This case is about Budweiser an Indian beer brand that pushed boundaries to create a breakthrough solution – a first in the industry, to collect critical info about consumers in a highly regulated industry forced into obscurity, thereby, collecting record-breaking data at zero cost to make its campaigns more effective.

Indian alcohol market - shrouded in obscurity

The Indian alcohol market is challenging to navigate with a slew of restrictions on advertising, promotions, high taxes and government control on distribution & retail.

Alco-Bev brands thirst for Data

Indian AlcoBev companies aren’t allowed to sell directly on e-commerce platforms, leaving them with no opportunity to get consumer data. A complete prohibition on advertising further complicates the problem, leaving them deprived of any empowering information on their cohorts.

Objective

Collect data of 5 Mn Consumers

Our single-minded objective – mine 5Mn first party data to declare this as a successful innovation.

Budget

We had a meagre budget of $2400. Given that this was an entirely novel approach being tested in the market, the outcomes were uncertain. The triumph of this venture, nonetheless, could have paved the way for implementing the same model across all the brands in our portfolio if proven successful.

‘Rethinking data’

In the contemporary landscape, data reigns supreme. While FMCG and consumer packaged goods companies capitalize on extensive consumer data, the alcobev industry, with its hands tied in the absence of e-commerce and direct-to-consumer avenues, finds itself in a data dark age. Budweiser too, was navigating a dark tunnel, devoid of any critical information about its consumers.

Determined to illuminate this informational void, we leveraged our existing social media campaigns that were reaching out to 70% of our consumers by converting each engagement into identifiable Device IDs. This strategic shift, a first in the industry, armed Budweiser with essential data, providing profound insights into consumer behaviour.

Empowered by this knowledge, we tailored campaigns with precision, moving beyond conventional cohort segmentation to understand individual preferences. This data-driven approach allowed us to craft personalized ads, resonating with unique likes and dislikes, ultimately enhancing the relevance and effectiveness of our marketing initiatives.

1. Creating a Digital ID – October 15th

2. Pilot Testing on Instagram – October 30th – 15th November

3. Scaling the technology across platforms to capture Data – 15th November onwards

4. Running Campaigns with new data – 15th December onwards

Budweiser strategically targets young urbanites, millennials, and Gen Z, a demographic deeply immersed in digital life, constantly engaged on phones and active across social media platforms. Their passions are intricately tied to their online presence, following relevant handles for the latest trends. Budweiser's breakthrough moment stemmed from this insight—capturing our audience on social media, the epicentre of Budweiser's brand engagement. Our data-driven approach transformed engagement initiatives into robust data sources. The synergy between our platform choices and our audience's media preferences turned every interaction into a dual-purpose tool, not only fostering consumer engagement but also gathering crucial consumer information. Thus, our holy grail for data pushed our innovation boundaries helping us to create the first ever in the industry innovation that provided profound insights into our cohorts, enabling the creation of personalized campaigns that resonated deeply with our audience.

While we used to blindly target passion points for Gen Z earlier to create campaigns, this new powerful data equipped us with nuances such as which consumer was a Man United Fan versus a Liverpool fan to and not just football fans, making our campaigns more personalised and therefore, effective.

This strategy has allowed us to better understand consumer behaviour and create more targeted and effective campaigns.

1. Data Collection

Our objective was to mine 5 Mn first party data to declare this as a successful innovation.

In just 15 months, we captured 14 million Gold + records, an astonishing feat to achieve at no additional cost!

We leveraged this data by creating customised and personalised ads for our audiences by not just segregating cohort's basis passion points like music & football but really understanding their likes and dislikes.

2. Marketing Costs –

These campaigns gave us high engagement at lesser costs, lowering CPE & CPM significantly by 120%.

3. Marketing Return on Investment

Doubled our MROI from 0.5 to 1.15

4. Brand Power Scores

Our brand power scores stand highest in the industry at 30.5 thanks to this breakthrough innovation.

All this was achieved at ZERO