2017 was our fifth year in business. Like most companies, we were itching to run an event, get everyone fabulously sloshed… except nobody (ayi included) was keen about throwing the overhyped industry party.

After a few weeks of staring at her martini tray and drawing a blank, The Boss Lady had a breakthrough. Sod the damn party, she said. Let’s work with some kickass bartenders instead, and give everyone a revolutionary reason to get wasted. Plus we’ll never have to worry about finding puke in our drawers, consoling our ayi, or tossing boozers out of our studio.

Brilliant, we thought. Never did anyone stop to think how absolutely mental this idea could actually be.

Stranger Concoctions was based on the pure, simple concept of having fun, and encouraging everyone to begin the new year in high spirits.

The abridged version? We invited nine famous bartenders in Shanghai to an unprecedented cocktail challenge: create nine mystery cocktails within 24 hours (using the mystery ingredient that each of them had selected when they met us), and sell these mystery cocktails during Chinese New Year at their bars.

We won’t say much about the fun and crazy journey that ensued – you’ll just have to witness it for yourself.

Nine bartenders. Nine bars in Shanghai (The Captain, el Ocho, FED, Laundry Co., Liquid Laundry, Logan’s Punch, M Glam, Shake, Sober Company). Meet our fellowship of the Stranger Concoctions ring.

“You do the cocktails, we’ll take care of the rest.”From creation of retail posters to content and video production… even though we couldn’t get an actual octopus for the main photoshoot, nor did Kris Wu confirm his attendance for our media tour, we still had a ball on running the show.

To encourage people to go to different bars, and try each bartender’s special cocktail, we created an h5 redemption process that allowed them to easily win a prize whenever they ordered a Stranger Concoctions cocktail. The more bars they went to, the more chances they had to win.