Copper, Corn
& Creative

Nicole PortwoodVP Brand Marketing

Caitlin WarrenCreative Manager

Texas, and Austin in particular, are vital parts of our brand's DNA. We were born and bred in this town, and our connection to the kindness, conviviality, love of music, and blaze-your-own-trail attitude (among many other things about Austin that are so awesome) of this place were a big part of the beginnings of the company. So, naturally, that has to be part of our narrative in order for us to be true to the history.

Our distributors are truly our partners. We've worked closely with them to build programs and platforms that work for everyone. Brandfolder has helped tremendously in our ability to provide consistent, on-brand assets that they can access at a moments notice.

Tito himself is the core of the brand. His vision and story are central to our brand and it's up to us and the marketing team to bring that vision to life.

The bottle itself is the fundamental basis for our brand aesthetic, so I guess you could see he is essentially at the core of all of it! Our amazing creative team has taken that humble, approachable bottle and brought it to life through extensions from ads to custom packaging and event activation assets.

We've been doing the same thing from the beginning. We're honored to have connected with more and more fans over the years, but the product and the approach have not changed since the start.

We handle all of our creative in-house with our amazing 3-person team. It's a decision I made long ago – to keep that discipline very close to the brand's day to day – and I would do it all over again.

We've always been a word-of-mouth brand. In the beginning that was out of necessity because there were no resources to work with. As we've grown, our resources have as well, but we've remained focused on our fans and the connections we have with them.

We read some industry trades, for sure, but otherwise we each find inspiration in our own way. One of the great things about the team is that we are constantly sharing things we've read, seen, and watched that are getting us excited. Often, that inspiration comes from unlikely places – I love that because it broadens everyone's mind about what Tito's can mean to our fans.

There are a ton of amazing brands out there, but in truth we try to focus on our own work rather than bringing in influences from other brands. We are inspired by the whole world around us, but it would be impossible to point to one or more specific brands. Philosophically, we find kinship with other brands that focus on quality and service.

We handle all of our creative in-house with our amazing 3-person team. It's a decision I made long ago – to keep that discipline very close to the brand's day to day – and I would do it all over again.

We batch distill using old-fashioned pot stills instead of the more commonly used column stills, so it's a real point of differentiation. It's a much less efficient and far more time consuming way to do things, but we think it gives us far more control over the end product. Tito's is also made from corn instead of the more commonly used wheat, which in addition to being a differentiator gives us the added bonus of making the vodka naturally gluten-free!

The orange is used as a surrogate for copper. We use the metallic version whenever possible as homage to the copper pot still, but when not available, we'll sub in orange.

My hope is that the brand continues down the path we are on right now. We don't see any major changes on the horizon!