Coachella and the booze-free Gen Z…
Coachella and the booze-free Gen Z…
Coachella becomes Soberchella in 2023
Well Kinda. We recently saw in the news (US 🇺🇸 that is), that The New Bar, who are based in Los Angeles, have become the first non-alcoholic retail partner for the trendest event in 2023.
If you’re wondering, Why that is? or why we’re talking about it… keep on reading.
As we know Gen Z consumers are drinking less and are much more aware of the efforts of alcohol. The New Bar have been successful at building a brand, a community and even a sub-culture of non-drinkers over in LA. As much as they’re many non-alcoholic brands out there, some haven’t taken the time to understood and know the Gen Z consumer. Shout out to CALEÑO (who are U.K based 🇬🇧), they’re get it. But more on them later.
What The New Bar have done is understood the importance of creating ‘the right’ brand partnerships and activations In Real Life (IRL) that speak and target one of the most influential and powerful consumers right now. All by aligning themselves with one of the biggest and well shared festival globally! 🌍
📸 Taken from Ad Week
So, let’s get into it…
This brings us to Coachella Music and Arts Festival 2023 and a story we shared over on our Twitter.
Now, as we’re a marking agency, that helps brands market to Millennials and Gen Z, we of course wanted to talk about this.
Although we aren’t based in the US (although you guys are our second biggest audience) or work with either brand, we think this is such a powerful partnership on literally global platform.
Yes, Coachella could of gone with bigger and well known brands, but they didn’t. Which shows the forward thinking of Coachella.
Both brands clearly understand the Gen Z audience and the importance and of being seen and engaged by them in the right places.
Unless you live under a rock, Coachella content is one of the most shared across social channels such as Instagram and now TikTok during the weekends it’s on. From Celebrities, Music Artists, Reality TV stars and yes, you guessed it all the Content Creators this generation watch and are influenced by are in attendance.
This shit is PRIME real estate for any brands that are there and want to be seen. This is UGC (user generated content) central and great brand association.
Community and Content
Not only that, The New Bar themselves have built a strong community both in-person (store presence) and on-line and even their content on Insta is appealing and speaks to the target audiences. They understand the culture, sub-culture that is (and has) been created around the booze free Gen Z and Millennials audiences. Their content is dynamic, bold and says a lot to the attended audiences - it gives party/good time vibes but without the hangover. They know who their audience(s) are on Instagram and create the content they want to see and engage with.
When we talk about brands knowing the purpose of each channel and value of content output these guys nail it! Also, a little shout out here to CALEÑO, who also created amazing strong content and brand partnerships and activations (but more on them later on in the blog).
Digital marketing is great, but there is nothing better than brands taking the time and investment to connect with their audience(s) in real life (IRL) with brand activations and partnerships, which is becoming more popular in 2023. Consumers want more from brands and taking the time and investing your money in the right areas to create experiences that will relate and engage with them, has a massive pay off.
As we’ve mentioned many times, Gen Z-ers are a unique bunch of consumers. They want to be able to see themselves in a brands content, so they are able to relate to them, build trust, but also be able to recommend and share with friends. One of the biggest drivers is also seeing the Creators that their influenced by working with the brands they know and love, yes Creator marketing.
Don’t be old and boring 👵🏽 🥱
Yep, we said it. because this is facts!
Gen Z-ers don’t want to see brand content all about the sale aka ‘buy, buy, buy from us’ they also don’t want to see giveaways and competitions (unless in conjunction with Creators and brands they actually use and buy), polished, flat, bland professional images and an overall professional, lack luster social media feeds. If you’re target audience is 45+ (but even not so much these days) then that approach works. Millennials and Gen Z don’t really interact with content like that. We’ve already highlighted two brands who have impactful feeds and a quick search on Insta there are many more.
Yes, these consumers are pretty smart and savvy! They know things like comps and giveaways is a quick and cheap way for brands to boost follower count for a quick win. They also don’t want to win bundles of brand goodies - if they aren’t engaged with any of the brands apart from one.
They also aren’t fussed about seeing content of;
🥱 Tradeshows your attend (hello it’s trade, they’re consumers they don’t care)
🥱 BTS with content like ‘come shopping with me to buy our own product’ or ‘A day in the life with our..’ type videos (unless you work with creators, doing fun fashion shows, brand activations, press events or something their generally interested in)
🥱 Giveaways or comps
🥱 Polished images/ Reels that are all about brand self promotion and buying the product or service
🥱 Pretty much content that comes across as like ‘adverts’, salesy, promotional with lack of storytelling, personality and purpose
Sorry to say but all that is true.
If you look at both New Bar and CALEÑO they have got it right. They clearly know who their marketing too on Instagram.Unless the content is strong, personable and real and by someone they know (in regards to a Creator) then you’re losing out.
💡 2023 is the year of building longevity in your brands and not focusing on short term goals and vanity metics - like follower count and views on videos. If it isn’t converting into a ROI and making money, then whats the point of having 20,000+ followers, thousands of video views if less than half or even less than 10% aren’t even buying from you.
Now, Is the time to invest in your marketing with budget, strong and relevant brand partnerships and activations for long term gain!
Gen Z shopping behaviour…
We do a lot of research to understand consumer shopping behaviour amongst Millennials and Gen Z and we’ve found that their has been a shift in sober nights out and events popping up.
They seem to be growing in popularity, but brands taking it into their own hands to create immersive and fun events to bring their community together and reach more people.
With Mocktail bars, non-alcoholic wine and beverage stores are popping up around many cities and across the globe, this is no ‘trend’. Forecasters have attributed growing sobriety to a greater wellness movement which is only growing and at some serious speed. With some young people simply tired of drinking so much, so have opted for cannabis and psychedelics instead. So, being able to pinpoint the downturn to one particular factor, is kinda hard… 🤷🏽♀️ well for us anyway, we’re marketers.
Gen Z-ers are growing up in a different and unique social landscape. Which consequently youth culture has de-normalised drinking. As Gen Z reshapes the idea of a ‘good night out’ and often socialises without drinking, the trade and hospitality industries are moving fast to adapt.
Thursday x CALEÑO
We’re big fans of both Thursday Dating App and CALEÑO. We would say that they both nail marketing to Gen Z-ers and Millennials.
From the guerilla marketing tactics that they create to the strong brand partnerships, they get it! 🙌🏽
So, with the announcement from across the pond about The New Bar and Coachella, we wanted to share this great brand collaboration/activation between Thursday Dating App and CALEÑO drinks.
Both of these brands not only compliment each well (in our opinion) it made sense that they would work together and create such an amazing and unique dating event.
Check it out.
Interested in creating brand partnerships and activations?
We’ve got you!
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