Martin Baldassarre works on our Global Cultural Advocacy team and started his career as a Jameson Brand Ambassador based in Italy. His role now involves unlocking exciting product placement opportunities and collaborating with talent and brands that share the same ideology as our brands
Sharing our spirit across the globe
Working within the Cultural Outreach and S&R team means looking at everything that surrounds us outside the whiskey category – for example, the fashion industry, the film industry, the music industry – and influencing how we can come together with these sectors to create something new. So, it’s an exciting role.
I’ve had friends say to me, “Martin, I saw this bottle of Jameson in a new Netflix TV series,” and you feel proud of that recognition like, “Yeah, it was our team that placed that bottle there,” and it gives you a bit of a thrill. As a Gen Z-er, I want to have my finger on the pulse of all the cult things going on in the world. So, it is exciting to look at what we can bring from the street culture directly into Irish Distillers.
And because the company has this really established cultural heritage in the whiskey space, widening its circle of reach has become somewhat of a craft. When we look to share our spirit with other cultural partners, we always choose people who have the same ideology as our brands. Finding this connection between those brands, merging it, and creating something unique and exciting for the community is really fulfilling.
Kick starter to my career
I started my career with Irish Distillers as an international Brand Ambassador for Jameson and it was a powerful kick-start to my career. I think as a really young professional, directly out of college, and as an Italian in Dublin, it’s an incredibly exciting place to work. Your voice is always heard and you’re valued as a person by everyone from top leadership and throughout the company, no matter what level. You always feel like you have something to contribute, that you’ll be listened to, and that your ideas will bring value to the broader perspective of the brands.
Management supports you to grow as a professional, but you’re also encouraged to bring inputs from your previous studies or from your personal knowledge to the table.
But I think the thing that I like most about working for an Irish company like this is the people. You can have a conversation with everyone regardless of skin colour, regardless of where you’re from, regardless of your background, and chat with anyone on whatever topic. As an international employee, you feel very welcome because people will approach you super gently and in a friendly way. They want to know about you but not in a nosy way – in a really, really genuine way. And I love that. My best friends in Ireland are my colleagues and I think this is part of the Irish Distillers’ culture. You feel welcome every single time by every single person, from top management to the new starters.
