Sip & Sound: How nostalgia helps alcohol brands connect with audiences

For decades, the power of nostalgia has been leveraged in marketing across industries—from Fashion to Entertainment to Auto brands and others—to reach brand loyalists or introduce products to new consumers who may be less familiar with their story. By leaning into nostalgia, brands can tap into a deeper emotional context with consumers than a typical campaign. At Spotify, we know that audio is particularly perfect for generating this trip down memory lane—in our research, we’ve even seen that music is the #1 trigger for nostalgia.¹

For consumers, nostalgic marketing is equivalent to comfort food. This is especially true for the Spirits category, which has seen an explosion of nostalgia-based campaigns over the last few years. In 2021, we’ve seen many brands take nostalgia to the next level, channeling old-school flavors and creative packaging with dreamy aesthetics recalling endless summers chasing the ice cream truck. While ordering a drink or enjoying your own cocktail creation might look different these days, the term “throwback” has taken on a whole new meaning for audio in the Alcohol category.

On Spotify Free, 35-44 year-olds make up the highest percentage of audience streams for Beer, Bourbon, Seltzer, Tequila, and Vodka drinkers.² Diving deeper into Spotify’s drinker audience, it’s clear the 90’s are thriving. And this trend isn’t just for the discman generation—the coveted LDA A21-34 audience is dialed into the sounds of the decades, over-indexing on 70s Love Songs, ‘80s Rock Anthems and 80’s Hits.³ Whether they’re remembering the good ol’ days of school, or soundtracking a family road trip, these listening sessions can instantly take your audience back to the past. In our downloadable one-sheet, we’ve put together insights about what these listeners are streaming to connect with their past.

In today’s on-demand world, drinking habits have changed, as brands are more concerned with how audiences are buying and less about what they’re buying. Instead of browsing the aisles in-store, your audience might order another round through Drizly while playing the “Getting Ready” playlist or catching up on an episode of a True Crime podcast.

Speaking of podcasts: both Sports and True Crime, two podcast categories that often relive the past, over-index with Spotify’s drinker audience. To hear more about podcasts and how Spirits brands are driving measurable results through personalization and passionate storytelling, check out the full interview from our loveAudio Sip & Sound event with Bill Simmons (Founder and Managing Director of The Ringer), Brad Feinberg (North America VP of Media & Consumer Engagement from Molson Coors) and Sean Yelle (Sr. Category Director, Dark Spirits at Campari).

Wondering how you can turn back time on Spotify? Download our loveAudio one-sheet report for more ways to reach Spotify listeners—and learn how Spirits brands can leverage insights to tap into nostalgic audio moments.