We own alcohol industry digital activation. There, I said it.
In Play Bigger: How Pirates, Dreamers, and Innovators Create and Dominate Markets, the breakout book on category design by Al Ramadan, Dave Peterson, Christopher Lochhead, and Kevin Maney, it’s argued that companies shouldn’t just want to compete if they intend to survive. They should instead seek to create an entirely new category. This category can be thoughtfully designed and intentionally dominated. Successful companies end up owning the category they created. By the time others have found out what happened, it’s too late for anyone to catch up.
One of the key takeaways in my read of the book is that I hadn’t adequately owned the category my company created.
That crap is over.
We own alcohol industry digital activation.
It’s okay it you have to ask, what is digital activation? Let me set up the answer with three questions Dave Peterson, one of the authors is known to ask start ups who get some time with him to pitch.
- Can you explain to me like a five-year-old what problem your trying to solve?
- If your company solves this problem perfectly, what category are you in?
- If you with 85% of that category, what’s the size of the category potential?
Answers:
- We solve the booze industry’s problem of getting you to taste their stuff.
- We are in the sampling of booze category. Digitally, with software that measures most everything.
- The booze business spends $3.45 billion annually on advertising and marketing with 60% or $2.07 billion of that being what is considered unmeasured. This is the category where activations, samplings, and general advertising falls. 85% of that $2 billion is $1.7 billion.
In the book, you’re reminded that you have to state your ownership of the category. It’s not about faking it till you make it. It’s about owning the damn category. One must back it up with action. Period. Implement or shut up.
At Shared Spirits, we’ve created and therefore own digital activation.
Our software compliantly converts adult beverage marketing spends into digital drink credits that are then deployed to ambassadors or influencers attached to hospitality operations like restaurants, bars, distilleries, breweries, and vineyards. The ambassadors then deploy the digital credits to recipients who are connections of theirs. The recipients have to redeem the drink credits at the campaign specific venue.
If you understand even the basics around mobile tech, you may have some understanding of the way adult beverage consumers, brands, and venues are aided by this new category of digital activation.
The days of sending “shot girls” into a bar throwing t-shirts and sharing drinks are soon to be over.
Digital activation as a category offers the following top line benefits to participating brands and venues. NOTE, I’m not listing features here.
- It’s highly targeted.
- It’s word of mouth via a digital platform designed for digital natives.
- It’s age compliant.
- No social media bullshit required. You want engagement or someone drinking your product? If you want engagement, move on.
- It’s measurable.
- It’s a pathway to building lifetime value with your customers.
- It supports your key on-premise and retail accounts if you’re a supplier or brand.
- It builds your bottom line if you’re a restaurant, bar, distillery, vineyard, or brewery.
If you want to be part of a mission to wreak havoc on a wasteful and increasingly inefficient part of a huge industry, join us.
Email or dm Sherman Mohr, our CEO and Co-Founder if you’d like to learn more or experience a demo.
