ALCOHOL MARKETING:
REVIEWING THE EVIDENCE
AND PUSHING THE
BOUNDARIES OF
“INTERACTIVITY”
Patrick Kenny
Dublin Institute of Technology
What does this tell us?

It tells us not to “waste” a night
 But

being “wasted” is important for many young people
It tells us who paid for it
 Diageo
is bigger than the drink sensibly message
 “As many as 9 out of 10 consumers thought that it was
good to see Diageo Ireland advertising a responsible
drinking message.” - Diageo Ireland Corporate Citizenship Report 2005

For students, drink sensibly = don’t drink & drive
But most importantly...

It tells us that alcohol marketers know that
marketing works
Power of marketing often denied

Advertising is designed to support alcohol brands in
a declining market - not to recruit new consumers

c. €2m per annum on drinking sensibly
c. €70m per annum promoting alcohol products

You can’t have your cake and eat it...

Argument relies on econometric studies


Total alcohol consumption and total advertising
expenditure over a period of years or months
Generally suggests no (or very small) relationship
between advertising and alcohol consumption
Weakness of econometric studies



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Estimates only
Only medias spend, ignores creativity costs
International spillover
Lagged effects over time
Marginal effects likely to be small
Marketing mix
Ignores youth segment
Why segmentation is important



Young people a significant concern
May be an average of no effect amongst
established drinkers and a more significant impact
on younger consumers
Adolescents with less experience more susceptible to
advertising
Reliance on econometrics is ironic


Advertisers do not use econometrics themselves!
Advertising effectiveness measured at consumer
level, not population level
Consumer studies
Crosssectional
studies
Experiments
Longitudinal
studies
Branded
clothing
New Product
Development
Online
Sponsorship
PR
Big problem for traditional
advertising
But online engages like never before
Interactive websites

http://mixitup.jamesonwhiskey.com/
They don’t all have age controls

Google “Bulmer’s Pear”
Social networking sites

Exponential growth
Facebook growth in Ireland since 4/10
Alcohol brands on Facebook


People over a certain age normally clueless
4 of top 10 Irish Facebook pages are for alcohol
brands

Guinness Ireland 156,000+ fans

Access can be restricted
 ...but
4 of top 15 allowed a 15 year join up
User generated material

Individuals become powerful marketers
Immersive environments

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Players take on new identities and live a “second
life”
Actively targeted by alcohol brands
Provide much more meaningful interaction than
traditional advertising
iPhone applications

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Often available for free
Powerfully combines interaction, GPS location
services and ability to share with others
User becomes a marketer
Phone is very personal and important and therefore
powerful
Offline marketing of online sites

Traditional advertising used to drive people to
interact
Issues to consider

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First task is to protect the young
Eliminate Facebook for underage
Prevent underage from “Liking” alcohol brands
No back-clicks to correct ages
Independent proof of age for branded websites
similar to gambling and pornography sites
But it’s not just about the young

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Not suddenly immune to marketing at 18
Apply spirit of the advertising codes to apps and
games
 Bobsleigh/driving

concept in Budweiser Ice Cold app
Industry can restrict user generated material
through intellectual property rights