Top drinks marketing campaigns and news in January

Brewdog and Heineken get behind Dry January

Beer behemouths like Heineken and Brewdog turned Dry January into a sales opportunity with a string of deals and promotions of their low-ABV and alcohol-free beers. According to analysis by EeBria Trade, sales of low and no-alcohol beers have risen by a staggering 381% since 2017.

Brewdog not only offered free refills on its alcohol-free beers throughout its global bar chain, but also opened a bar dedicated to them. Opening in London’s Old Street on 6 January, the Brewdog AF Bar was the first of the company’s global bars to feature a line-up solely devoted to drinks without alcohol, offering 15 taps of draft alcohol-free craft beer.

BrewDog is also expanding its core range of alcohol-free beers with two new additions: Wake Up Call, a coffee stout; and Hazy AF, an alcohol-free take on its existing New England IPA, Hazy Jane, joining Nanny State and Punk AF in its booze-free portfolio.

Heineken rolled out what it called ‘January Dry Packs’. Similar to an advent calendar, it featured 31 cans of its non-alcoholic Heineken 0.0. The beer won a Gold medal in the 2018 edition of The Drinks Business Beer Masters competition. The limited-edition packs were made available in American cities like New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Boston, Las Vegas and Washington, DC.