Dive Brief:

• Ready-to-drink cocktail brand Cutwater, which is owned by Anheuser-Busch, launched its first holiday campaign on Wednesday, Nov. 1, per a press release.
• The effort includes a concierge service offering tips for making holiday entertaining easier. The Cutwater Holiday Concierge is available by dialing 1-833-DRINK-CW and via the brand’s Instagram. An accompanying sweepstakes includes prizes such as a $10,000 bar makeover.
• Media buys include out-of-home, social media and digital advertisements as well as in-store programming in the weeks ahead. The holiday push is an extension of the brand’s “Open the Bar” platform and visual refresh that launched in February.

Dive Insight:

As the ready-to-drink cocktail category continues to grow, Cutwater is gearing up for the holidays with an emphasis on entertaining tips and its digital and social presence. The Holiday Concierge service was inspired by data showing pinpointing some of the pain points for party hosts when it comes to serving cocktails at a time when cocktail culture is thriving.

Among spirits drinkers who are also hosts, 57% say it's hard to satisfy everyone’s cocktail preferences, according to the research cited by Cutwater. Among party hosts, 70% want to have cocktails at home but don’t want to make them. Often, consumers find cocktail mixing to be a challenging process, with 56% of hosts saying they have a hard time finding time to make them at parties they’ve hosted and 53% saying that making cocktails is hard in the first place. Additionally, 76% of spirit drinkers say their dream home includes a home bar.

With its holiday concierge service, Cutwater becomes the latest brand to join a list of marketers, including State Farm, Olay, Pure Leaf and Mike’s Hard, that have embraced an old-school marketing tactic — the hotline — to engage with nostalgia-hungry consumers. 

The “Open the Bar” platform launched earlier this year with messaging designed to make cocktail culture feel more accessible. It coincided with a visual refresh, including new packaging designed to provide clearer graphic cues.

Entertaining is also the theme of a holiday campaign from Three Olives Vodka, which is using AI to help consumers plan the perfect party. These efforts come as research shows consumers are drinking more at home versus at a bar or restaurant.