If you’re planning alcohol campaigns around specific events—whether it’s the Super Bowl, the election, or New Year’s—you need to know that different types of alcohol sell better during different events. And regardless of the event, timing plays a critical role in the success of your campaign—or lack thereof.
When you’re launching alcohol campaigns around specific events, you need to make sure the spirits you’re selling match the audience. You also need to find an optimal entry point so you can time your outreach effectively. Take a look at these best practices to get a better idea of how your campaigns should be optimized based on what you’re selling and when you’re trying to sell it.
1. Sporting events
In our experience, we’ve found that it’s best to launch campaigns three days before a specific sporting event. And though some sports fans might drink wine, beer is the drink of choice for most of them.
When devising your campaigns, you need to remember that people buy beer they already know. With event-specific campaigns, no one is discovering a product for the first time. So, succeeding here is all about the insistence of product recall at the right time. Get your audience to start thinking about you a few days before the big game, and they’ll pull your 12-pack out of the cooler.
2. Holidays
Although many moms are known to enjoy a vodka drink every now and again, most consumers don’t think hard liquor when they think about buying alcohol for Mother’s Day. Instead, a nice bottle of wine does the trick.
When you’re planning to sell wine for holidays like Mother’s Day and a New Year’s at home, you need to pay attention to timing. Everyone’s trying to get a nice bottle for their loved one, so there’s a longer lead time here. If your ads show up at the last minute, you’ll have missed your chance.
3. Election Day
When we measure purchase intent, we’re usually impressed when the numbers start to reach double digits.
Then came the 2020 Election, and purchase intent shot up to 32 percent for alcohol products! In other words, if someone were walking down the street and saw an ad for alcohol, there’s better than a one in three chance they’d hop into the nearest store and snag some libations.
In many ways, it makes perfect sense. During emotionally charged times like an election, everyone is going to feel very strongly about their position, no matter which side of the aisle they’re on. You think about the emotional impact at what might happen, and you want to imbibe to feel a little bit better—win or lose.
By understanding what events might make people drink and what types of alcohol they might be interested in drinking during these periods—if vodka is not right for Mom, it might be right for Election Day—you can launch campaigns to encourage these kinds of impulse purchases.
It’s all about timing
The takeaway from all this is simple: When it comes to alcohol campaigns, availability and timing matters most. Even over price. Remember, we’re not talking about products that consumers are going to have stocked all the time. We’re talking about products that are picked up based on specific events.
If you’re an alcohol brand planning your next event-driven alcohol campaign, here’s what you need to remember:
- Understand the type of alcohol you’re selling and the events that attract the people who drink it.
- Consider what makes you attractive (e.g., having enough beer for your friends on game day, making sure Mom is happy on her special day, and having the hard stuff just in case you need it when the polls close and the results start trickling in).
- Collect data and use it to plan ahead to make sure you are capturing peak purchase intent by timing your campaign correctly
At MikMak, we’re all about helping eCommerce marketers time their campaigns effectively to optimize results while minimizing digital waste. Schedule a demo today to see our platform in action and learn more about the easiest way to optimize event-driven alcohol campaigns.
