PCA Magazine Show Issue 2021

40 PCA The Magazine | SHOW 2021 PREMIUMCIGARS.ORG C I G A R L O C K D O W N The response from the industry, they say, was both unexpected and heartening. “We didn’t know what to expect from this. Would it be well-received or fall flat, we didn’t know,” says Phillips. “But that first show, you’ll see that we introduced almost every member of our community. From Liane Fuente and Rocky Patel to Erik Espinosa and Matt Booth. Nick Perdomo, Alan Rubin, the list went on—the community really came together to support our industry’s retailers.” Roberts comes to La Palina from a Hollywood background. “I worked in Hollywood for 25 years,” he says. “I was a TV producer. Sammy is a marketing guru. So we put our brains together to take things to the next level and make it look like a talk show, really make it look sexy. We spent thousands creating a set that replicates a talk show ambience while keeping us, or whoever is on camera, socially distanced.” Each cigar pack includes a number of raffle tickets which further boosts the interest level for Cigar Lockdown buyers—tickets redeemable for prizes that have so far totaled tens of thousands of dollars in value. Soliciting participation from cigar makers, and even from other businesses outside the industry, was no problem. Phillips says, “The first round of prizes was five Gs, and the second round was $10,000.” Clearly, Cigar Lockdown has a lot of moving parts. The best way for hobbyists and retailers to acquaint themselves with the program is to “tune in” at cigarlockdown.com . View the videos (there are already interviews with principals from more than a dozen fan-favorite cigar makers), and check out the prizes that have been distributed. Also, get ready for further developments: The Cigar Lockdown crew plans to transport its set to the 2021 PCA Convention & Trade Show, and offer packs and shows for manufacturers on the floor. Says Roberts: “It lets the PCA have this kind of spotlight that it’s never had before. This will be something completely new.” Cigar Lockdown also allows some of the proceeds to be directed to PCA , and to Cigar Rights of America. “Sammy and I were like, listen, let’s share the spotlight with everybody,” says Roberts. “This is not La Palina-centric. It was created by the two guys who run La Palina, but it was really about community and all being together. Hence, why we want to do the show at the PCA.” Thomas Klebe, general manager at Anstead’s Tobacco Company in Fayetteville, North Carolina, says he has had a positive experience being involved with Cigar Lockdown. “I purchased 40 of the packs, and my customers bought them all. It went pretty well. People enjoyed the format. I would gladly participate again, even with the lockdowns relaxing. Cigar Lockdown is a great opportunity for seasoned cigar smokers as well as those who are new to premium cigars to enjoy some fantastic smokes.” Klebe is such a believer in TV- style retailer outreach that for more than a year he has been developing talk shows for his own shop. “It’s a model that allows people from all time zones, fromHawaii to Maine, to participate together. It has a business future that is going to last beyond the lockdowns,” he says. Vick Shah, owner of Norwood Royal Cigars in Chicago, also endorses the concept, and says he did fine participating in Cigar Lockdown. “I sold all of the 21 packs I bought,” says Shah. “It’s definitely an interesting model.” Roberts admits, “We’re still perfecting this thing, figuring it out. You never knowwhere these things will go or what they will become.” But the possibilities seem boundless—including shows tailored for specific manufacturers or specific retailers. Roberts says, “One of my retailers, after things started opening up a bit, said, ‘Hey, would you guys mind, the two of you, doing a show for us just for my store? So we did this event specific to this guy’s business. We said to him, ‘You guys will be on camera. It’ll be two-way.’ And it was crazy. He told us, ‘I sold $8,000 at this thing.’ And Sam and I each got to be back in our respective homes by 9 o’clock. I didn’t have to fly. He didn’t have to fly. And then,” adds Roberts, “we had this other idea: So if you’re a retailer and you buy this pack at the show, you can go over to the Lockdown set and shoot a one-minute advertisement for your shop, and we will cut it and then deliver it to you for you to put on your website or whatever you want to do with it.” Phillips points out yet another fun layer of participation that is available: “People at home can have their own Zoom sessions with one another while they are watching Cigar Lockdown and participate on that added level of connectivity. Like Clay says, this format brings a unique opportunity to promote and connect with the cigar community.” Visit cigarlockdown.com to see how your shop might fit into this developing way of marketing and selling, and how your customers might like tuning in to this newmedium of cigar talk. We can take the ride in expectation it’s going to land us in a sunnier place, all of us together. The exclusive Cigar Lockdown packs offered a diverse variety of cigars from 17 manufacturers, including AJ Fernandez, Crowned Heads, Plasencia, Tatuaje and more.