Four Ways Beverage Marketers Can Reach The Celebrations Market
The beverage and celebrations industries have a lot to gain from each other. People celebrate special occasions every single day and many events include some form of alcohol – a champagne toast, a specialty cocktail, or a refreshing, cold beer. By targeting the celebrations industry and the people planning those events, beer, wine, & spirits brands are guaranteed a captivated party planner and their valuable guests.
Here are 4 specific ways for alcohol marketers to focus their message on the channels people use to plan their events:
1) Provide a clear value. In some cases hosts know exactly what types of beverages they want to serve at their event. However, in most cases, they have no clue. A brand that provides easy drink recipes that aren’t too complex or don’t require too many ingredients will make party planners lives much easier. Maybe your brand doesn’t make sense for recipes (i.e. beer or wine brands). In that case, provide something else of value to customers, such as presentation or garnish ideas. Or educate your users about the best types glasses to use with your beverage.
2) Focus on custom advertising. By targeting a specific holiday and dedicated publisher, you can get your brand in front of party planners at exactly the moment when they’re planning a celebration. Try custom or co-branded content that allows customers to engage with your brand without seeing it as advertising.
Punchbowl's online invitations include the Cocktail Poll feature that showcases drink recipes and includes ingredients from a sponsored brand. Party hosts have the ability to poll guests to see what type of drinks they’d prefer at the event. Through such a partnership, beverage brands are able to position themselves in front of active party hosts. As a result of this sponsorship, many hosts will select a recipe from the Cocktail Poll and then purchase the sponsored brand's products to make the drink for their event.
3) Create a seamless brand experience. Today’s customers use a variety of connected devices: smartphones in the store, tablets on the couch, computers in the office. Understand how to optimize your brand’s content for engagement on each device so that customers have a smooth transition between each one. Options include creating unique mobile sites, adopting responsive web design, and developing an app, among others. To choose the best option, know how your customers interact with your brand from each of these devices.
4) Don’t forget guests! Guests are often forgotten when it comes to marketing around celebrations. But they make up a substantial audience in the celebrations industry. Reaching them, however, can be tricky. SEM can help if you have a very specific target. Sites like Punchbowl help brands not only reach hosts, but their guests. The beauty of the Cocktail Poll sponsorship is that guests are exposed to the recipes and brands just as frequently as the host. Brand recall is extremely high and surveys from previous sponsorships showed that guests enjoyed being able to have input about the types of alcoholic beverages served at the event.
For more on how marketers can reach consumers who spend billions on alcohol for parties every year, download the white paper, “The Role of Beer, Wine & Spirits in the Celebrations Industry.”
Posted by Katie Petrillo