Big Alcohol: Tequila Maker Uses Insta Stories to Sell
An emerging tactic by Big Alcohol is spotted from tequila maker Patrón’s strategy to use Insta story ads to sell their product. With this, Patrón is the first liquor brand to allow ordering directly through Instagram, according to Adweek reporting.
The new feature allows users to directly buy liquor by swiping up on the ads in Patrón’s Instagram stories. Users can place orders that are delivered via third-party platforms Drizly, Instacart and Reserve Bar. Credit card information is gathered by the partners and age verification is required online. The Instagram-enabled delivery service is available in 48 states.
ID checks are also presumably done upon delivery. However, the usual problems with alcohol delivery arise again in that it is never certain if ID checks are done properly and in all cases. IOGT International recently discussed the possible ramifications of alcohol delivery in an article. Some of the major harms discussed were that it is hard to monitor and enforce rules. Intoxicated people or minors can be delivered alcohol. There is no guarantee that IDs are being checked and trivializing of a harmful substance.
Not simply ads
The ads featured on Patrón are made attractive to younger demographics with the help of social video commerce agency MikMak. The interactive ad units, which feature creative content that highlights the experience of consuming Patrón tequila.
Instagram has over 1 billion monthly active users and its recent social commerce feature is used by one-third of its users. More than 37% of Instagram users are around or below the legal purchase age for alcohol in the United States (21 years of age), according to Statista.
Especially younger demographics, such as Gen Zers, are using Instagram – which is the key demographic Big Alcohol wants to attract because this group is fast loosing interest in alcohol and switching to healthier lifestyles.
Patron is owned by alcohol industry giant Bacardi Limited. It is the definitive leader in the super-premium-and-above tequila category, with almost 70% of the market share in the United States.
Advertising, promotions, sponsorships to reach new consumer, grow volume
Patron reached this position with a “cost be damned” approach, according to its own chief marketing officer, Lee Applbaum, as per Spirits Business. When Bacardi purchased the brand, it paid US$5.1bn.
In the early 2000s, Patron was seeing sales below 100,000 cases but chose an aggressive marketing strategy to increase volumes. The use of classic brand marketing, TV advertising and sports sponsorships drove its exponential growth, according to Applbaum.
Now the brand is pursuing digital advertising and retail to continue its quest for ever more profits, likely also to satisfy its new owner, Big Alcohol giant Bacardi.
Evidently we witness a clear strategy by Big Alcohol to try and grow their profits through attracting youth to use alcohol, while disregarding the massive health, social and economic costs of the product.
This method could further endanger adolescents and underage youth by making alcohol even more easily accessible, available and visible to them and perpetuating the harmful alcohol norm through social media.
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For further reading from the Blog:
Big Alcohol Wants Youth To Avoid Hangover: A New Strategy Of Pushing Alcohol Culture On Youth
