‘No flash in the pan’

Brands of alcoholic beverages have been encouraged to identify and nurture their own network of influencers who share their brand values when engaged in social media advertising.

This is in contrast to using already established influencers who may not share the brand’s ideals but are nevertheless hired due to their larger following and social media presence.

Addressing Red Stripe’s fifth staging of its ‘Responsibility Now!’ town hall series, under this year’s theme ‘Low, Slow, No: The role of media in communicating responsible consumption’ on Tuesday, Andrew Brown, head of marketing at VertiCast media group, stated that sometimes the use of content creators and influencers who have joined the media fraternity is not always good for a brand.

The five-member panel of the event discussed how connecting with target audiences required presenting persons who are most suitable to work and grow with the company long term and are able to effectively communicate the message that the brand strives to convey to its audiences.

“There’s a struggle because you have content creators and influencers that have built their brands based off of doing what they like to do, doing things that matter to them [and] what they’re passionate about and sometimes it’s not always a responsible theme,” Brown continued.

He highlighted that the reality is that some influencers and content creators tend to return to a lifestyle contradictory to the brand with which they worked after the contract ends.

According to Dr Claire Grant, deputy chief executive officer of the RJRGLEANER Communications Group, “correct brand building is a long-term engagement, a long-term strategy where you build it around somebody who is properly aligned with your brand. It’s not a flash in the pan; it’s not just about how many people are going to see the [social media] post tomorrow.”

She stated that the main goal should be to determine whether the target audience has been sufficiently engaged and persuaded to make a decision due to the message itself.

However, in speaking of the media’s role in communicating responsible consumption of alcohol, Grant pointed out that there are factors taken into account when marketing alcoholic beverages.

For instance, she said, in television commercials, actors are not to be seen actually consuming alcohol.

CONCERNS

“Outside of that, the company will also have its own concerns about taste and other types of suggestions that are not necessarily in the regulations but we have a concern about it and we will call the agency and the advertiser and say we have a problem with this, we don’t think that this is something we will air,” she added.

Grant emphasised that it was critical for the media and all its partners, including advertisers, to be aware of the laws in place that address content that is not permitted to be broadcast, citing the idea that “self-regulation is the best regulation”.

“We must work together as the industry [where] if we see something in a commercial that we think is going to be problematic, we do call and say, ‘Hey, this probably might not be something that you’d want to do’,” she said, citing that the major alcohol brands tend not to have this issue any more.

Tishan Lee, chief executive officer and creative director of Engine Room Brand House, argued that it is everyone’s responsibility – from the agency to the marketer, to the alcohol brand and then to the media – to ensure greater responsibility of communicating responsible alcohol consumption and campaigns.

“It cannot be that you do not have a social conscience in advertising,” she added.

Ultimately, though, according to Brown, it is the media’s job to highlight the pros and cons of alcohol consumption as well as to spread more of the “truth” that “alcohol is good in moderation and you can have a good time without it”.

Guest speaker Abka Fitz-Henley, parliamentary secretary and communications consultant, discussed how beneficial it would be for the various media companies and alcohol brands to engage with the “captains of the entertainment industry” and foster partnerships with them with the aim of communicating a more responsible message about alcohol consumption to the public.

This is because these figures have a great deal of influence over young people and popular culture, he said.

He went on to express concern about how different personalities portray themselves on social media and how this normalises alcohol consumption.

It is for this reason why social media participation was essential in the drive to promote better moderation in alcohol consumption, he said.

“I’d encourage the local media to continue its partnership with the private sector to inform and build awareness that we’re not anti-alcohol … but like all good-tasting things in life, moderation is important and is good,” Fitz-Henley said.

Since 2022, Red Stripe has partnered with the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica to host a series of town hall meetings which explore themes of responsible consumption from various perspectives.

asha.wilks@gleanerjm.com