Budweiser & Neft Drove 83% Of All Alcohol-Related Social Video Ad Shares In Q1

While social video shares in the alcohol industry jumped 1,593% in Q1 versus Q4 2012, just four ads drove 97% of video sharing among alcohol advertisers in Q1 2013, with the top two accounting for a whopping 83% of all shares. That’s according to a new study called ‘Untapped Potential: The State of Sharing in the Alcohol Sector’  from Unruly, a video technology company with a social video marketing and analytics platform. The four videos account for just 0.6% of the 664 videos from alcohol brands tracked by Unruly Analytics in Q1.

Budweiser’s warm and fuzzy ‘Brotherhood’ commercial dominated with nearly 60% of all social shares among alcohol brands in Q1. The ad, which made its TV debut during the Superbowl, launched online the day before the big game and struck a chord with audiences. The video has posted over 2.7 million shares.

The number two spot in Q1 was claimed by an underdog that made a big splash with no help from the Superbowl or a big-name parent company. Neft, a Russian-Austrian vodka brand, nabbed 24% of social shares with a wildly violent, publicity-magnet of an ad that has generated close to a million shares and over 13.5 million views.

The Neft video was created explicitly for social channels and saw a share rate of 9.4%. (Note: If you missed this video and are inclined to look it up, best to do it at home. This ad is definitely NSFW.) Unruly is careful to mention that the controversial shock-and-awe approach Neft took will not work for most mainstream brands. As with any marketing, brands should produce social videos that are in keeping with their brand voice and values. However, for Neft it clearly worked.

Budweiser parent company AB InBev, saw some success with Bud Light’s ‘Platinum’ (15,969 shares), ‘Journey’ (4,166) and Beck’s ‘Sapphire’ (7,489), but none triggered strong enough responses to drive huge sharing numbers. All are traditional TV ads that were posted to YouTube as opposed to content created for social video.

Neft’s success single-highhandedly drove the increase in share of voice among spirits brands, which leaped from just 3.0% in Q4 2012 to 24.6% in Q1 of this year. Wine brands, however, are falling behind compared to beer and spirits brands. Citing the fact that 80% of people with incomes over $250,000 are using social media, the study points to the huge opportunity for high-end wine brands to use social video to engage affluent audiences online.

Ian Forrester, Unruly’s Insight Director, said there is a lot of opportunity for alcohol brands to do better with social video. Forrester said, “For wine and spirit brands, the opportunity to increase brand awareness and sales conversion rates through social video is huge, as there has been very little mass movement from these brands in creating shareable video content. Additionally, leading brands like Diageo and SAB Miller that have very strong market share are lagging behind competitors when it comes to social video share of voice.”

The top 10 ads in the study were 136 seconds long on average. Beck’s Sapphire video was the only 30 second video in the top ten. Neft’s ad clocks in at 297 seconds, and Heineken’s “The Candidate” video is 217 seconds, showing that length is not a barrier to success.

In fact, Unruly recommends alcohol brands invest in long-form video content developed specifically for social outlets and says made-for-TV spots won’t cut it. In addition to top-of-the-funnel goals like driving awareness. the the company points to social video’s power to impact sales. During a post-campaign analysis, Unruly found that 43% of viewers of Corona’s First Flight video campaign said they were “very likely” to purchase Corona in the future.