Alco-bev Digital Transformation: Data Foundations
This Hard Seltzer brand experienced tremendous growth after its introduction in 2016. In the summer of 2019, it was reported that this brand accounted for over half of all total hard seltzer sales in the United States; volume sales grew 275% over the year prior. At the start of 2020, it was estimated to deliver close to $4 billion in revenue.
Challenge
From 2016–2020, hard seltzer sales increased at a triple-digit annual rate. In 2019, this brand was noted the top-selling hard seltzer in the United States, with 60 percent of the category market. The same year, the surge in the drink’s popularity was met with a national shortage. Throughout 2019, this brand’s popularity grew as a result of the hard seltzer's popularity being circulated through viral social media videos. However, with the product being hard to find and new competitors coming into the category, the brand needed to understand how to keep its competitive edge while capitalizing on its incredible organic social media success.
Solution
The company founder asked Nicole Ames to interview the US and International marketing teams to identify areas for opportunity in the digital media space. After meeting with the leadership team, agency partners and IT leaders, it was clear that while this brand had incredible organic success, it was missing the opportunity to collect critical customer data; and even lacked the tools and processes. Nicole created a business plan with the CEO of the international team and vetted top tier consulting firms to engage the project. Ames ran the project as lead, reporting to the CEO, Founder and Executive Vice Chair
The Digital Transformation Team Addressed the Data project with a 3-Tiered plan
Discovery deep dive to understand to assess skill & resource gaps
Implemented tech stack upgrade to integrate data storage, system upgrades, Customer Data Platform (CDP) and social listening tools
Created core pod teams consisting of employees, vendors and consultants to develop seamless ways of working processes
Developed data collection processes to first be applied to existing campaigns, then initiated at conception stage to ensure frictionless customer experiences
In July 2020 this brand recorded a 246.7% increase in sales when compared to the summer months of 2019.
2021 Data collected decreased digital ad spend 12% through ad efficiency and personalization
Brand reclaimed top ranking via search & pdp pages
Results
With the tech and tools in place the 18-month value case was realized on target. With the data collection offering insights that increased ad efficiency and improved product searchability
