Embracing popular culture: Alcohol brands on Facebook

Alcohol brands are strategically innovative in their use of social media and popular culture for branding. Since the 1990s the alcohol industry has invested in marketing innovations in promotion, product development and distribution that embed alcohol within popular culture. A particular focus of these activities has been on experiental branding. For example, brands like Jagermeister, Smirnoff, and Jack Daniel’s partner with musicians, create themed installations where they distribute their product, interact with music fans and encourage them to create photos and videos that they upload to social networking sites. The growth of music festivals, social media and smart phones has underpinned innovation in these programs.

The industry’s activities on Facebook are an extension of these strategies. This paper examines both brands’ interactions with their ‘fans’ on Facebook and how this brand-building activity unfolds within the companies’ strategic operation of branding on the one hand and the consumers’ mediation of popular cultural practices on Facebook on the other hand. The paper takes alcohol brands in Australia as an instructive case and looks at how these brands emplace themselves within the mediation of popular culture on Facebook.