ROW 94 Whiskey, the celebrity-founded spirits brand from country artist Dierks Bentley, is running a two-month hologram activation at Nashville International Airport (BNA) through July 31, 2026. A life-sized interactive hologram of Bentley greets arriving and departing travelers, delivers brand storytelling, and routes foot traffic toward sampling opportunities and drink specials at The Pharmacy Burger Parlor in the A/B Rotunda — operated by travel food-and-beverage concessionaire HMSHost. This is reportedly the brand's second airport hologram placement, signaling a deliberate channel strategy rather than a one-off stunt.
Airport retail and F&B remains one of the most expensive yet captive consumer environments in the country. Travelers have dwell time, discretionary spend, and — critically for spirits brands — a licensing structure that allows alcohol sampling and purchase at concession points that most off-premise retail cannot replicate. Pairing experiential tech with an existing HMSHost operator relationship is smart infrastructure: it converts the hologram's novelty into a measurable transaction at a venue already built for throughput. For other beverage brands evaluating airport activations, the cost of the technology is now secondary to the operator partnership that gets product behind the bar.
What this signals for brand launch and distribution strategy is notable. ROW 94 is using hologram placement not as a media stunt but as a brand launch amplification tool — compressing the discovery-to-trial funnel inside a single terminal visit. The brand's founder has the awareness; the activation handles conversion. Operators and suppliers watching the celebrity spirits category should note that the differentiation is increasingly in the experiential infrastructure rather than the liquid itself. Brands without a live-event or high-dwell-time channel strategy are leaving trial volume on the table.
For airport concessionaires and travel F&B operators specifically, this partnership model — where a spirits brand supplies the experiential technology and the operator supplies the venue and fulfillment — is a format worth formalizing in future vendor negotiations. HMSHost gains a traffic-driving installation at no apparent capital cost; ROW 94 gains a qualified sampling audience and a branded drink placement on a live menu. That is a replicable co-investment structure. Operators evaluating similar beverage brand partnerships and sampling campaigns should build activation rights and minimum pour commitments into any comparable agreement from the outset.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
