Various recent articles reveal at least two big alcohol producers are heavily investing in ecommerce: buying alcohol online. AB Imbev and Heineken are both said to integrate their online marketing effort with ecommerce initiatives to identify the direct link between its online marketing and sales.
Marketing Week reports that AB Imbev will soon start piloting several direct selling initiatives worldwide. The company plans to sell beer and merchandise through social networks such as Facebook in cooperation with supermarkets. Social photo-sharing website Pinterest is looked at with particular interest because of its high female user. AB Imbev has made it clear however, it will not invest in the platform until an age-gate is installed.
At the moment AB Imbev allows UK fans to add Stella Artois directly to their online supermarket basket when they click on a Facebook advert.
A global director of digital connections at AB Inbev told Marketing Week he hopes the scope of its investment will “bridge the gap between content marketing and sales faster and reach more fans.” He went on to say that the next phase is to use a combination of video, real-time marketing and mobile apps, “to put its brands at the heart of fans’ real-world interactions with friends.”
Earlier, it was reported that Heineken was in the early phases of building a global ecommerce hub and plans to use it to sell branded products such as clothing and glasses. Heineken UK has been testing online shopping already this year through its use of the Slingshot tool to allow fans to purchase directly from its online ads.
Heineken’s UK marketing director told Marketing Week: “We’re only in the early stages of developing the ecommerce platform but think it will play a bigger role in how fast moving consumer good brands market their brands, particularly in our industry where things move so fast.”
Source: Marketingweek 07/12/13
Marketingweek 05/24/13