Alcohol Advertising on Social Media: Insights Report

Jump to:

• The Analysis
• Top 3 Ads With Most Positive Comments
• Top 3 Ads With Most Negative Comments
• Ads With the Most Engagement
• Confused Customers
• Other Types of Engagement

Introduction

TAKEAWAY #1:  Happy customers increase an ad's reach

Having a good product and keeping customers satisfied increases the ROI of your social spend and extends the reach of campaigns, as users spread the ad’s reach organically by tagging their friends in the comments feed and recommending them to try the product. 

Here’s a sampling of some of the comments that these three brands received:

Top 3 Ads With Most Negative Comments

Out of 10,334 comments, 780 (7.55%) were of negative sentiment, compared to 3,187 (30.84%) that were of positive sentiment. 

On average, 14.34% of all comments received per ad were negative. In terms of individual ads, the top 3 ads with the highest percentage of negative comments were for Bud Light's "Roaring Conversations" (52.00%), michelobULTRA's TCSNYC Marathon (37.04%), and Stella Artois' partnership with Water.org (31.25%). 

For the Bud Light ad, the majority of negative comments were related to the product itself, with many users criticizing its taste. 

Conversely, in the michelobULTRA ad, the negative comments were largely around the connoted association between beating cancer and drinking beer in the ad, with many finding the ad distasteful (which is valuable creative feedback for michelobULTRA's marketing team!).

On Stella Artois' ad, however, the comments took on a different nature. American users criticized the decision to give water "to the world" while Flint, Michigan is still suffering from the ongoing Flint Water Crisis, which began in 2014. 

Whether triggered by the ad creative, the product, or ongoing social issues affecting perception of the ad's content, all of these negative comments are visible to everyone who sees the ad and become part of the ad itself.  These negative associations have the potential to turn potential customers off the products advertised, and serves as valuable consumer feedback for marketing teams. 

TAKEAWAY #2: Listen to what your customers have to say

The feedback from the comments thread contains valuable tips for future improvement and helps you spot issues with consumer perceptions about ads that you may not otherwise notice. From Vinebox's Summer Wine ad where people confused the shot samples with lip gloss or roll-on perfume, to criticism aboutmichelobULTRA's ad which was perceived as associating fighting cancer with drinking beer, to scrutiny of Stella Artois' social mission to "give water to the world" while Flint, Michigan still suffers from an ongoing water crisis - reactions like these provide important feedback for brands. 

Here’s a sampling of some of the comments that these three brands received:

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Ads With The Most Engagement

Overall, Jameson's IPA Edition ad garnered the most engagement with 3,886 comments and Samuel Adams' "Fill Your Glass" the least with 6 comments. (Note: This does not take into account the varying ad spend in order to achieve such engagement levels.)

The ad for Jameson's IPA was a video ad introducing ”the newest member of the Jameson family". 10.16% of all 3,886 comments were of negative sentiment, while 28.80% were of positive sentiment. 

A significant number of comments were positive about the product itself, with users commenting on how good it tastes or leaving their appreciation for the recipe and flavor combination featured in the ad. Many users tagged their friends in the comments to recommend that they try the product out. 

On the other hand, the negative comments mostly consisted of comments about the ad creative, which showed a grapefruit being cut with a knife on a slate board - driving users to leave comments like:

A sizable proportion of negative comments were also related to the appropriateness of the ad, such as:

TAKEAWAY #3: Ensure you are advertising to the right audience. 

In the U.S., while the Distilled Spirits Council’s Code of Conduct dictates that "digital marketing communications should be placed only in media where at least 71.6% of the audience is reasonably expected to be of the legal purchase age", in other countries, this age may vary or be older in other countries. Facebook's Audience Targeting tools allows you to select the right audiences so you don't violate these regulations. 

Confused Customers

In addition to positive and negative sentiment, we looked at which ads had the most customer inquiries in the ad comments. We found that the Jameson Whiskey IPA ad had the largest number (123 comments) of such comments. The questions were driven by confusion about the ad creative itself, which featured hops. Many users mistakenly confused the hops for weed nuggets, leaving comments like:

Meanwhile, on Vinebox's Summer Wine ad, people were also confused by the ad creative, which featured shot samplers in long, thing tubes, which many users mistook for lip gloss or perfume products. 

Other Types of Engagement

Aside from measuring sentiment and customer queries, we found that on average, 4.01% of all comments in the ads analyzed contained a threat such as competitor mentions, discriminatory comments, extreme profanity, criminal use of drugs or intoxicants, sexual or toilet humor, all of which could be associated with the brand being advertised. The ads also contained comments containing industry-specific threats, such as regulatory issues related to underage drinking. 

TAKEAWAY #4: Listen and moderate actively

Active social listening and moderation can significantly reduce the volume of competitor promotions, toilet humor, spam, brand attacks, and other types of harmful comments. In addition, great customer feedback can be found in the comments and can help you clarify your messaging, improve your creative, or discover new product ideas. 

Recap of Takeaways

TAKEAWAY #1:  Happy customers increase an ad's reach

Having a good product and keeping customers satisfied increases the ROI of your social spend and extends the reach of campaigns, as users spread the ad’s reach organically by tagging their friends in the comments feed and recommending them to try the product. 

TAKEAWAY #2: Listen to what your customers have to say

The feedback from the comments thread contains valuable tips for future improvement and helps you spot technical issues about ads that you may not otherwise notice. From Vinebox's Summer Wine ad where people confused the shot samples with lip gloss or roll-on perfume, to criticism aboutmichelobULTRA's ad which was perceived as associating fighting cancer with drinking beer, to scrutiny of Stella Artois' social mission to "give water to the world" while Flint, Michigan still suffers from an ongoing water crisis - reactions like these provide important feedback for brands. 

TAKEAWAY #3: Ensure you are advertising to the right audience. 

In the U.S., while the Distilled Spirits Council’s Code of Conduct dictates that "digital marketing communications should be placed only in media where at least 71.6% of the audience is reasonably expected to be of the legal purchase age", in other countries, this age may vary or be older in other countries. Facebook's Audience Targeting tools allows you to select the right audiences so you don't violate these regulations. 

TAKEAWAY #4: Listen and moderate actively

Active social listening and moderation can significantly reduce the volume of competitor promotions, toilet humor, spam, brand attacks, and other types of harmful comments. In addition, great customer feedback can be found in the comments and can help you clarify your messaging, improve your creative, or discover new product ideas. 

Our technology uses neural networks, natural language processing and machine learning for content processing. Our content processing system processes all comments and takes actions based on pre-configured guidelines. Our trained teams of quality assurance managers and content processing specialists oversee the processes ensuring we have the highest level of accuracy.

Limitations:

• This analysis mainly focuses on the most popular alcohol brands
• We analyzed only publicly visible comments
• Topics identified are based on current context and can change over time