Read the full story published on Abodo in January, 2022, an the interview on Digital Nation in January 2022.
Lyre’s Spirits is a home-grown Australian non-alcoholic spirits company that recreates popular cocktails to taste exactly like the classics, allowing them to be enjoyed by anyone. The non-alcoholic beverage industry is a fast-growing one, as more people actively aim to reduce their consumption of alcohol.
Lyre’s Spirits was recently valued at USD$360 million, and its next step was to expand the Aussie brand internationally. Lyre’s Spirits tapped onto Bench’s capabilities in programmatic advertising with the aim of capturing audience attention and driving purchase actions across the regions of ANZ, US, Canada, UK, and the EU.
Through Lyre’s Spirits partnership with Bench, the results included:
- Over 1.6 million unique people reached
- Over 30% uplift in sales for Lyre’s Spirits
The Challenge
The second half of 2020 includes critical e-commerce periods such as ‘Ocsober’, Click Frenzy, Single’s Day, Black Friday, Advent Calendar, and Boxing Day Sale. Targeting specific audiences and bringing the right messaging to the right people was vital.
In an interview with Startup Daily this year, Co-founder and CEO Mark Livings said that the demand for non-alcoholic drinks and growth in mindful drinking has been exploding. “The no and low alcohol category already accounts for 3% of the total beverage market and is projected to grow by 31% by 2024. Alcohol consumption is reducing, with millennials drinking 20% less than their parents at the same age, and consumers are making healthier choices across a number of indulgent food and beverage categories without having to compromise on taste and social experiences.”
Lyre’s Spirits identified five personas that would be interested in non-alcoholic spirits:
- Health, fitness, and wellbeing enthusiasts
- Parents
- Foodies
- Homeowners interested in decor and improvement
- Entertainment-lovers
The Solution
To capitalise on Lyre’s Spirits seasonal peaks from November to January, Bench designed an always-on, full funnel programmatic advertising strategy across social, display, and native ads, to prospect and drive quality audiences in ANZ, US, Canada, UK, and the EU to Lyre’s Spirits website.
Bench ran native video, image, standard display, instream, and outstream videos for Lyre’s Spirits, focusing these efforts towards return on advertising spend (ROAS) and ensuring the continual increase of retargeting pool sizes throughout the campaign.
The creatives included party planning ads that directed users to Lyre’s Spirits online party planner for a fuss-free shopping list based on consumers’ party logistics, free mixology lessons to those who placed orders, as well as gifting guides for Christmas 2020.
Bench also worked with Lyre’s Spirits to launch the ‘Try July’ campaign in Australia, where consumers were able to redeem a free cocktail at select bars through scanning a QR code on Lyre’s Spirits website. With Bench’s programmatic solution, Lyre’s Spirits was able to focus its advertising efforts in specific venues, such as the Victoria Hotel in Footscray, Victoria, for the campaign, ensuring maximised returns and reduced costs for Lyre’s Spirits through the highly geo-targeted nature of the campaign.
The Results
The campaign had good traction amongst its target audiences in its defined regions, and retargeting has been the most performance-driven. Bench Enhanced Video also saw massive success in generating brand awareness for Lyre’s Spirits with the channel’s immersive and engaging format.
Lyre’s Spirits was thus able to improve exclusion audience accuracy and build lookalikes for the company. With Bench’s strategic programmatic advertising across social, display and native, Lyre’s Spirits was not only able to increase brand awareness amongst consumers but also traffic to their e-commerce platform.
Throughout Lyre’s Spirits partnership with Bench, the company reached over 1.6 million unique people, with Bench’s solution providing over 39 million impressions and 60,000 clicks to their websites throughout the targeted regions of ANZ, US, Canada, the UK and EU.
Lyre’s Spirits recorded their best quarter ever from October to December 2020, and their best month ever in January 2021 with an increase of 30% in sales.
Noting success in the booming vertical of non-alcoholic spirits, Lyre’s Spirits’ next step was to expand into the SEA and EU regions, with the aim of generating purchase intent and e-commerce sales among key audiences.
Ashleigh Murray, Global SVP eCommerce, Lyre’s Spirits, said, “As a leading Australian non-alcoholic spirits brand, Bench’s technology has helped us build awareness for Lyre’s Spirits among our target audiences internationally and drive traffic to our website. Through targeting, we wanted to reach personas that would be most interested in non-alcoholic spirits during the festive season, and the Bench team have delivered outstanding results for us. We look forward to partnering with them again as we roll out more global campaigns in the future.”
Ori Gold, CEO, Bench Media, said “We are pleased to partner with Lyre’s Spirits and introduce non-alcoholic spirits to quality audiences globally. As a leader in programmatic, we at Bench know that we have the right solutions for our clients to maximise media impact and performance efficiencies through our data-driven programmatic execution. This campaign exceeded everyone’s expectations and we are happy that more people are introducing non-alcoholic spirits to their festive season.
