Bev-top media, a new tech category designed to create consumer engagement by imprinting personalized content on drinks, delivers 26% uplift in year-over-year sales for Guinness.
Ripples releases results of a pilot study to measure the impact of bev-top media on local draft sales for the global beer brand Guinness. Monitored over a three-month period at five participating on-trade venues in Israel, the pilot results for Guinness show a combined year-over-year sales uplift of 26% and a 31% increase in share of wallet.
Employing Ripple Maker PM devices and malt-based pods for printing on beer, the pilot included customized designs for each of the venues, as well as trending images and messages from Ripples’ dynamic content feed. Patrons were also invited to submit user-generated content through the new customer-facing Ripples Web App.
“We have been using Ripples to engage consumers and increase on-trade sales for over two years,” says Sharon Sambira, super premium beers brand manager at Carlsberg IBBL, distributor of Guinness in Israel. “We were the first brand to use this innovative tool globally and have seen great results, so it wasn’t surprising for us to see the results of the latest pilot.” The previous study measured the use of personalized beverage tech in attracting first-time Guinness drinkers, and resulted in a 20% increase.
Yossi Meshulam, CEO of Ripples, explains: “Following global trends in beer consumption, the local Israeli beer market is characterized by a strong shift toward premiumization, with total sales by volume showing stagnation and total sales by revenue showing moderate growth. Since completing this pilot study in March 2020, the local and global market for beer brands and the on-trade venues they supply has turned upside down. These results highlight the crucial role that digital media and new technologies can play in boosting consumer engagement post Covid-19.”
The five participating venues also report increased social media exposure. “Ripples is an incredible marketing tool that allows constant communication with our customer base,” says Moshe Nahum, owner of Hanasi Pub. “Beyond raising a lot of interest at the pub itself, it also creates significant buzz for our business on social media. Our Instagram posts and stories get especially high rates of engagement and our followers have increased dramatically!”
O’Sullivan’s, an existing Ripples customer and the venue that saw the highest increase in Guinness sales, adopted the use of point of sale material as well as the Ripples Web App, which proved pivotal in their results. Owner Asaf Shaibi says: “Our Guinness sales increased by a full 52% during our pilot period with Ripples, compared to total beer sales which increased by only 12%.” Another participating venue, Mike’s Place, saw a 26% increase in Guinness sales, despite a 19% drop in total year-over-year beer sales.
Sambira concludes: “People enjoy interacting with their favorite beer brand and the numbers prove it. We will definitely continue engaging our consumers using Ripples in other campaigns and have increased the amount of Ripple Makers in Israel to support that.”
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