Targeted marketing is the future of brand communication and engagement with customers and fans. New technologies enable companies to create and maintain personalized relationships on a large scale, and personalized marketing has become essential to brand success. Failing to adapt would have serious repercussions.
As targeted digital marketing becomes brands’ primary weapon of choice, spirits companies have faced a conundrum. Wine, beer and spirits brands cannot directly target people under the age of 21, and the FTC does not allow advertising across platforms where 71.6% of an audience is expected to be under the age of 21. Which makes age verification and age gating essential.
Despite the pushback, digital marketing has become a key avenue of communication for beer and liquor marketing efforts. The FTC reports alcohol companies are spending 7.9% of their budgets on online and digital advertising, a 400% increase since 2008.
So how can spirits brands optimize their efforts and connect with the audiences that can actually purchase their products?
- Connect with Influencers: Who decides what people drink? Influencer marketing is key for alcohol and spirits brands. Bud Light Lime explored influencer marketing in a recent campaign to launch the new product in Canada. The brand used social media to track down and send ambassador care packages with swag and product to 100 influencers in key cities. The activation included a rich media campaign, social media contest and flash mobs. By connecting with influencers, the brand was able to create an exciting, sexy and (somewhat) memorable experience for new audiences.
- Explore Content Marketing: How can you create a community that reflects the lifestyle of your brand? Content marketing enables brands to use mediums online to create communities customers can engage with anytime, keeping your product top of mind and your brand a friendly resource. Is your customer interested in craft cocktails? Serve them creative recipes. Here to party? Create a landing page promoting a forum sharing images and rich media from some of your hottest events. And then encourage them to share.
- Target the right people: Alcohol sales are not permitted to anyone under the age of 21, which makes it a tricky product to market online. Brands can be penalized–legally and through negative customer experiences–by broadcasting advertisements to folks who can’t actually legally imbibe. Plus, why would the brand want to waste resources on people who can’t buy? In many cases, alcohol-related advertisements are limited by social networks, whose demographic and age information can be rather imprecise. However, new technologies exist that can accurately predict ages, helping brands minimize waste and become more targeted in their efforts.
In order to be successful at targeted advertising, alcohol brands have to get smart or risk stepping on legal toes. Advances in market research technologies and data science have enabled new methods for age gating to improve a brand’s understanding of their audience, and enable them to legally target with the appropriate messaging.
Find out more by requesting a demo of the People Pattern platform.
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