As the home cocktail-making trend grows, Millie Milliken looks at some of the component drinks that are seeing an increase in demand It’s not exactly breaking news that the pandemic saw a rise in at-home cocktail making.  While bars and brands quickly moved to bottled or vac-pack cocktails for consumers to enjoy during lockdown, cocktail ingredients beyond the core base spirits also enjoyed a…

As consumer demands change in the face of wellbeing and sustainability issues, brewers are under pressure to act. Nigel Huddleston finds many are taking on the trends It’s not an easy time to be a brewer in the 2020s.  The pandemic temporarily ripped the heart out of the on-trade; ingredient and energy prices are raising cost pressures at a time when consumers have less…

Spare a thought for fortified wine – its time comes but once a year for many drinkers. But there’s so much more to the category, finds Clinton Cawood There’s no denying the importance of the festive season to fortified wine, and as we head into the final months of 2022, now’s the time to explore the category’s potential, and encourage consumers to make the…

With the festive season around the corner, Rachel Badham takes a dive into this year’s biggest Christmas trends for retailers  Sandra Brunet, marketing director for Campari Group UK, says: “Christmas, when done well, can be the most lucrative period of the year for retailers; in December 2021, there was a 38% increase in spending on alcohol compared to a typical month.”  With 2022 marking…

With the festive season around the corner, Rachel Badham takes a dive into this year’s biggest Christmas trends for retailers GLORIOUS GIFTING With a separate department dedicated to gifting, Virgin Wines found that the majority of drinks-related gifts sold over Christmas were specially created gift sets, with the “best-selling spirit gift for 2021 being a gin-filled snow globe”.  As Christmas draws…

As the drinks industry looks to the technology of the future to create forward-thinking marketing strategies, the metaverse is the latest buzzword with brands and retailers. Rachel Badham reports By creating digital experiences, which can include virtual reality, the metaverse can directly connect consumers with businesses. But what exactly is this emerging form of technology?  After being coined by the author Neal Stephenson in…

It’s one of the biggest sales opportunities of the year for the drinks industry, but also the time when the market is the most saturated. Many brands are guaranteed to chime in with Christmas clichés in the lead-up, so how can you stand out without hitting the wrong notes?  In the latest in a series of features, drinks marketing agency YesMore brings together producers,…