’ conference committee (Kiara King, Karyn Williamson, Sara Kinsey and Helen Swinnerton) for kindly inviting me to attend this amazing event and express my gratitude to The Macallan team (Cheryl Traversa, Dawn Stewart, Katherine Chorley and Alex Robertson) for their remarkable hospitality while in Glasgow.

Alexandr Gorokhovskiy

©2024