An indirect consequence of this summer’s backlash against Bud Light is regulators may be taking a closer look at bev-alc marketing on social media.
In May, Republican Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) initiated an investigation against Anheuser-Busch InBev (A-B) for its Bud Light social media deal with influencer Dylan Mulvaney, suggesting the partnership violated advertising and marketing codes and targeted consumers below legal drinking age.
In the wake of potentially harsher scrutiny of similar partnership, Bernstein analysts recently reported on where the risks may lie for bev-alc companies.
Influencer Selection and Monitoring
Every social media influencer has a different audience and Bernstein encouraged bev-alc producers to be hyper aware of who is consuming a potential influencer partner’s content. That does not just mean who the influencer is trying to target, but who can access or stumble upon that content.
Bernstein analysts used Dylan Mulvaney as an example of a potentially risky partner. The risk in this context does not have to do with Dylan’s gender identity as a trans woman, but rather the content itself, which includes imagery that could attract viewers below legal drinking age (LDA) such as Barbie dolls and the storybook character Eloise, according to the report.
“Even though the controversial Bud Light posts were on theoretically age-gated Instagram (see below), the risk of overspill to viewers under the Legal Drinking Age seems very material,” analysts wrote.
The Beer Institute (BI) updated its advertising and marketing code this year, raising its audience demographic requirements for beer ad buys from 71.6% LDA to 73.8% LDA – in line with population updates from the 2020 Census. Compliance gets murky on digital platforms such as TikTok, where 20% of users are 0-17 years old and 23% are 18-24 years old, according to Bernstein, citing 2022 eMarketer data.
To combat younger viewers from seeing bev-alc marketing, influencers can age-gate content. However, there is a certain responsibility for producers to monitor influencer campaigns and activity to make sure age-gating practices are being followed and that content isn’t putting companies at risk.
“We believe it’s incumbent on beverage-alcohol companies to monitor the influencer’s broader output, both to assess if this is the right person to be working with and the potential for inadvertent severe reputation risk,” analysts wrote.
The Problem with Age-Gating
Even if companies and influencers age-gate content, there’s no guarantee that content is still only available to LDA consumers, according to Bernstein.
“When setting up an account, the age of the account holder is typically self-declared,” analysts wrote. “So even if an influencer uses the age-gating process, there is no guarantee that the material will not be seen by under-aged potential consumers.”
Analysts admit that the self-reporting process isn’t that different from bev-alc company websites that have self-declared age barriers.
“If an underage consumer presents a fake ID at a bar and is served alcohol, the bar is at risk of prosecution for serving underage,” analysts wrote. “Now underage consumption of booze ads (though very undesirable) is directionally less serious than underage consumption of booze. And this has not yet created a public furore.
“However, if self declaration of age is not enough, could alcohol companies piggyback on age-verification systems that have been put in place to prevent access to other material?” they continued. “Could alcohol advertisers be persuaded to pay a premium for robustly age-gated media?”
Social media also creates the added risk of “reposting,” where consumers are encouraged to repost influencer content or ad campaign hashtags to their own network. This gives companies even less control over which audience is consuming their content.
Bernstein analysts posed the questions: “What if this material was inappropriate? What if the material is reposted onto non-age gated media such as TikTok? Would the brand owner be liable?”
Interested in more on digital media marketing? Read Brewbound’s previous report on the bev-alc advertising market on TikTok.