The examples you will find in this gallery pertain to different types of digital alcohol marketing, namely: influencer marketing, viral and content marketing, native advertising, online contests to enhance user-generated content (UGC) and finally product placement.
Influencer marketing is encountered when a brand or a company leverages on the wider audience a (famous) user has on social platforms, to enhance a positive attitude and consequent behaviour towards its products or services, usually through social networking sites (SNSs) like Facebook and Instagram. Content marketing is a way to engage more with customers by creating and distributing content with the objective of driving profitable customer action. Online contests are a format to improve presence and brand awareness. When users of a social media network generate content towards these competitions that is called user-generated content (UGC). Product placement is a marketing technique whereby references to specific brands or products are incorporated into other contexts, with specific promotional intent. It is gaining more and more space in blogs and vlogs. Viral marketing aims to develop content that brings other people to it through online social sharing by social media users, who may sometimes be unaware that they are being manipulated by companies to sell their products. To conclude, native advertising is a technique which embeds branded content that is designed to resemble non-commercial online content similar to the platform in which it is published, for example news articles or social media posts.
Giaro Giarratana, dutch influencer, noteworthy in Italy as well, with 463k followers, becomes sponsor of Campari USA. This is a more than 55.000 liked picture on Instagram. This is an example of influencer marketing.
Cristiano Caccamo, Italian actor and influencer, with 970k followers, very famous among young adults, particularly women, becomes Italian ambassador of Campari. This is an example of influencer marketing.
Another post on Instagram by Cristiano Caccamo, Italian actor and influencer, with 970k followers, very famous among young adults, particularly women, becomes Italian ambassador of Campari. This is an example of influencer marketing.
Budwiser uses Halsey, a singer with 21,8 million followers to advertise its beers, with a campaign called “Be a King”. Another example of influencer marketing.
Budwiser also include Leonardo Messi, very famous soccer player, with 168 million followers on Instagram to promote their brand and beverage. This is, once again, influencer marketing.
Krupnik, a Polish vodka brand, sponsors its product in one of the easiest way to “get” to the younger generation: through influencers. In this case the profile is Weekender_girl, a Polish Instagram profile with 38,6 thousand followers.
One of the ambassadors for Moet Chandon is Roger Federer, one of the most famous tennis players worldwide. The way it is presented, the brand aims at a luxury market. This is influencer marketing.
The way Moet Chandon is presented, the brand aims at a luxury market, in fact although not frequent, they sponsor through fashion bloggers, one of them is Alexandra Pereira, Spanish but based in Paris. The woman is followed by over 2 million followers. Still influencer marketing.
It was surely the intention of the beer Italian company Ceres Cè (https://www.ceres.com) to become viral with their campaign launched right before Italy went out of the lockdown in May. They announced they were releasing 5 new types of beer. The ad was repeating the voice of the Italian Prime minister announcing the 4th of May “we are finally going out, but we will do so step by step”; “Step by step” is actually not translatable from the Italian version which is saying “per grado” (in the advertisement) which intends the different alcohol content percentage of the beer making a word pun. It also becomes an hashtag through social media #finalmentefuori (#finallyout). Here a picture of the campaign. If interested in the (Italian) advertisement, here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJZoS4y3nao&feature=emb_title This is an example of viral marketing.
Ceres Cè through an hashtag, uses a sentence that was the emblem of the pandemic in Italy, that was seen among many balconies throughout the whole country: “Andrà tutto bene”, which means everything will be fine. They change the sentence into andrà tutto bere, and bere in Italian means to drink. This campaign was shared by more people and social media users, unintentionally helping the brand gaining a lot of visibility during the whole lockdown. Here an example of a reposted Instagram story of a user by the official Ceres Cè page. This is an example of viral marketing.
Another Ceres Cè's Instagram story where they play with Italy's most used sentence during lockdown "andrà tutto bene"; this means everything will be fine. They change the sentence into andrà tutto bere, and bere in Italian means to drink. Viral marketing's example.
Jack Daniel’s has a very curated website where on top of talking about its history, at every step starting from their foundation, they explain many processes, such as the carbon’s process which is part of the very first creation of the whiskey (https://www.jackdaniels.com/en-us/our-story). Moreover, they explain very thoroughly the whole “modern” process (https://www.jackdaniels.com/en-us/process). Although this might be done by more companies, what they also do to create an extra to their website, as well as the relationship with their customers or potential ones, is to have created a section with recipes to make 57 different drinks that contain their whisky. This is a well-done and clear example of content marketing.
Another section of the recipes part on Jack Daniel's website. This is an example of content marketing.
Another whiskey’s brand, Dalmore, besides having a well-curated website explaining the brand’s heritage, craft and taste of the spirit, create a collaboration with Massimo Bottura, one of the most famous cooks worldwide. The aim of this collaboration is related to the Dalmore L’Anima, therefore a new Dalmore whiskey aged 49 years to be auctioned, with a whole peculiar and unique packaging, with the aim of donating the money to the non-profit organisation of Massimo Bottura, “Food for Soul”. Food for Soul is a cultural project funded by Bottura and Lara Gilmore (Bottura’s wife) to promote social awareness about food wastage and hunger (https://www.thedalmore.com/the-dalmore-lanima/). Sold for £108,900. The buyer gets a dinner for two at Osteria Francescana, Bottura’s restaurant in Modena (two stars Michelin). This is an example of content marketing.
Moët Chandon has a section on its Instagram page, with ‘stories’ where it is possible to follow all the steps of making “your own champagne cocktail”. However, whilst showing how it is done, they engage with their audience by using some Instagram facets that allow a user to answer to answer one of two answer options. This way, the user can more easily remember both the brand and the recipe and is entertained at the same time. This is an example of content marketing.
Moët Chandon has a section on its Instagram page, with ‘stories’ where it is possible to follow all the steps of making “your own champagne cocktail”. However, whilst showing how it is done, they engage with their audience by using some Instagram facets that allow a user to answer to answer one of two answer options. This way, the user can more easily remember and is entertained at the same time. This is an example of content marketing.
Liquor Cointreau finds many different ways to interact with its audience, and keep it engaged by giving tips on how to make better cocktails, such as shaking techniques, how to refresh a cocktail and so on. An example of what they do as to give some interesting information about the history of the alcoholic, is to talk about Margaret Sames, whose nickname was Margarita since she is the one inventing the famous drink with Cointreau and tequila. When explaining so through their Instagram page, they use the hashtag #margaritamonday, which is a way to both get viral and exploit user-generated content (UGC) that comes from the hashtag. This is another example of content marketing.
• The (online) magazine Cosmopolitan Spain in writing an article about ‘chupitos’ and online drinking games, also suggesting drinking games apps, adds a descriptive video on how to make a cocktail. In it, there is a clear example of product placement, promoting Tanqueray’s gin. (https://www.cosmopolitan.com/es/consejos-planes/familia-amigos/a33603454/juego-de-beber-online/
• The Mix (https://www.themix.co.nz/about-us), a website where it is possible to find any information on how to make a cocktail starting from the recipe, on top of giving tips and tricks to improve on making drinks yourself, is plenty of product placement. From the recipes it gives to the tips it always put the description of the recipe next to a picture of the cocktail and the main branded alcoholic. On the videos where they give tips or tricks they show many bottles related to a specific brand close to the speaker. There is no disclaimer of this. This is the gin' section.
• The Mix (https://www.themix.co.nz/about-us), a website where it is possible to find any information on how to make a cocktail starting from the recipe, on top of giving tips and tricks to improve on making drinks yourself, is plenty of product placement. From the recipes it gives to the tips it always put the description of the recipe next to a picture of the cocktail and the main branded alcoholic. On the videos where they give tips or tricks they show many bottles related to a specific brand close to the speaker. There is no disclaimer of this. The rum’ section:
On the website of “drinks international”, an (online) magazine focusing exclusively in the global spirits, wines and beers markets, providing all the latest developments and trends within global drinks industry. Just opening the website, the page is full of ads that easily disguise into part of the website; some are sponsored by the magazine itself, like challenges or events. However, there are also many ads from different spirits’ brands. This is an example of native advertising.
On the website of “drinks international”, an (online) magazine focusing exclusively in the global spirits, wines and beers markets, providing all the latest developments and trends within global drinks industry. Just opening the website, the page is full of ads that easily disguise into part of the website; some are sponsored by the magazine itself, like challenges or events. However, there are also many ads from different spirits’ brands. Again, this is known as native advertising.
• Brussels Food Friends is an online community of Belgian based food bloggers. Although they mainly review food, pictures with product placement of alcoholic brands are not missing (https://brusselsfoodfriends.be/interviews/follow-them-friday-beer-n-bites-in-brussels/). This is part of product placement which targets blogs or vlogs specifically.
A Dutch food blogger explains how to make an old fashioned drink, using a specific whiskey’s brand: Maker’s Mark (https://www.nullammicrowaveum.com). On the page there is also clear evidence of a native advertisement related to the old fashioned week. He also blogs about a competition called “Bacardi legacy” (https://www.nullammicrowaveum.com/category/wie-is/cocktail-competitions/); the product placement is clear to everyone.
The Italian food and travel blog by Riccardo and Stefano, two Italians hardly sponsors any type of food or place. Not on the blog page but on Instagram, when they post a picture with a dish they cooked, the show a bottle of wine that could go along with what they made. (https://www.instagram.com/gnambox/ , https://gnambox.com). This is product placement in blogs.
The Italian food and travel blog by Riccardo and Stefano, two Italians hardly sponsors any type of food or place. Not on the blog page but on Instagram, when they post a picture with a dish they cooked, the show a bottle of wine that could go along with what they made. (https://www.instagram.com/gnambox/ , https://gnambox.com). This is again, an example of product placement in an Instagram page from food bloggers. The page itself becomes a sort of blog.
The Italian food and travel blog by Riccardo and Stefano, two Italians hardly sponsors any type of food or place. Not on the blog page but on Instagram, when they post a picture with a dish they cooked, the show a bottle of wine that could go along with what they made. (https://www.instagram.com/gnambox/ , https://gnambox.com). Product placement in blogs.
Valdo Prosecco in 2018 starts a contest with the chance of winning a trip for two in Italy, here’s the description: “We want to give you a chance for a trip of a lifetime to Italy! Its simple, create an original cocktail recipe using Valdo Prosecco, upload the recipe with a photo and hashtag #WhatsinYourValdo and enter for a chance to win a 4 day - 3 night trip* for two to Venice, Italy. With a special day trip to Valdobiaddenne - the home of Valdo” This is a way of sponsoring the brand by incentive people to create and share content themselves. This creates what it's called user-generated content (UGC).
Aperol Spritz also challenges its customers and potential followers of the brand offering prizes and vacation when participating in contests and competitions; actually the website’s company has a specific section called “competition” with different ones (now ended) (https://www.aperolspritzsocials.com/competitions/). It aims at incentive user-generated content (UGC).
One competition by Aperol Spritz is “aperol-iday: win 1 of the 100 Italian holiday inspired summer garden kits”. The kit is composed by 2 x Aperol Deck Chairs1 x Aperol Bean Bag1 x Aperol Parasol6 x Aperol Glasses (to share of course!)3 x Aperol Blankets1 x Aperol Bat & Ball Game Set8 x Aperol Cushions1 x Aperol Bunting Set6 x Aperol Sunglasses6 x Aperol Panama Hats3 x Barmats1 x Aperol Tray.
Pacharan Zoco, a Spanish brand producing a sloe-flavored liqueur, launch a contest. It consists of posting a picture with the bottle on the table, indeed tagging the brand (so it can be either reposted or commented by the brand itself); if the user also follow them and tags two friends in the post where they explain the game they can win 4 bottles of Pacharan Zoco. This is also a way to create user-generated content (UGC).