The Best 15 Drinks Brand Activations

1. Jinro “Everywhere Booth” (UK)

The Korean Soju brand Jinro is huge in Asia but virtually unknown in the UK. With their eyes on expansion in European markets the brand went all in at All Points East festival over the last 3 years. It was a big move, festival partnerships, especially within festival groups like AEG are incredibly expensive. From a drinks brand activation perspective, Jinro, bringing the signature Korean culture to the festival, getting liquid on lips and immersing festival goers in the brand’s unique product.

Why Was It Effecive?

1. STRATEGIC Positioning + Visual Appeal

Prime location near the main stage combined with eye catching design elements including a giant LED bottle sign, giant inflatable bottle and plenty of neon to get eyeballs.

2. Interactive Experiences

Interactive elements like games and photo opportunities encouraged participation, create buzz and increase dwell time on the activation.

3. Product Sampling & Merch

For a brand introducing a new product or SKU, sampling is a key driver for awareness. The brand leveraged this understanding with product sampling of all six SKUs, as well as distribution of Jinro merch to festival goers.

2. Grand marnier “Remix Your Legacy, make It Grand” (USA)

Grand Marnier, the classic French liqueur, wanted to refresh its image and connect with a younger, experience-driven audience in the competitive U.S. market to try and attract new audiences. The brand launched its “Remix Your Legacy, Make It Grand” campaign, blending tradition with modernity. Activating at music festivals like Coachella and upscale cocktail events, the activation delivered a fresh take on the brand’s heritage.

By reinterpreting its legacy through engaging drinks brand activation, Grand Marnier managed to position itself as a premium choice for modern cocktail culture with a younger more culturally aware audience.

Why Was It Effecive?

1. BRIDGING TRADITION + MODERNITY

Showcasing its legacy through innovative bar design that combines vintage Parisian aesthetics with cutting-edge technology, such as digital cocktail menus and projection-mapped branding. This juxtaposition reinforced the brand’s heritage while appealing to a design-savvy audience.

2. COCKTAIL INNOVATION + SAMPLING

Always a winner with drinks brand activation – sampling. Festival goers sampled bespoke cocktails created by celebrity mixologists who put a creative spin on classic recipes and allowed attendees to experience the product’s versatility.

3. Social Reach

The activation included photo-friendly backdrops with the hashtag #MakeItGrand, which encouraged festival attendees to share their experiences pushing reach and authenticity for the brand.

3. The Singleton Sensorium (Global)

The Singleton, the premium Scotch whisky brand, wanted to elevate whisky tasting into a full sensory experience with The Singleton Sensorium. This drinks brand activation took place in key markets like London, Singapore, and New York, targeting whisky enthusiasts and new consumers alike.

The immersive drinks brand activation blended fine whisky, gastronomy, and innovative sensory technology to create an unforgettable journey into flavour. The Sensorium was as much about education as it was about entertainment and made whisky more accessible to a wider audience.

Why Was It Effecive?

1. MULTI-SENSORY IMMERSION

The drinks brand activation included custom soundscapes, aromatic elements, and interactive lighting tailored to each whisky variant. Using multiple sensory cues is proven, scientifically to create lasting memories in consumers.

2. EDUCATION

Whisky experts guided attendees through flavour profiles and food pairings, adding depth to the experience and supporting the whiskey category with consumer education – which is a vital component to reaching new audiences and convincing existing ones to trade up. This storytelling increased consumer appreciation for the craft and complexity of Singleton’s range and allowed the brand to showcase its differentiation.

3.Exclusivity + Scarcity

Limited time activations create urgency, drive attendance and PR buzz. Exclusive tasting opportunities for limited-edition whiskies enhanced the brand’s premium positioning with consumers and gave further a PR hook.

4. Chambord’s “Le Crown and Cactus Pub” (London)

In 2023, Chambord brought its unmistakable French charm to London with the drinks brand activation, Le Crown and Cactus Pub. The playful twist on a classic British pub offered an immersive experience, which leant into Chambord’s signature flair, creating an environment to surprise and delight.

Positioned as the ultimate destination for cocktail lovers and social influencers, the drinks brand activation celebrated Chambord’s versatility in cocktails while highlighting its irreverent sense of fun.

Why Was It Effecive?

1. Creativity

The fusion of French sophistication with a quirky British pub theme offered a unique take on Chambord’s brand postioning while creating friction with the juxtaposition between French and British culture. The vibrant decor, including Chambord bottle chandeliers and raspberry-inspired installations, created an environment that encouraged social sharing.

2. Immersive Cocktail making

Guests enjoyed curated cocktail menus featuring Chambord twists on pub classics, such as Chambord-infused spritzes and royales. A “create-your-own-cocktail” station added an interactive element, which again is proven to help build brand recall with consumers.

3. Localised Influencer Partnerships

Chambord collaborated with London-based influencers to promote the drinks brand activation, ensuring buzz and footfall among the target audience.

5. Patrón’s ‘Made of Stars’ (UK)

Luxury tequila brand Patrón partnered with Selfridges in London to unveil the ‘Made of Stars’ drinks brand activation, a dazzling window display celebrating the craftsmanship and heritage of its premium tequila range. The installation transformed Selfridges’ iconic window into a visual masterpiece, blending art, storytelling, and product promotion to captivate shoppers during the busy festive period.

The drinks brand activation perfectly aligned with Patrón’s premium positioning, offering an elegant and visually stunning retail window which would have been very effective in getting consumer attention.

Why Was It Effecive?

1. VISUAL IMPACT + LUXURY APPEAL

The display featured sparkling constellations and intricate imagery of Patrón’s iconic bee logo, crafted with a mix of glowing lights and artisanal materials. This opulent design not only caught the eye of passersby but also reinforced the brand’s “craftsmanship meets luxury” narrative.

2. Digital Integration

QR codes embedded in the display allowed shoppers to learn more about Patrón’s story and shop its product line online, bridging the gap between physical and digital retail and giving the brand sales opportunities with consumers even if they didn’t enter the store.

3. In store EXPERIENTIAL

This drinks brand activation extended beyond the window with in-store sampling and mixology demonstrations, giving shoppers a chance to experience how to drinks tequila and be educated on why they should choose Patrón.

6. Gin Mare Ice Cream PARLOUR (Global)

Gin Mare, the Mediterranean-inspired gin, launched a clever drinks brand activation through Cocktail-Inspired Ice Cream Parlors in major cities across Europe, blending the flavours of their premium gin with artisan gelato. These pop-up parlours were designed to immerse consumers in Gin Mare’s world of botanicals while offering a unique and indulgent twist popular ice cream.

The drinks brand activation showcased the brand’s versatility, creativity, and connection to Mediterranean culture, giving consumers an opportunity to sample Gin Mare in unusual ways.

Why Was It EFFECTIVE?

1. Product Innovation

The concept of gin-infused ice cream was sure to cut through the noise to consmers, drawing in consumers eager to try something new and have stories to tell. Flavours like Gin Mare & Tonic Sorbet and Rosemary & Olive Gelato highlighted the brand’s Mediterranean botanicals in a playful and highly unique way.

2. IMMERSIVE BRAND EXPERIENCE

The parlours were styled to reflect Mediterranean elegance, with coastal-inspired decor, lush greenery, and relaxed seating areas. Guests could enjoy the gin-inspired ice creams while learning about the brand’s heritage and craftsmanship through storytelling elements integrated into the space.

3. LOCATION STRATEGY

The drinks brand activation was located in high-footfall areas like beach fronts, food markets, and summer festivals, aligning with Gin Mare’s Mediterranean brand postioning as a gin for summer. This clever focus on location for the drinks brand activation meant visibility and engagement would be at their peak.

7. Krug x Tom Sellers (UK)

Luxury Champagne house Krug partnered with renowned chef Tom Sellers to create a multi-sensory dining experience that celebrated the shared dedication to craftsmanship and storytelling. The collaboration, hosted at the acclaimed Restaurant Story in London, paired Krug’s prestigious Champagnes with a bespoke tasting menu from Chef Sellers. This drinks brand activation targeted high-net-worth individuals and culinary enthusiasts, reinforcing Krug’s image as the epitome of luxury and exclusivity, while positioning the brand in a way that would sand out to consumers.

Why Was It Effecive?

1. EXCLUSIVITY AND PRESTIGE

Limited seating created scarcity, heightening demand to experience the activation and reinforced the exclusivity of Krug. The partnership with a Michelin-starred chef was a perfect alignment for a super premium champagne brand that would have made complete sense to consumers.

2. Storytelling

Each dish on the tasting menu was inspired by a unique facet of Krug’s heritage, from its meticulous winemaking process to its commitment to individuality. The storytelling will have deepened the emotional connection between guests and the brand.

3. AMPLIFICATION THROUGH PR AND DIGITAL CONTENT

The collaboration was promoted via high-profile media outlets, luxury lifestyle publications, and social media, generating buzz among target audiences. Behind-the-scenes videos and interviews with Tom Sellers and Krug’s Cellar Master extended the reach of the activation and reinforced the authenticity of the collaboration.

8. Courvoisier x Yinka Ilori (Global)

Courvoisier, the iconic cognac brand, partnered with acclaimed British-Nigerian designer Yinka Ilori to create a vibrant, design-driven drinks brand activation in London. This activation celebrated the brand’s rich heritage while embracing Ilori’s colorful and joyful design aesthetic, aligning with Courvoisier’s ethos of “celebrating moments of joy.”

The drinks brand activation blended art, culture, and mixology, offering attendees an immersive experience in an unforgettable environment, as well as aligning with a culturally relevant fashion designer.

Why Was It Effecive?

1. Striking Visual Design

Yinka Ilori’s signature bold and colourful style transformed the space into an interactive art installation that invited exploration and engagement. The visually stunning activation encouraged visitors to share their experiences on social media.

2. Cultural Relevance

By partnering with a designer known for blending heritage and modernity, the activation resonated with younger, culturally attuned audiences. The drinks brand activation celebrated diversity and creativity, aligning Courvoisier with contemporary cultural movements and as a brand to enjoy in these moments.

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9. Budweiser Brewmaster Tour (USA)

Back in 2013, Budweiser launched the Brewmaster Tour, which entailed a 45-week mobile drinks brand activation designed to bring their brewery experience directly to consumers across the United States. The activation featured an experiential experience, housed in a truck that travelled to various cities, offering an immersive, hands-on journey through Budweiser’s brewing process. Guided by genuine brewmasters, visitors engaged with the key ingredients—barley, hops, rice, yeast, and water—and learned about the stages of brewing, fermentation, and beechwood ageing. The experience also included a beer tasting and access to exclusive Budweiser merchandise.

Why Was It Effecive?

1. Brand Engagement

By providing an immersive, sensory-rich experience, the tour allowed consumers to connect with the Budweiser brand, fostering a greater appreciation for its brewing heritage.

2. Brand Reach

The mobile nature of the activation enabled Budweiser to reach a broader audience nationally, including those unable to visit the company’s breweries, increasing brand exposure and accessibility, while delivering a compelling piece of brand storytelling.

3. Authentic brand storytelling

With actual brewmasters running the activation as brand ambassadors, it added credibility and authenticity to the experience, enhancing consumer trust and reinforcing Budweiser’s commitment to quality.

10. Heineken Star Serve Programme (Global)

The Heineken Star Serve Programme is an ongoing initiative by the global beer giant to ensure that every pint of Heineken served around the world meets the highest quality standards. Focused on training bar staff in the art of the perfect pour, this drinks brand activation emphasizes consistency and excellence, positioning Heineken as a premium beer brand.

The programme has been implemented in bars, restaurants, and pubs globally, elevating the consumer experience while strengthening Heineken’s reputation for quality and professionalism.

Why Was It Effecive?

1. ENGAGEMENT AND INCENTIVES

Any successful advocacy programme needs incentives. This activation included competitions and certifications, ensuring the training was an engaging and motivational activity. This gamification of the project ensured better engagement and cut through.

2. LONG-TERM BRAND BUILDING

By focusing on establishing bartenders as brand ambassadors, Heineken ensured that the programme delivered ongoing value beyond the duration of the campaign. This halo effect is an important KPI for brand advocacy initiatives, as lasting advocates in the bar world drives sales.

3.GLOBAL REACH WITH LOCAL IMPACT

The programme has been developed to suit regional markets while maintaining Heineken’s global standards, making it relevant across diverse cultural contexts. This local approach helps ensure the campaign had the widest possible reach while keeping the brands financial and time resource invested into it as low as possible.

11. EXPERIENCIA PATRÓN (UK)

Patrón launched their new expression, Patrón El Alto into global travel retail at Heathrow Terminal 5 with their drinks brand activation Experienca Patrón. This is an exceptional brand activation, with a clear strategy, an understanding of their audience and a clear view of how to drive sales in busy travel hubs.

The brand activation has a great mix of consumer education, sampling, aesthetic appeal and sales drivers all in one space.

Why Was It Effecive?

1. AESTHETIC Appeal

Travel hubs such as Heathrow Terminal 5 are incredibly busy environments. This drinks brand activation has understood the need to really stand out to busy consumers with it’s engaging, standout design.

2. Consumer education

Despite the growth of tequila and super premium spirits, most consumers have a lack of understanding of the tequila category and what ageing statement or product might work for them. Patrón has addressed this via an interactive tequila quiz on the activation to help consumers find the right expression for them.

3. Sampling

Sampling of super premium spirits works. Our agency has first-hand experience of this and the data to prove it. having a mixologist on the activation gives a vital platform for turning interest into sales, by showcasing the stunning liquid – both neat and in cocktails to interested consumers.

12. Kahlua “zero likes given” (USA)

In 2019, Kahlúa hosted a pop-up exhibition in New York City, showcasing Instagram photos that had received zero likes. The drinks brand activation aimed to encourage people to live in the moment rather than seeking online validation. An excellent example of a drinks brand leveraging cultural tension.

Why Was It Effecive?

1. Cultural Relevance

The modern obsession with social media, capturing our lives on it and our identities being entwined with the validation that social media brings has long been a tension point. Kahlúa lent into this by highlighting that likes, actually, mean nothing

2. Fun

The brand cleverly made fun of the perceived social currency, social media likes, during the activation. Hosting a high-class gallery exhibition, to showcase images from socials with no likes, is a great way to ask consumers to question their own narratives in a tongue-in-cheek way.

3. Authenticity

The drinks brand activation aligned with Kahlúa’s positioning as a brand that doesn’t take itself too seriously and this activation perfectly aligns with that. Creating clear alignment and making activations make sense from a brand is incredibly important in driving home authenticity, which is so important to consumers.

13. Stella artois east River Riviera (USA)

Back in 2019, Stella Artois delivered an impactful drinks brand activation on the East River, New York. At the time, the city was facing record temperatures, underground delays and numerous other transport woes. The brand used this to deliver a super successful activation to complement an existing campaign “Summer Like You’re On Vacation”. The beer brand activated with several, branded Riviera style boats, which offered jaded commuters free rides across the river to help with their commutes.

Why Was It Effective?

1. news Jacking

The classic PR move of newsjacking was executed to great effect. The transport issues at the time affecting commutes, coupled with the soaring temperatures left New Yorkers world-weary. Stella capitalised on this by offering free and enjoyable river taxis for consumers.

2. Brand Alignment

The Riviera is renowned as a premium destination, so the brand’s use of boats associated with the famed area was a bullseye in terms of alignment to Stella Artois premium brand positioning.

3. PR

Due to the clever leverage of current news in New York at the time, Stella benefited from significant media and press coverage which included over 175m impressions and 850k visits to the brand’s website to book a ride. The activation sold out in 4 minutes after launch.

14. poker “Promos De Barrio” (columbia)

Beer brand Poker noticed that their mass-produced POS and branded materials weren’t being used by their customers.

When they looked deeper, they discovered why: thanks to Colombia’s rich diversity from neighbourhood to neighbourhood, shopkeepers preferred to make their own, mostly handwritten, promotional posters to cater for their specific customers.

They came up with a simple yet brilliant brand activation: let shopkeepers use Poker’s brand assets to create their own promotional posters online when they order.

Why Was It Effective?

1. Brand loyalty

The drinks brand activation really strengthened the beer brand’s connection with their customers, simply by identifying a pain point for them and providing a solution, which increased Poker’s brand equity with this hard to reach customer segment.

2. Real Time Insights

The program provided Cerveza Poker with real-time data on the best-performing promotions, allowing for agile marketing strategies and more effective resource allocation from the brand. This level of data insight is often out of reach for brands, but Poker built this into the platform.

3. Driving Sales

Clearly a great sales driver on all counts, both for the customer and the brand. The supply of personalized, on-brand promotional materials served to help the shopkeepers drive an increased rate of sale, with Poker directly benefiting from this uplift.

15. The Macallan Experiential Retail (UK)

As part of The Macallans 200-year anniversary celebration, the brand delivered an experiential retail activation to engage the shoppers of the iconic Selfridges floor, with a retail installation and sampling for limited edition expression A Night On Earth In Jerez.

Why Was It Effective?

1. Creative Standout

The brand leveraged their stand out brand assets to engage consumers in one of London’s busiest shopping environments. Capturing attention in retail spaces is the number one job to do and The Macallan nailed this brief.

2. Sampling

Sampling has a huge amount of research behind it, pointing to it’s ability to engage consumers to purchase. This drinks brand activation utilised the power of sampling to great effective, with a 100% increase in purchases on sampling days versus no-sampling days.

3. Luxury Alignment

The brand delivered a luxury retail activation in a luxury retail environment. This perfectly aligns with The Macallan brand positioning and reinforces this to consumers on the shop floor.