Aki Technologies, ReserveBar Form Retail Media Partnership
“We understand the challenges that advertisers face today in marketing beverages digitally, and there’s a significant untapped potential to connect with our customers,” Brian Mehta, chief marketing officer at ReserveBar, said in a press release first shared with Path to Purchase IQ. “We respect Aki’s unique ability to reach consumers at particular moments, such as when they are looking for a special gift or celebrating a special occasion.”
“We have seen strong campaign results working with Aki Technologies and are excited to capitalize on the opportunities that this new relationship with ReserveBar brings,” said Richard Black, chief marketing officer of Westward Whiskey, in the release. “This collaboration should allow us to connect even more effectively with our premium spirits audience moving forward, something we are constantly looking for innovative ways to do.”
Digital marketing company Aki Technologies and ReserveBar, a tech platform in the luxury and premium spirits space, have joined forces to help brands deliver dynamically personalized digital advertisements to targeted spirits buyers. The collaboration marks Aki’s first partnership focused solely on premium spirits, as it continues broadening its retail solutions.
ReserveBar’s unique first-party analytics inform each advertisement's personalized elements, including on-site data, transaction data and shopper preferences. The promotions are designed to run in moments when the brand message will be most relevant to the shopper’s current mindset and need, such as when holiday shopping for a premium gift.
The Path to Purchase Institute recently examined how top-shelf brand Westward Whiskey tested how dynamically personalized advertising would resonate with audiences interested in buying premium spirits. The study found that the variation group who saw Westward Whiskey’s personalized advertisements were up to 44% more engaged than the control group who saw non-personalized ads. Westward tapped Aki Technologies to implement a hyper-focused marketing campaign as part of its broader digital media strategy.
The announcement of the collaboration follows news of Aki powering two other retail media networks: Family Dollar in April and Gopuff in July. More recently, Aki was acquired by Inmar Intelligence in October.
ReserveBar has also been busy lately, announcing in early November an imminent merger with Minibar Delivery, an on-demand alcohol and beverage-centric delivery service. The deal aims to consolidate a part of the BevAlc e-commerce market and grow the companies’ delivery capabilities and fulfillment network nationwide.