- US - Alcohol brands can only advertise on online platforms where 71.6% of the audience is reasonably expected to be of the legal purchase age: In the USA, the industry self-regulates its own advertising. There are three major bodies promoting alcoholic beverages in the country: 1) the Wine Institute, 2) the Beer Institute, and 3) the Distilled Spirits Council. The content of each institution's code of conduct is largely similar and is voluntary. For all three, the code dictates that alcohol should not be promoted to those under legal drinking age, depict models who may be mistaken for being under legal age, or promote alcohol in a way that underage drinkers might find appealing. In the case of online promotions where it is harder to determine the age of people looking at ads, then "digital marketing communications should be placed only in media where at least 71.6% of the audience is reasonably expected to be of the legal purchase age." Read more
- Canada - Strict content regulation for radio and television: Most of the regulation for alcohol advertising is focused on radio and television advertising, which is regulated under the Radio Regulations and Television Broadcasting Regulations, under the Broadcasting Act. In order to maintain a license to broadcast alcohol ads, brands must adhere to very strict content guidelines. There are no clear regulations for advertising online. However, given that television remains a big portion of alcohol marketers' budgets and given that social media creative is often reused from creative created for television, the stringent broadcasting rules also impact online advertising. Read more
Did you know that on average, beer, wine, and liquor brands have an engagement rate of 1.53% on social media, yet the most highly engaged alcohol brands have an engagement rate of 2.85%? Since the pandemic, it’s no surprise that e-commerce saw a surge, and online alcohol purchases were no exception. Beverage e-commerce grew by 42% on social media in 2020 across the core markets. This means that brands have a huge opportunity to boost engagement and build a loyal and engaged community, leading to more conversions.
It's clear that alcohol e-commerce is thriving, which is why your brand's social media presence must also be thriving. This goes beyond just posting fun content but by forging an online social community through thoughtful communication.
4 tips to boost engagement with your alcohol brand on social:
1) Moderate the comments section
To sustain a strong brand reputation and protect your audience, your brand must ensure its online community consists of legal drinking-age consumers. Create community guidelines that clearly state who can view and share your content. Moderate the comments section to ensure that no inappropriate content is being shared in the comments section and ensure that your audience comprises adults of legal drinking age.
BrandBastion Safety can help you proactively safeguard your brand reputation and protect your online community. We hide harmful conversations on your behalf 24/7/365 and send you alerts if your brand is at risk.
Brand Spotlight: Grey Goose
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Grey Goose makes following the rules fun and easy by stating in their Instagram bio, “Sip Responsibly” and “Must be legal drinking age to view/share.”
2) Respond to comments at scale and around the clock
Many alcohol brands have a strong community in the real world, but it's important (and sometimes tricky) to extend that community to the online world. One way to create an engaged community is to respond to comments at scale. I don't mean a simple "thx," but instead, a thoughtful reply addressing the consumer by name. Alcohol brands tend to have strong brand identities, and it can be fun to bring that identity to the online space by engaging in a fun, humorous, or even sarcastic tone! Your community grows when you engage them.
If your brand is having trouble responding to comments at scale across social accounts, consider BrandBastion Care. Our fully managed service helps you increase response and engagement rates by replying to your brand's comments on your behalf 24/7/365. We can issue responses on your behalf both publicly (to comments) and privately (via Facebook Messenger) to solve customer issues.
Brand Spotlight: White Claw
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Hard Seltzer brand, White Claw, has a large online community of white claw lovers. The brand helps engage and maintain that community by engaging with its followers and responding to them. Here, you can see a fan community comment that the brand chose to praise and engage.
3) Be creative with hashtags
It’s important to steer clear of harmful or dangerous hashtags such as #drunk or #alcoholic. These are sensitive topics and are likely surrounded by sensitive content. Steer clear of promoting underage drinking at all costs by strategizing the hashtags your brand wants to use. Consider using some of these: #mixologist #Happyhour #bartenderlife. Bartenders and bar owners always follow alcohol accounts and are always looking for new and exciting recipes. Engage them by taking advantage of the use of hashtags in the comments section.
Brand Spotlight: Bombay Sapphire
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Popular gin brand, Bombay Sapphire, manages to engage bartenders by using the #cocktailinspo hashtag.
4) Create stories and add them to your feed
Whether you want to add drinks recipes to your stories or ‘house rules’ to make space for a bio free from community guidelines, consider making stories and then adding them to your highlights. Consistent stories are wonderful for engagement as they fall at the top of your followers' feeds and boost your brand’s discoverability. Alcohol brands, in particular, can ask questions, post quizzes, and run polls to get followers extra involved in your brand and create community.
Brand Spotlight: Smirnoff
Smirnoff is extra creative with the use of their Instagram highlights. They have a fun and games section, a recipes section, and a hang-out from home section to get people engaged.
Can you advertise alcohol on social media?
The subject of alcohol advertising has always been a hotly debated one, especially since studies have been able to demonstrate a correlation between the advertising of alcoholic beverages and increased alcohol consumption, especially among youths who were initially non-drinkers.
In many countries, alcohol advertising on traditional media channels has been outlawed completely. In countries such as Malaysia and Thailand, alcohol advertisers get around this rule by sponsoring music and sporting events. In Sweden, alcohol advertising is banned from radio and television. However, it is still legal in print publications if the alcoholic beverage does not exceed 15% alcohol by volume, and 20% of the advertisement's surface includes warning text about the harmful effects of alcohol. In Finland, outdoor alcohol advertising is completely banned - except during large public events, during which mild alcoholic beverages may be advertised.
For drinks brands operating across regions and countries, it is always tricky staying ahead of the new laws and regulations that different countries introduce.
The growth of social media advertising introduces a whole new ballgame to the regulatory aspect of alcohol advertising. While many countries have rolled out new policies for regulating alcohol advertising online, these regulations and guidelines vary from country to country.
To help you stay ahead of the latest developments, we've put together a comprehensive list of the current or upcoming alcohol advertising regulations affecting advertising on social media and beyond.
Disclaimer: BrandBastion is not authorized to provide any legal advice on advertising regulations. The information contained in this post is meant to serve as a summary of existing regulations. If there is any doubt of the clarity of a regulation, this should be verified directly with the sources cited and linked within this article.
In conclusion, alcohol brands need to keep up with changing trends to ensure their advertising stays relevant. Learn more about the key trends that matter in our new report, in which we analyze over 10,300 comments from 26 recent alcohol ads on social media to understand what brands in this space can learn.
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