Sorek: smart thinking for smarter drinking

It may have been dismissed by some as nothing more than a last-ditch industry attempt to avoid legislation, but CEO Chris Sorek is proud of Drinkaware's independence and its role in alcohol education.

Chris Sorek started by apologising for the tramps. He didn't need to. There weren't any tramps. Though, as he explained, they do tend to congregate in the sheltered spot by the door when it's raining. You can't blame them. In fact Sorek feels sorry for them. But there's nothing much he can do.

In a peculiar way it raises a good question. What can Drinkaware do about the nation's drink problem?

CEO Sorek and his team are still getting their feet under their desks at the charity's new offices in a quiet street round the back of London's Haymarket. Although Drinkaware was spun off the Portman Group as a separate entity at the end of 2006, the two bodies continued to share an office until this year, something that only added to the confusion about their distinct roles and Drinkaware's relationship with the drinks industry.

"We are totally separate from the Portman Group — but a lot of people in the health community wanted to see us physically separate," says Sorek.

When Drinkaware launched the Campaign for Smarter Drinking with an unprecedented £100m from the industry in the middle of last year, Alcohol Concern's chief executive Don Shenker dismissed it as "yet another example of the drinks industry trying desperately to avoid mandatory legislation".

Even if there's some truth in that, it doesn't necessarily make it back-door alcohol advertising. That depends on Drinkaware's ability to act independently of its 63 sponsors, something Sorek repeatedly insists on.

"The board that makes the decisions has five industry representatives, five medical experts and three independent people. So the industry doesn't have any more power than anyone else over what we do."

Another point Sorek has to get across is that Drinkaware performs a quite specific educational role, a role that the industry can comfortably delegate to the charity without feeling the need to interfere.

It means that on other aspects of alcohol policy, on licensing, on minimum pricing and the rest of it, Drinkaware has nothing to say. And that's part of its success in bringing disparate forces together, along with a push from Government to address alcohol misuse — which brought the industry together under what was known as Project 10 — and the resulting Why Let the Good Times Go Bad? ad campaign.

"The industry has told us to do the education, and we can be totally independent in doing that," explains Sorek. "It's something everyone can agree on, and we can just go away and make it happen.

"We have to get this across to the health community, that we do the social marketing and research, but we can only be part of the solution."

Sorek makes his case clearly and precisely. A neat, dapper American, he's spent much of his career in high-powered international public relations. Like many PRs he was a journalist who switched to the client side after finding that the pay on local newspapers isn't enough to keep a young family.

So he did it for the money. But there is something else driving him, too. Although a specialist in financial PR who's enjoyed some glamorous, exotic assignments, he has also taken less well-paid jobs with communities and charities. He's campaigned against apartheid and worked for the Red Cross.

Yet he's not so much a "do-gooder" as someone skilled in telling a story who craves the kind of interaction, the closer relationship with an audience that such work can provide.

"Why am I at Drinkaware?" he asks. "Charities don't pay that well, but we're dealing with an issue here that affects the entire country. And where else could I have an interaction with such a range of people and apply my social marketing skills?"

There's a mystique surrounding social marketing that Sorek easily blows away. "Social marketing is taking marketing skills and applying them to change something in society. It means everything we do is planned and researched. We know what works, what propositions will resonate."

The mistake is to see that as just advertising. Why Let the Good Times Go Bad? may have succeeded in raising awareness of Drinkaware among the general public to more than 50%, but expect to see more intimate forms of communication in the coming months, and a big push on digital. The website had an astonishing two million visits last year and there's more to do in the arena of social networking.

"There's a better chance people will believe you through methods other than advertising," says Sorek.

"We want to be a trusted source. We want to be like your best mate — someone who will tell you what they think, but lets you make the decision.

"We want to give people the facts. When you cross the road, you look both ways and it's the same with drinking."

From the other side of the debate, some would ask whether Drink-aware is swallowing too much of the temperance agenda by accepting questionable definitions of harmful drinking and terminology like "binge drinking".

Sorek brushes off the criticism. "If you get yelled at by both sides you're probably doing your job," he says. "We follow what the Government does. We're giving the facts. For the average consumer, it gives them guidelines to work to.

"We're not tee-totallers," he adds. "But some habits tend to go bad. And it's easy to do it without thinking. You might have your two pints in the pub then go home and split a bottle of wine with your partner. You can do that a couple of times a week — but not every day. You need to give your body a break."

The drinks industry, and pubs in particular, have an interest in educating people about this, he believes.

"One drunk in a pub can ruin a night's takings. In the good pubs I know, the licensee plays an important role in supervising and watching over customers, helping them understand where the boundaries are. They are good mentors, good for the community. They can tell someone they've had enough for today and say to them "we want you back in here tomorrow".

"The on-trade is really important to us. It's where information gets passed around — and you need to speak to people about drinking while they're drinking.

"This year will see a lot of campaigns in the on-trade."

Drinkaware is also conducting a five-year study into why, for some, social drinking becomes problem drinking.

"People drink when they're bored, when they're stressed. It's a great idea to go out for a pint or two, to go and talk to people rather than living like a hermit — that'll just bring you down further. But when does that become a problem?

"There are socio-economic factors. When they lose their job some people find the solution at the bottom of a bottle."

The tramps spring to mind. This is a big job Drinkaware is taking on, even if it is only part of the solution. "Sometimes it does feel like I'm in a Venetian gondola

acting as a tug that's trying to turn around the Queen Mary," Sorek admits. "We've got to get more traction."

My kind of pub​

"There's a pub we've been using near the office — the Captain's Cabin. It's got lots of old things in it and it's comfortable and warm.

"It's not a place everyone knows about, either, so it doesn't get too crowded, you don't get bumped around by other customers and you don't have to shout over the noise.

"I like a cask ale, a Bombardier or a London Pride, and I drink Leffe — in halves. The higher strength makes a big difference to the way it affects you."

Key dates​

1975:​ Chris Sorek begins his career as a local newspaper journalist in the United States before switching to financial PR. Joins Ogilvy & Mather, running offices in Taiwan and Singapore.

1989:​ Portman Group established.

1998:​ Sorek moves to Cohn & Wolfe in New York to handle global clients. Head of communications for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent in Geneva.

2004:​ Returns to private sector with tec