Eight discerning beer lovers, gathered recently in Boston, were so confident in their palates that they were willing to do a taste test while sitting above an outdoor dunk tank filled with frigid suds.
If they failed to pick out the booze-free drink amid full-strength brews, into the icy liquid they would go. Temperature on that particular day was a bone-chilling 15 degrees.
Smack talk ensued: “I think I can easily distinguish” between real beer and non-alcoholic beer, one participant said, while another boasted, “I bet a hundred bucks I can get it right.”
The result? Seven tasters took a beer bath, with the moments of shiver-inducing truth captured in a 60-second video.
The stunt, orchestrated by Samuel Adams’ Just the Haze, coincides with the annual Dry January temperance movement but also kicks off a longer-term marketing push for the nascent non-alcoholic brand.
“We’re going all-in on non-alc—we’ve doubled our investment since last year in the category,” Lauren Price, director of marketing, head of Samuel Adams brand, told Adweek. “It’s one of our big pillars for the year.”
The effort includes a TV spot starring the abrasive yet beloved character “your cousin from Boston,” who takes part in a focus group and nearly loses his mind when he likes the buzz-free Just the Haze. The dunk tank content, distributed on social and digital platforms, and TV campaign come from Sam Adams’ agency of record Goodby Silverstein & Partners.
Taken together, the experiential activation and media buys aim to drive broader awareness of two-year-old Just the Haze and position it as a full-flavored, viable alternative to traditional craft beer.
Sudsy sales, Damp January
The time is ripe, since sales of non-alcoholic beer grew 20% at retail in the past year, per Nielsen, and are expected to see near-double-digit increases again in 2023. The category’s global bottom line could reach $40 billion by 2032, per GMI Insights, up from $22 billion in 2022. It makes up the lion’s share of booze-free booze, which includes spirits, wine and aperitif alternatives.
From 2019 to 2022, non-alc beer accounted for 37% of all searches for booze-free beverages, according to Pattern’s study of consumer ecommerce behavior on Amazon. More broadly, the beginning of the year is prime for the non-alcoholic category through online channels, per Pattern, with consumer demand jumping 43% in January 2022 compared to the rest of the year.
Meanwhile, nearly one in five Americans are participating in this month’s challenge to abstain from alcohol, according to a Morning Consult poll.
But instead of Dry January, it’s more like Damp January, with 47% of those consumers planning to reduce their booze intake rather than give it up completely. (Per the 2023 Bacardi Cocktail Trends Report, 23% of millennials and Gen Z are becoming “blenders,” switching between full-strength and non-alcoholic drinks on the same occasion).
“Healthier lifestyles are on the rise, people are looking for something lighter and they’re interested in moderation and pacing themselves,” Price said. “Initially non-alc seemed like it was only for people who completely abstain, but that’s not the case. People are drinking non-alc for a variety of reasons.”
Survival kits and chilly stunts
Once sleepy and forgettable, the non-alc beer category is now on fire, dominated by liquor behemoths like Heineken with its best-selling Heineken 0.0, several Anheuser-Busch InBev brands and Molson Coors, along with specialty company Athletic Brewing.
Both legacy and emerging brands in this segment have been flooding media channels with resolution-themed and party-within-reason messages this month. An upstart in the U.S., BrewDog dropped its Dry January Survival Kit with 24 non-alcoholic beers, including fan favorites like Nanny State and Punk AF, along with seasonal and limited-edition flavors.
Boston Beer Co.’s Sam Adams is trying to make Just the Haze stand out in the increasingly crowded segment with stepped-up advertising and promotions, like its torturous (but fun from arm’s length) dunk tank.
The brand assembled critics, judges and other beer aficionados for the event, providing hand warmers, marathon blankets and other amenities to make their failure a little easier to stomach.
Risking hypothermia and humiliation, Price even climbed into the tank herself…and couldn’t pick out Just the Haze as the “imitator” in the bunch. She also took a beer bath. The only correct guesser, by the way, was a Boston firefighter named Chris D’Alessandro.
“There’s a photo of me getting dunked that my team really loves,” Price said. “It was a humbling moment.”
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