Digital Marketing has become essential to all modern day businesses, including alcohol brands. Various companies take to social media marketing like Twitter to engage and bring in new customers. Special offers are frequently made through digital social sites like Facebook in an effort to create brand loyalty. And these advertising efforts travel to customer’s homes, iPads and mobile phones. Digital marketing isn’t going anywhere; it is here to stay. So those in the industry need to familiarize themselves with the intricacies of how marketing alcohol is different from marketing any other goods or services. Offering free chocolate samples is very different from offering potential customers a round of free drinks.
Marketing alcohol is a regulated practice at the federal and at the state level. Social media sites are not exempt from the guidelines and laws the government enforces on marketing alcohol with both the FTC and DISCUS leading regulation. Both jurisdictions, where the offer is made and where can be cashed in, must be considered. This is something that any digital marketer of alcohol needs to heighten their awareness of – including DISCUS’ most recent guide on Digital Marketing Communications. It would be wise for them to hire a digital marketing professional who is familiar with the laws and regulations.
Another area of caution when marketing alcohol is to be certain that the businesses are not accidentally marketing alcohol to minors. That’s why you see alcohol brands have an age gate before you can enter into their websites. Likewise, marketing alcohol directly to online influencers must use the same caution. In fact, 71.6% of the audience is reasonably expected to be of the legal purchase age. While this makes marketing sense—you don’t want to market to people who can’t buy your product anyway—it takes extra precaution, diligence, and research on behalf of marketers to ensure they meet the guidelines.
Here are the additional requirements:
- – Digital communications must be intended for adults of legal purchase age
- – Brand web pages must require age affirmation in order to engage in communications
- – User-generated content must be monitored & moderated regularly
- – Forwarded content should include notice that the material should not be forwarded to those under the legal age
- – Digital communications must respect user privacy
- – Digital communications must transparently identify itself as brand marketing
Before delving into any efforts to market alcohol online, do your homework to make sure your efforts are following regulation, and will be viewed only by age appropriate audiences.
