SOCIAL IMPRESSIONS

As social media continues to grow in popularity as a marketing medium, we’ve seen an increasingly number of companies of all sizes jump on the bandwagon, eager to experience the results other companies have touted. In an effort to capture how different verticals are utilizing this space to drive their business objectives, I will be interviewing industry rock stars who leverage social media for their clients in that specific niche.

This first post is taking a look at how the spirits industry is using social media to connect with its customers. Jason Falls, a branding rock star, was fantastic enough to agree to an interview about social media engagement for his client, Beam Global Spirits & Wine.

Jason Falls is vice-president and director of Interactive and on-line communications at Doe-Anderson, a brand-building agency in Louisville, Ky. He also works closely with Beam Global Spirits & Wine, advising the company on social media. Among the brands he’s worked with are Jim Beam, Knob Creek and Maker’s Mark bourbons, the Sauza family of tequilas and Canadian Club whiskey. He also blogs about social media, marketing and public relations at http://www.socialmediaexplorer.com.

1- What are the spirits industry’s main challenges in entering the space?

No brand in the spirits industry, particularly the Beam Global brands I’ve worked with, wants to do anything that is even remotely close to marketing to people under the legal purchase age of alcohol. That sounds simple, but when sites like Twitter don’t build in legal purchase age (LPA) gateways to keep certain content closed off from certain age groups, it can pose interesting parameters in which you have to work. Almost all spirits brands are member of the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States , a trade association whose code review board is made up of member companies which has some very specific marketing guidelines to ensure strong self-regulatory practices. Adhering to those guidelines in the era of conversational marketing and sharing is certainly challenging, but imperative to help guide the industry to uphold the highest standards of responsible marketing.

2- How have these challenges impacted the strategies you have developed as the Social Media Overseer of Doe-Anderson?
I would say the only impact is ensuring the demographics of the sites we recommend are not just compliant with DISCUS (70% legal purchase age and above) and Beam Global (an added 5% up to 75% legal purchase age and above) demographic standards, but that they are WELL within compliance. This meant for much of last year, we couldn’t recommend activity on MySpace. The other liquor companies played there because it was 72-73% LPA and above. Beam Global adds an extra layer of 5% more compliance standards, so we had to take that into account. Other than crossing our Ts and dotting our Is on where we play, the only challenge has been developing a high level of patience during the review and approval process for the legal teams to make sure we’ve done our homework and are recommending responsible marketing.

3- How do you select the most appropriate sites and approach for your clients while ensuring that you are abiding by all industry regulations?

In addition to the demographic standards I mentioned above, we try hard to ensure that places we recommend playing are where the ideal friend of the brand is playing. If Jim Beam drinkers aren’t hanging out on Facebook, we wouldn’t recommend playing there. (They are, of course.) But it’s also more complex than that. We have to manage a lot of sites and activity with a limited set of man hours to do it with. We can’t be everywhere. Knowing where to be to maximize reach and efficiency is often the key to success.

4- Social media allows multi-directional conversations to occur simultaneously. How does a spirits brand participate in this conversation without violating any of regulations? industry regulations? For example, since Twitter’s demographic is mainly 21+, can spirits brands engage on the site without asking people’s age? If not, how do they verify the user’s age to ensure that they are above 21 on Twitter?

As you know, social media is constantly evolving. The spirits industry is evolving with it to ensure our high standards are met. This is an issue that is currently being reviewed by Beam Global Spirits & Wine. If you read the DISCUS marketing guidelines, though, they require any online brand website to be guarded by an LPA gateway. Their policy on branded content on third party websites revolves around the demographic standard. Such is the world of the ever-evolving digital media landscape. The policies and approaches are being reviewed and revised as we speak.

5- What are key metrics that spirits brands are most interested in when engaging in social media?

It varies, but most spirits brands are focused on driving awareness and “call” - or people asking for drinks using that spirit by name. For each program we’ve recommended, though, the metrics vary.

6- Since this industry is highly regulated, crisis prevention is key. How do you use social media for crisis communications and management?

By just being open and honest with those we communicate with and offering ourselves up as those connected to the brand(s), we prevent a lot of issues right off the bat. When a spirits blogger has a bone to pick, they’ll often times email the PR folks with the brand or, sometimes even me, before they ever run with something because they know us, have grown to trust us and know we’re here to help them. The worst “crisis” situation I’ve dealt with is a poor review of a new spirits brand that we thought might have been a little vicious. I just reached out, thanked the guy for the honest feedback and offered to do a tasting or some other such event in his bar (he happened to own one). A couple days later he posted an apology for sounding so crass and encouraged people to try it for themselves.

7- Can you provide us with an example of a brand that used social media effectively?

There are lots of examples. My favorite is probably the issue Canadian Club faced with a fan page on Facebook that was not set to filter out those under the legal purchase age of alcohol. Instead of what other brands may have done and issuing a cease and desist (he was using the logo and product shots), we reached out to the administrator, thanked them for being such a big fan, then asked them to ensure under LPA folks couldn’t see the content. He was so flattered we were checking out his page, he turned over administrative control to the brand.

8- What key tips would you provide a spirits brand prior to entering the social media space?

Whatever you do, uphold the high standards of marketing the industry demands. This requires some patience, the willingness to work through a world of concerns, but if you don’t uphold the high standards of our advertising guidelines, the entire industry suffers. We market to those of legal purchase age who want to enjoy our products responsibly and that’s all. Period. End of story.

For more information on this topic, Jason Falls wrote an excellent post discussing how regulated industries use social media.