The Untapped Potential of Social Advertising for Beverage Brands

A beverage brand’s success is directly tied to the success of its trade partners. Your brand may be strong, but it’s your trade partners who ultimately drive sales and help reach your target audience.

That’s why it’s crucial to prioritize building strong relationships with your trade partners and supporting them in every way possible. In today’s competitive landscape, where the market is saturated with countless brands and products vying for attention, empowering your trade partners can give you the edge you need to outmaneuver the competition.

Trade Partners: The Key to Post-Pandemic Recovery

As the world emerges from the pandemic, people are eager to make up for lost time. This has led to a surge in on-premise dining, making local establishments like bars and restaurants more critical than ever for building brand loyalty and driving sales. Supporting your trade partners has become increasingly urgent as beverage industry competition intensifies. Curren Goodden Associates (CGA) powered by NielsenIQ reports that in key United States markets, 55% of people surveyed are now dining out weekly, which is only two percentage points lower than pre-COVID-19 levels. The on-premise market in Europe is also recovering, with Western Europeans willing to prioritize eating and drinking out over other areas of spending.

The Influence of Bars and Restaurants

CGA’s On-Premise Impact Consumer Research also highlights the power of bars and restaurants to influence consumer product trial and loyalty. This research emphasizes the importance of on-premise locations for businesses to introduce new products and build brand loyalty, as it can lead to increased sales for off-premise locations as well. Of those surveyed, 74% of European consumers and 82% of American consumers say they are likely to purchase a drink for at-home consumption after trying it on-premise.

Personalized Advertising: The Shift to Digital Engagement

Collaborating with trade partners to establish a local brand identity and personalized advertising is essential for standing out in a crowded industry and securing your position as a leader in local markets. However, collaborative efforts to date have focused on traditional forms of marketing and media, like posters, displays, and coasters. They have been slow to embrace more targeted and effective forms of digital advertising. Your brand competes for attention in-store. National campaigns can help with broad awareness, but they’re impersonal and don’t connect customers to the point of sale.

Bridging the Gap: National vs. On-Premise Advertising

Smart marketers work to bridge the gap between national and on-premise advertising. They aim to build partner loyalty by personalizing their efforts to drive traffic to local establishments. Localizing and personalizing advertising increases engagement and boosts sales.

Empowering Trade Partners: The Revenue-Boosting Approach

Moreover, helping trade partners be better marketers, through and with the brand, unlocks additional revenue on a grassroots level. In a recent report from CMO Council, 95% of respondents said increasing revenue through their local trades is of strategic importance in the next year. 54% deeming this very important, if not critical. Social advertising, one of the largest, infinitely targetable digital audiences available, has been all but absent when brands structure ways to collaborate with their partners. However, for trade partners, social advertising remains their top marketing priority.