From bartender, to teacher, to brand ambassador — and now the head of advocacy for Campari Academy Australia.
You might think that 13 years behind the stick is all you need to make the transition from bartender to brand ambassador, and in many cases you’d be right. But for Zach Mynott, his journey from his time as a bartender included a stop to finish his teaching degree, before he traded unruly high school students for bartenders as he landed in the world of brand ambassadorship. Today, Zach has taken the reins of at Campari Academy Australia and the enviable job looking after their advocacy and bartender engagement programs.
Here, we talk to Zach about how he landed the role, what to expect from their unique take on a bartending competition for Espolon, and the skills he has picked up along the way.
BOOTHBY: We’re at Old Love’s in the Sydney CBD. How would you describe this place?
ZACH MYNOTT: When you go to Old Mate’s, it’s always been this staple in Sydney. But I feel like Old Love’s is one up in their ability to transport you somewhere else. You walk in, and all the decor, the design that [owner] Dre Walters and the team have done, even down to the outfits and the shells they wear, the style of drinks. It’s very transportive, which I like. The only window that really looks outside from here is covered with greenery. It’s one of those places where you can feel like you’re on holiday.
BOOTHBY: Tell us about this national role, what is the official title?
ZACH MYNOTT: I’m the national head of advocacy and bartender engagement for Campari Academy Australia.
BOOTHBY: There’s a lot in that title. What does that mean on a week to week basis? What are you thinking about at work?
ZACH MYNOTT: The biggest thing is trying to work out how we can best put ourselves forward to the hospitality community, and covering all facets of the hospitality community. One of the things that we’ve always done quite well, but one thing that’s difficult, is that yes, there’s these amazing 150 bartenders around Australia who are just phenomenal — they’re thought leaders, they have people who follow them on Instagram. They showcase recipes. They do many, many things.
BOOTHBY: They read Boothby.
ZACH MYNOTT: They read Boothby. But you also have the everyday pub bartender, the uni student who’s doing it just part-time, which is where so many of us started and fell in love with it. So I think it’s our ability to penetrate those different levels of bartender capability, engagement, and excitement — we’re always thinking of ways to engage different crowds and different bartenders.
BOOTHBY: That sounds like a lot to think about week on week on week.
ZACH MYNOTT: It is, yeah. And you know me, my attention span’s huge. No. Look, I’m really blessed. My team includes Jay Lambert out of Brisbane, we have got Henry Hammersla from Victoria, and then of course, Alex Zanarini from Sydney. And those three are really quite good at taking small parts of that and putting things into funnels and small buckets to make sure that we’ve got a really good concept of how we engage with different bartenders and different brands.
BOOTHBY: You’re rolling out the Espolon Cocktail Fights around the country at the moment. What’s the idea behind that?
ZACH MYNOTT: It’s awesome. Cocktail Fights was this concept that came out of the USA in 2013. Basically a bunch of bartenders took mini games and a bit of fun and stripped away the three-piece suit, the tweezers and micro herbs. And that’s not to say there’s not some real value in that for bartenders around the country. I think there’s a place for both. We think that by bringing this event back to life, and Ramon the Rooster being our actual advocate for Espolon and our main character, it’s an admittedly cheeky and really fun way to showcase bartenders and to get in the space and battle out their best cocktail skills in fun, creative, and vibrant ways.
The real draw to the program, and what I feel has been missed in so many programs and competitions is that it’s based around bartenders who are bar backs and up and comers, and who have equal opportunity to win. I think that if we create a level playing ground for all bartenders and democratise it, we open the door to so many more bartenders falling in love with the industry.
The idea is for them to learn how to do things like mapping flavours and building drinks from scratch. Roundbuilding has been a big part of our training program.
The comps are great, but the real battle that you have as a bartender is every Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday night behind the stick, when you’re 20 dockets deep. And if we can help bartenders get better at that, we get buy-in from owners, managers, but also the bartenders.
BOOTHBY: How did you get into the brand ambassador world? What were you doing beforehand?
ZACH MYNOTT: I started bartending when I was 18, in Brisbane at a pub called Empire. And then, very fortunately, I worked at a bar next door called Press Club, and that’s where Krystal Hart and I first worked together in 2009, on the middle well at Press Club. That’s Krystal 11 hair colours ago I reckon.
I did 13 years in bars after that. Working all over Brisbane in different venues. And then I decided that I wanted to step out, and I was in the midst of doing my university degree as a high school teacher, which I completed. I started doing some sales work for Campari. And once the brand ambassador position opened up in New South Wales, I remembered how much fun it was working with Krystal and how much I learned from her. And I figured I would try my luck at being a BA under Krystal Hart — she was a phenomenal leader. So engaging and really creative.
BOOTHBY: What’s it been like moving into that advocacy role?
ZACH MYNOTT: It’s been a whirlwind. There’s been so many points where I have been riddled with self-doubt and with uncertainty in what I’m doing, or whether it’s the right direction. I think I’ve been really fortunate in that people who have applied for roles, they have helped me build a team where I feel comfortable that our holistic approach is where we need to be and we’re going in the right direction.
BOOTHBY: How often are you in the office?
ZACH MYNOTT: Four to five days a week. I don’t work overly well from home. I’m there vacuuming my curtains.
BOOTHBY: You like a bit more structure.
ZACH MYNOTT: I need to be in a place where I have my screen, my desk, and obviously being at head office, you have the opportunity to talk to different departments.
BOOTHBY: You mentioned that you trained as a teacher, been a bartender, what were the skill sets that you needed or acquired to take on this sort of advocacy approach?
ZACH MYNOTT: I had run a few teams. I did some general manager work for a few venues across Brisbane. But one of the beautiful things about advocacy is that the roads that lead you there are all so different. You need to read, you need to learn. It’s the same as anything, you want to study and you want to understand your craft. But being a high school teacher and working in that space and doing an education degree, was so much more beneficial.
BOOTHBY: What’s more terrifying, bartenders or high school students?
ZACH MYNOTT: Students. Look, if I don’t get a great attendance to a bar training, say I want 20 people and let’s say 12 turn up. That’s 12 who want to be there. In a classroom, 25 kids are there and 25 kids don’t wanna be there. The kids aren’t really that engaged. So you’ve got to find ways to be creative.
One thing that I want to see get better and get back to where it was before, is attendance at face to face trainings. It is a really hard one. It’s expensive now. People are busy. They’re tired. They don’t want to get out of the house and go necessarily to a training session on their day off. I’d love for us — all brands, Campari Academy and the others that all work in this space — to create things that people want to do on their day off. If you create something exciting, people will come along to it.
BOOTHBY: When it comes to Campari and your brands, you’re obviously really big into the aperitivo thing. Is that still a trend that’s growing in bars at the moment?
ZACH MYNOTT: It’s a hard one to discuss because we’ve got constant data coming in and out. But I mean, you’ve all seen it, it’s like the Spritz wars — everyone’s battling for space on these Spritz menus. I’m sorry but Aperol is the OG Spritz. We hold the space, we’ve got the colour, we’ve got the history around it.
BOOTHBY: You’ve got the umbrellas.
ZACH MYNOTT: We’ve got 150 billion umbrellas. Where’s the crocs and where’s the slides? Let’s get this going! Aperol’s always been there. Low and no alcohol has obviously been on the rise and more health conscious drinkers are a huge thing, we’re seeing that as a trend. So we are still in a space that plays really nicely with it. But we’ve got some really exciting stuff coming later this year that’s going to steer into the Spritz space. In saying that whilst I love Aperol and I love Campari spritzes and I love Braulio, but there’s always a place for a Hugo Spritz, you know what I mean? There are great drinks out there that exist, and I think that if we’re all working toward that category, it’s going to make it better.
BOOTHBY: How’s the Margarita tracking?
ZACH MYNOTT: I don’t think anyone’s gonna be shocked that tequila is growing, which is great. So, naturally Espolon has continued to grow in our portfolio leading to lots of fun.
BOOTHBY: There’s no chance of tequila slowing down, is there?
ZACH MYNOTT: Doesn’t look like it, none of the data suggests it. It’s great for Espolon and the category. Espolon doesn’t take itself too seriously and really punches above its weight. And then of course, our absolute flavour saver and my go-to favourite product in our portfolio is of course Wild Turkey. We’ll have Bruce Russell coming back this year and he’s going to tell you all about some really exciting and really cool stuff.
BOOTHBY: What makes a great bar? What makes you happiest in a bar?
ZACH MYNOTT: What makes a great bar is knowing what you do and doing it really well. One of the things that I find so difficult is that when I open a menu and there’s 36 cocktails on there, it’s really, really tough. I think that if you know what you do and you do it really, really well and do it to perfection, it’s always a place that becomes a staple and that’s how you build regulars. And I want to go to a bar where I feel like there’s a group of regulars. The other thing that creates regulars, and we all know this, is service. It makes you shift better when you can talk to people. Or the ultimate tip and trick that I used to love doing is you start this conversation with a customer and then you join it to another person and before you know it they’re talking to each other — that’s what creates the Cheers effect.
