Creating an emotionally engaging digital experience for a boldly authentic cigar movement
Drew Estate is more than a cigar company; it is an industry-disrupting movement that has made premium cigars accessible to all. Since renegade entrepreneur Jonathan Drew Sann founded the brand in 1995, his dedication and vision have taken him from a small kiosk in the World Trade Center to building a factory in Nicaragua and reestablishing farming traditions in Connecticut and Florida. Today, the company produces 100,000 premium hand-rolled cigars daily and stands among the largest manufacturers in the United States. Drew Estate redefined the category by empowering local communities, blending New York hustle with Nicaraguan soul, and giving a subculture a rebirth.
The brand needed a state-of-the-art digital experience that would capture its founder’s passion, cater to its unique audience, and create a clear pathway for growth. Just as critically, the website needed to elevate the unified corporate identity while promoting a portfolio of cigar brands with expressive, visually bold aesthetics.
With over 75% of the audience engaging on mobile devices, far above industry norms, the new site had to deliver an emotionally engaging mobile experience. It also needed to serve a functional purpose by incorporating event ticketing, store locators, job postings, and integrations for reviews and user-generated content, all while following the guidelines of a highly regulated industry.
MBLM partnered with Drew Estate to create a digital experience as bold as the brand itself. We developed an information architecture that clearly distinguished the parent brand from individual cigar lines, supported product discovery, encouraged engagement, and delivered robust content and functionality across the full sales funnel. To capture the brand’s voice, we paired its rebellious spirit with loud, irreverent copy, framed within a more restrained digitally focused design system that prioritized the mobile experience and let the cigar portfolio shine.
The digital design systems created for the product brands were distinctive and expressive as the cigars themselves, and our storytelling gave them room to shout out loud while remaining rooted in the Drew Estate ecosystem. We also highlighted high-profile collaborations with partners such as Metallica and Pappy Van Winkle, giving them prominent placement to enhance the brand’s cultural credibility. In addition, we designed key features, such as WooCommerce-powered ticketing, store locators, and job postings, for seamless user interaction, scalability, and compliance with industry regulations.
