The secrets behind iconic alcohol branding: From craft to luxury

As one of the most highly-regulated industries in advertising, alcohol brands often have less creative freedom and need to be more mindful of their messaging than brands in other industries. 

But from witty brand voices to innovative immersive brand experiences, the most successful alcohol brands have found inventive ways to become mainstays on consumers’ liquor trays and kitchen counters. 

In this post, I’ll explore alcohol branding and marketing in more detail and show you use cases from some of the most successful brands.

Low and no-alcohol

Over the past decade, more and more consumers are heading towards sober curiosity or straight-up sobriety — outside of recovery circles. 

49% of millennials and 61% of Generation Z said they wanted to drink less this year, with the majority of respondents saying mental health was the biggest reason for avoiding drinking alcohol. Even the sober curious gap between the two decades is noteworthy — with Gen Z consuming 20% less alcohol than Millennials. 

In response, some of the biggest brands in alcohol have extended their product lines,from Carlsberg to Heineken. While niche alcohol-free brands like Days Lager and Seedlip have solely focused on winning over consumers with complex palette-driven drinks. 

Low-alcohol and alcohol-free drinks are typically positioned as good for the mind and good for the body. Take a look at this low calorie lager from Days, positioned as having consumers’ backs: 

Ethical alcohol

“Ethical alcohol,” is also on the rise — with brands targeting eco-conscious consumers with sustainable packaging such as glass, recycled plastic, aluminium and paper-based bottles. 

Here’s De Nada’s 100%-recyclable aluminum bottle:

Writing for Wine Enthusiast, Kara Newman talks about spirit brands' move towards sustainable packaging: 

"Refreshingly, every aspect of spirits packaging is now held up for scrutiny. Decorative tin cylinders to hold bottles? Gone. Gift boxes with plastic windows? Toss the plastic, and boxes can be flattened and easily recycled.

How about the labels? Mijenta Tequila makes theirs out of agave waste; Mamma Mia limoncello presses lemon peel fiber and connective tissue, so the fruit constitutes 40% of the paper that becomes its labels. But why stop there? Nc’nean, which makes organic single malt Scotch, skips the labels altogether, screen-printing graceful flora directly onto recycled glass bottles with nontoxic, water-based inks."

Celebrity endorsements

Influencer and celeb-endorsed alcohol brands have also been on the rise over the past decade. There are currently over 150 celebrity alcohol brands available. Take 19 Crimes’ Cali Wine by Snoop Dogg. Since partnering with Snoop Dog, the brand has massively grown in visibility and popularity across the U.S. 

As one of the most successful alcohol marketing trends, many alcohol brands are also tapping into the persuasive power of personalized experiential marketing: allowing consumers to create their own signature blends and personalized labels. 

“From a brand perspective, personalization is associated with luxury, exclusivity and thoughtfulness, and is emotionally engaging. Personalization can come in the form of engraved bottles, personalized labels or specially printed gift cartons or bags.” Tim Young, Global Drinks Intel 

Limited editions 

The FOMO is also real in 2025, with 60% of consumers making a purchase because they’re afraid of missing out on limited-edition products. In recent years, alcohol brands have played into a sense of scarcity and exclusivity by rolling out limited-edition products.

Take the Johnnie Walker Ghost and Rare Series, which is a limited-edition whisky blend that comes from the long-closed “ghost” distillery — Glenury Royal. The release blends together “ghost” whiskies from Cambus and Pittyvaich with five rare malts from Glen Elgin, Inchgower, Cameronbridge, Glenlossie and Glenkinchie.

AI in alcohol branding

The use of AI in alcohol branding has also been on the rise and is set to continue in 2025 and beyond. 

In 2023, Bacardi released an EP based on AI tool given tracks from five artists and trained on the beats of Grammy Award–winner Boi-1da’s unreleased music catalog.

Check out the playlist on Spotify here.

While brands like Diageo are using AI to deliver personalized flavor profiling and product recommendations to consumers with AI-based platforms like What’s Your Whisky. 

Curious to see consumers’ top alcohol-free beers in 2025? Check out our past post on the topic.

Let’s take a look at some of the most effective alcohol branding and marketing strategies. 

The role of emotional appeal and lifestyle associations

Emotions are one of the most persuasive aspects of all great advertising and marketing. 

31% of brands report very large profit gains after releasing “purely emotional” content, ​​while only 26% of brands reported high profit gains if their content was a mix of emotional and rational content. And only 16% reported the same gains after releasing purely rational content. 

When it comes to purchasing decisions, 82% of highly-emotionally engaged consumers always buy the brand they are loyal to — compared to 38% of consumers with low emotional engagement. 

In the ‘Full of Character’ campaign, Gilbert — the Famous Grouse preps a dinner party for family and friends. 

In it, the brand uses the fun-loving charm of the iconic grouse to endear viewers. He playfully spins round on a record player, flips a lime off a spoon and into a glass and winks into the camera. 

As The Yard Creative notes, this is the first time consumers have seen the grouse in the cozy setting of his home, preparing a dinner for his family and friends — giving the ad an intimate and heart-warming feel: 

“The press release claims this is the first time we’ve seen the grouse in the intimate setting of his house. Gilbert has been a key part of the brand for over 100 years, but they wisely periodically update his image! Gilbert undoubtedly evokes feelings of joy, nostalgia and humour to tell stories, which are “full of character”.”

Much of the reason people still drink “alcohol-free” beers, gins and wines is to feel connected to their friends and family or as one sober-curious consumer we spoke to put it, “Unlike a soda, it makes me feel like part of the social ritual.” 

Oxford University reports that alcohol triggers the endorphins system, supporting social bonding. Professor Robin Dunbar of the University of Oxford’s Experimental Psychology department said:

"Like other complex bonding systems such as dancing, singing and storytelling, it has often been adopted by large social communities as a ritual associated with bonding."

An alcohol-free drink can help consumers replicate that sense of belonging and make them feel closer to the people they’re with. 

Lynn House, national spirits specialist and portfolio mixologist for Heaven Hill, says: “Spritzes and low alcohol session cocktails are a way for people to enhance a moment without the punch of a high proof spirit.”

Brand campaigns often tie lifestyle aspirations into their products. According to Veblen's theory of conspicuous consumption, people are driven to emulate the consumption patterns of people higher up the social hierarchy. Wealthy, high-status people advertise their wealth and social status by wearing, using, and consuming highly conspicuous or visible consumer goods. 

Take this ad from Smirnoff featuring actress Kaley Cuoco with features a chicly-dressed Kaley “upgrading” a party from a friends’ cozy flat to a rooftop with a bar and DJ: 

If you want to read more about the role emotions play in advertising, check out our past post on the topic.

Alcohol brands differentiate themselves by appealing to different types of consumers. 

Luxury alcohol branding

Many luxury alcohol brands pull in well-off, aspirational consumers with exclusive limited-edition products, rare and premium ingredients and ads that emphasize affluence and exclusivity. 

High-end alcohol brands often play with artistic creative concepts and imagery to emphasize their opulence and appeal to the refined tastes of their target consumers — skillfully highlighting the innate artistry of their brands and products. 

Take The Macallan 150, in which artist and photographer Ernie Button layered different colored lights over the dried remains of scotch in a glass to create an illusion of the outer space and other surreal or otherworldly landscapes in his photographic series Vanishing Spirits: The Dries Remains of Single Malt Scotch. Button says: 

“The alcohol dries and leaves the sediment in various patterns.  It’s a little like snowflakes in that every time the Scotch dries, the glass yields different patterns and results.  I have used different colored lights to add ‘life’ to the bottom of the glass, creating the illusion of landscape, terrestrial or extraterrestrial.” 

While personalized products, exclusive limited-edition items, and experimental events all work to create a sense of exclusivity. In comparison, mass-marketing alcohol brands draw in consumers with convenience, cost, and consistent quality (yet affordable) ingredients. With these brands, we see out-of-the-box inventiveness and exclusivity replaced with accessibility and broad appeal. 

Hacker News user dredmorbius talks about how the biggest alcohol beverages are "all branding," they say: 

"Some years back I looked into just when various well-known alcoholic beverages or other branded concepts came into being. Virtually all are from after the beginning of the broadcast-based mass-advertising era, with the exception of Captain Morgan's Rum (which dates from US Prohibition). The whole notion of the "Irish pub" is mostly a post-1980s marketing gimmick (inspired strongly by the US TV series "Cheers" AFAIU)."

Craft alcohol branding

While craft alcohol brands appeal to consumers who see themselves as alcohol considers: they're looking for artistry, craftsmanship, and unique, creative and experimental flavor profiles. 

Craft alcohol brands appeal to these consumers with unique flavor profiles. EZBrew says: “Craft beer drinkers are increasingly drawn to innovative brews. Think IPAs with fruity hops, stouts infused with coffee or chocolate, and sours with tart, tangy profiles. Seasonal and limited-edition releases also generate a lot of excitement, giving consumers something new to look forward to regularly.”

They also draw in consumers with authenticity and storytelling: letting them in behind the scenes, showing them their production processes and regularly featuring company founders across their content and campaigns. 

Mass alcohol branding

Authenticity is also empathized in much of the alcohol branding we see. Spirits Platform notes that authenticity can be broken down into specific categories which retailers and consumers can use to understand what makes a brand a brand. 

These categories cover: provenance, flavor and ethical craftmanship. 

Authenticity in flavor is often distinguished through distinct flavor profiles drawn from rare and unique flavors that you see with brands like The Botanist Gin from the Bruichladdich Distillery Company. The brand focuses on over 22 foraged herbs, leaves and flora found on the Isle of Islay, reflecting its unique heritage in the gin’s complex flavor profile.  

Brands highlight provenance through traditional recipes and old-school manufacturing techniques, The Macallan, whose origins date back to 1534, markets its "Six Pillars" — highlighting traditional methods, "curiously" small stills, oak casks and natural color. 

Take a look at how they talk up their authenticity and uniqueness in the "natural color" pillar: 

"All colour in The Macallan whiskies, bottled by the distillery, is natural. Only the interaction of the ‘new make’ spirit with the oak of the maturation casks delivers the rich and natural diversity of colour throughout the range, from light oak through to darkest mahogany. 

These natural colors remain ‘fixed’, as opposed to artificial colors which fade relatively quickly in bright sunlight. Great skill is required by the Master Whisky Maker to achieve consistency of natural colour from bottling to bottling."

While authentic brand values are expressed through eco-friendly craftsmanship by highlighting green and ethical production methods and sustainable packaging, socially-conscious campaigns. 

As part of Pernod Ricard’s global Sustainability and Responsibility strategy, Good Times from a Good Place, the Drink More Water campaign encourages younger consumers to drink more water as they drink — reducing the impact of binge drinking. 

The campaign taps into humor to help Gen Z party goers remember to drink more water as soon as they arrive at an event — with models drinking out of fish bowls and dog bowls: 

Let’s take a look at some of the best alcohol branding examples from some of the best-loved alcohol brands. 

Premium and luxury examples 

French fine winery and producer of one of the most recognizable champagnes, Moët & Chandon is a brand that is all about glamor, elegance and exclusivity. They build their brand identity around the embodiment of the aspirational lifestyle with an emphasis on success and glamor: "Sharing success and glamour with the world has been our inspiration, our passion and our raison d'être for nearly three centuries."

The brand also regularly uses experimental brand experiences to build their brand reputation. CEO Philippe Schaus says: "These experiences reinforce a higher price floor, because they help communicate the quality behind the product."

Schaus also emphasizes their delicate balance between expansive innovation and the prestige of tradition: “You need to keep this magic balance between modernity and tradition, between craftsmanship and innovation."

He highlights the Moët & Chandon Champagne Bar at Harrod’s in London, a luxury experience in the store’s ground floor beauty department. Shoppers can sample the entire range of Moët & Chandon cuvées and order from their cultivated menu. The experience also includes a hand-sculpted bar that takes inspiration from the terroir of the Épernay Champagne region.

When it comes to marketing, luxury alcohol brands also often look for inventive ways to push the consumer experience beyond the parameters of “everyday” advertising. 

Brands like Macallan excel at creating out-of-the-box immersive brand advertising experiences for consumers. 

To mark 200 years, Macallan rolled out several striking 3D ads at different iconic global locations including New York City’s Penn Station, London’s Piccadilly Circus, and Las Vegas’s The Sphere. 

The ads were paired with short films that took consumers to an alternate world where time moves in unexpected ways and nature preserves what’s most valuable — playing on the brand’s nature-based heritage.

The campaign is a great example of how luxury alcohol brands use heritage and a celebration of their roots to showcase their prestige. 

Craft and artisanal brand examples

Successful craft alcohol brands form deeper connections with consumers by building their branding around their origin stories — highlighting their authenticity and the personal care and attention they channel into their product.

Take Tito’s Handmade Vodka — the brand shares snippets of its foundation throughout its content. On their About Us page, directly linked from the homepage CTA, the brand opens by telling consumers that its vodka was made in Texas’ first operating, legal distillery. 

They then jump into their origin story: 

"Tito's Handmade Vodka is America's Original Craft Vodka. In 1995, Bert “Tito” Beveridge obtained the first legal permit to distill in Texas and created Tito's Handmade Vodka. We batch distill our corn-based vodka using old-fashioned pot stills and the vodka is naturally Gluten-Free. Tito’s Handmade Vodka is distilled and bottled by Fifth Generation Inc. in Austin, Texas on the very same land where the whole venture started."

Craft beer brands also typically lean into their unique production techniques and flavor profiles with Tito’s using corn, rather than wheat or potato as is traditionally used in vodka production. Tito also uses their origin story to subtly highlight their artisan production techniques with old-fashioned pot stills, showing the care that’s gone into making their vodka.  

Craft alcohol brands often appeal to consumers through their reliability and authenticity — they’re alcohol lovers just like them with the same tastes and attitudes. Check out craft beer company Other Half’s brand description on their website: 

“Sam Richardson, Matt Monahan, and Andrew Burman founded Other Half Brewing Company in Brooklyn, NY in 2014 with a simple mission: to create beers that they wanted to drink from a company that they wanted to be a part of. We push the boundaries of beer and the culture that surrounds it by representing the “Other Half” of the industry.”

Like Tito’s, Other Half distinguishes itself through their alcohol lines’ unique flavor profiles with mixed and spontaneous fermentation beers and “hazy” IPAs. With several citrus and botanical-based offerings in their product lines, Other Half do their consumer research and build their brand and products around what adventurous alcohol consumers want: 

AFJ says: “

Both Millennials and Gen Z consumers, the latter of whom will play an ever more significant role in the alcoholic beverage landscape as they reach legal drinking age, find tropical, exotic, berry, and citrus flavour profiles particularly appealing, underscoring the growing demand for refreshing beer offerings.”

Disruptive and bold branding 

Aviation Gin, co-owned by actor Ryan Reynolds, is one of the best examples of a disruptive and bold alcohol brand. Moving gin away from its traditional roots, Aviation Gin targets the younger consumer with its playful marketing and sleek, modern and fun brand identity. 

"I've tried every gin on the planet and Aviation is, hands down, the best. Also, I don't recommend trying every gin on the planet. Stick with this one."

- Ryan Reynolds, Co-Owner, Aviation American Gin

Aviation Gin is playful, tongue-in-cheek and authentic — moving away from the image many consumers have of gin brands as uptight, stuffy or pretentious. 

Take this ad, featuring Arlene — who has a birthday every leap year (every four years), and is finally turning “21”. 

Cue Reynold’s signature wry humor: “Arlene has never had a legal drink in her life.” 

Arlene says, “I’m not an angel, but that’s okay — I’m ready to party.” At the end of the ad, Arlene says she doesn’t know who Ryan Renolds is. Ryan retorts, “Ignore her. She’s been drinking.” 

Disruptive alcohol brands typically disrupt on every level — from their voice to their product. And White Claw is another great example. Serving the sober and sober-curious consumer: the brand essentially founded the hard seltzer category. 

The brand took a detour from traditional marketing and advertising approaches and product development methods — choosing product flavors based on a poll of over 70,000 social media users and growing their brand through meme culture with the fan-made, “Ain’t no laws when you’re drinking Claws,” meme. 

From White Claw’s smart embrace of meme culture to Moët & Chandon’s use of experiential brand and marketing experiences — as an alcohol brand, you need to find new ways of innovating and making sure you stay culturally relevant. The right tools can help you create that culture of innovation. 

You can use platforms like Zappi’s AI-supported consumer insights tool to screen, vet and refine your early ideas and validate your concepts and concept elements — understanding what consumers want from your alcohol brand throughout the entire creation process. 

To succeed as an alcohol brand and create a lasting brand identity in a competitive industry, you also need to get clear on who you are and what differentiates you from your competitors. Whether it’s wit, heritage or rare and intriguing ingredients — find your unique edge and build your brand around it. 

The most successful brands balance tradition with modern marketing strategies — they show consumers where they began and what makes their vintage recipes, family-traded secrets and traditional brewing and distillery techniques so unique and valuable. 

While the most popular craft alcohol brands also show us that moving past stereotypes of a particular beverage and experimenting are essential to building a brand — all of these methods you can (and should) be sure to run by your consumer first.