Okay... If I owned a vodka company and wanted a bigger market share, I would invite 50 countries to take part in a nightlife exchange project and provide lots of amazing dance music. It’d be an open house and I’d keep the vodka flowing so everyone would have the opportunity to loosen up after a tough week at work or uni. Oh, and I’d send a couple of guest DJ’s to our reciprocal country so they could get a taste of our Aussie culture and sup on Aussie fare.

What do you mean Smirnoff have already done it?

It was a piece of Smirnoff marketing brilliance. Of course people will probably always drink vodka so the question posed was perhaps something like, ‘How do we get consumers to choose our brand over the others?’ Human beings remember events that have an emotional significance, and so Smirnoff went all out to provide the total experience. There was music, there was dancing, there were beautiful people, there were visual delights, there was delicious food, an Italian flavour and there was vodka, vodka and more vodka.

Shed 14 at Docklands played host to some of the best DJ’s in the business. Junior Jack, Kid Crème, and Alex Gaudino got the party started and kept it going, with fist pumping music and an incredible laser light show that made the party space seem surreal. Silver masked beauties posed for innumerable photos and dined on pasta presented in Italian red, white and green. Adventurous partygoers sipped super delicious cocktails made with almost every ingredient that could be mixed with this traditional Russian heart-starter. There were props that were set to create the feel of an authentic Italian experience. The Smirnoff girls dressed in red were chic and sexy. The men were young, tanned and (ahem) gay. We could easily have been dancing or doing the passeggiata in Milano, or dashing through the snow (fake of course darling), in the Italian Alps.

Italy hosted our homegrown DJ’s Nervo and the Bang Gang boys. One can only wonder how they would have ‘Aussiefied’ the drinks, and somehow I think we got the better end of the deal on that score. If you’ve never tried espresso infused Smirnoff, you haven’t lived. Lovely ambassador Anna Lunoe of Ministry of Sound fame sent a nightlife ‘crate’ to Italy, filled with items that our Italian counterparts would need to hold an Australian nightlife extravaganza. We here partied on into the wee hours and enjoyed the customary Italian passion for fun and the warmth of its hospitality, though that could have just been the vodka working its magic. Who would have guessed that fermented potatoes could taste so incredible? How would I like my potatoes? Fermented with a shot of soda and a twist of lime please! This was a truly memorable occasion. Thank you Smirnoff and thank you Italy.