Opération #MeetAlexIRL

Over 130,000 web users worldwide now follow Pernod Ricard's Linkdln account. Seven of them from Chile, Kenya, India, New Zealand, Singapore, the USA, and of course France, won the first contest on the social network, which was launched this Summer.

The prize' An invitation to Paris for an exceptional evening chatting with Alexandre Ricard, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the world's second-leading wine and spirits company. They arrived from their home countries and yesterday they met Mr. Ricard in the offices of the Group's innovation unit, the BIG, to ask him their preferred questions.

The project, called #MeetAlexIRL ('meet Alex in real life'), has two goals. First, it aims to show that, although digital relations with thousands of people are important, they cannot equal a friendly face-to-face conversation. The second objective is to be involved in a conversation with consumers who purchase the group's products, but may wish to know more about Pernod Ricard's priorities and strategy as well as of Mr. Ricard's vision.  The dialogue will be the lead interview for the Group's next annual report, which comes out on 23 September.

Pernod Ricard launched #MeetAlexIRL on LinkedIn and Twitter in July and it quickly gained interest from web users. Several thousand participants took an online pre-selection quiz about the Group's history and news. Then, seven contestants who got all the answers right were chosen at random, one from each region.

The participants can ask Alexandre Ricard anything they like. This dialogue will be the text of the interview in the next annual report.  True to our 'creators of conviviality' signature, we wanted to host this friendly meeting in order to make the most of our constant interaction on media. '

Sylvie Machenaud, Group External Communication Director