Alcohol on Social Media: Generating the right kind of buzz
A trend that I have noticed while looking into the various ways companies approach social media is that alcohol companies in particular are doing a great job at utilizing these platforms to their benefit. There are a host of reasons as to why this industry has proven to be especially creative with regard to these initiatives. It could be anything from the demographics they are targeting to the agencies involved with the campaigns. Regardless, it is worth taking a moment to look at some of the better campaigns to learn how social media may be used to extend a brand.
The first social media campaign that really caught my eye was the Heineken Brazil Facebook campaign centered around turning “likes” into balloons (here is a link: http://eddyandkako.com/portfolio/heineken-1-like-1-balloon/ ) . The idea behind this campaign was that for every “like” the company received on its Facebook page, they would blow up a green Balloon and fill their office space with these balloons. The effort starts with an empty office space but soon becomes unrecognizable. Over 12,000 people liked the page within the first six hours and this fact was accurately depicted in the office space (images came out that show a sea of balloons in this tiny office). The project ended with the page receiving over a million likes. The stunt was undeniably funny and generated a lot of positive buzz for the brand. The team also did frequent video check-ins and took the time to respond directly to questions from Facebook users. What this helped accomplish was something every brand struggles with and very few achieve; it made Heineken seem much more personable and real. The campaign was a great example how a novel idea paired up with brilliant execution can produce staggering results.
Another alcohol brand that has been successful with social media campaigns is Dos Equis. The beer company was able to leverage its popular “most interesting man in the world” television spots into a more integrated campaign. On their Facebook page they created a contest called “the league of the most interesting” (if you would like to see more you can find it here: http://www.imediaconnection.com/iMedia25/2011/brands-redefining-social-media/Dos-Equis/) . The general idea behind the promotion was that users would compete against their friends in competitions that were in the spirit of the company's previously mentioned mascot. Users were then able to submit the results of these competitions to the Facebook page and receive medals and recognition. The reasons that this campaign was successful could all be traced back to the content. Users had previously responded well to the “most interesting man in the world” idea and the brand was able to produce a series of great content on their Facebook page that fit extremely well with this character. The various contests on the Facebook page are all quite funny and the page itself has almost 3 million likes.
These are just some of the examples of the ways that alcohol focused brands have managed to find success on social media. These brands tend to target younger, hipper demographics and as a result need to be as creative as possible. I am interested to see what types of campaigns these companies have lined up for the future as they are showing no signs of slowing down.
