Conquer OND: Crush Your Competition and Drive Lasting Impact with this Unparalleled Beverage Advertising Strategy

The buzz of the alcoholic beverage high season is just around the corner, with October, November, and December (OND) marking the peak of sales. During these three months, securing prime shelf space, drink list placements, and wine menu appearances is crucial. 

Gone are the days of relying solely on brand-level campaigns and distributing printed collateral to trade partners. Local social advertising is the OND strategy to end all advertising strategies. This innovative approach to trade marketing enables you to reach consumers where they spend most of their time – on social media platforms – and offers a remarkable advantage: it’s completely trackable, allowing brands to gauge engagement and effectiveness. No more wondering if those coasters reached the tables or if your retail partner felt it was worth the effort to set up your display. Local advertising doesn’t depend solely on the actions of bar, restaurant, or store managers. It’s essentially free advertising on your partners’ behalf, benefiting both the brand and the establishment. 

How Can Beverage Marketers Scale Social Advertising for Their Trade Partners?

Local social advertising involves using your brand’s quality creative in ads that dynamically localize and launch from your trade partner’s Facebook Business Page. Here’s how the components come together for both the brand’s and the partner’s benefit. 

This approach maintains brand integrity, extends your reach, and enables you to leverage the establishment’s existing customer affinity – making your ad come off like a personal endorsement from your trade partner. 

Why Should I Consider Local Social Advertising? 

Local social advertising localizes your brand and builds stronger relationships with your trade partners – a necessity for maximizing product visibility and sales during OND and beyond. When you collaborate on marketing efforts, you demonstrate unwavering support for your partners, fostering loyalty and long-term cooperation. 

By providing paid social advertising, you motivate partners to prioritize your products over competitors’ in a mutually beneficial arrangement. Consider this: if you invest in ads that drive customers to Joe’s Bar, Joe is likely to reciprocate by creating and promoting signature cocktails featuring your brand. It’s a win-win scenario where you scratch each other’s backs. 

How Do I Justify the Investment in Local Social Advertising When We’re Already Running National and Regional Campaigns? 

At a high level, you can validate the investment in three ways: 

1. If you already have a trade marketing budget in place, consider this: a collaborative advertising initiative doesn’t necessarily require tapping into the general marketing fund. Instead, it can be achieved by reallocating trade marketing funds from non-business growth-promoting expenses to a solution that bridges the gap between national/regional campaigns and on-premise materials. 

2. Local social advertising utilizes a hyper-local strategy, igniting local awareness and steering consumers to your partners’ doorsteps. As previously explored, this strategy bolsters relationships with trade partners, as you become the driving force behind the surge of traffic to their establishment.
   Furthermore, it empowers you to hone growth initiatives with unparalleled precision. It offers the flexibility to trade more of your budget into untapped, burgeoning markets or breathe life into underperforming markets. Local social advertising is not just a strategy—it’s a potent tool to sculpt the landscape of your brand’s future success.

3. Compared to traditional advertising channels, Facebook and Instagram advertising can be more cost-effective, particularly when targeting local markets. This can be especially important for brands operating in highly competitive markets, where advertising costs can be high.

Tell Me How Local Social Advertising Saves Money

In an analysis of beverage campaigns launched through the Tiger Pistol platform during OND 2021 and 2022, our local social advertising approach saved marketers an average of 82% on the cost of reach campaigns (measured in CPM) and saved 38% on the cost of traffic campaigns (measured in CPC). What’s more, you can see the price of campaigns launched through Tiger Pistol’s platform remains consistent vs. the large month-over-month fluctuations in Facebook’s benchmarks. 

In fact, campaigns run through Tiger Pistol’s platform result in tremendous savings across all industries.  

It’s no secret that the peak season for alcoholic beverages occurs in October, November, and December. With 40% of sales happening in just these three months, strong trade partner relationships are crucial to driving brand preference. Collaborative social advertising is the game-changer you need to make this OND season the most successful yet – for you and your trade partners.