Overview

JuneShine began brewing their organic hard kombucha in 2018 with a focus on real ingredients that people can feel better about drinking. Their beverage line offers a variety of flavors made with real fruit and spices, as well as a range of health benefits including probiotics, low sugar, and fewer calories compared to other alcoholic beverages. JuneShine dominates on shelves nation-wide and has even expanded into their own line of canned cocktails, bringing their innovative, sustainable taste to yet another category that has historically lacked “better-for-you” options.

Challenge

As an alcoholic beverage, JuneShine has to operate under fairly unique and restrictive rules when it comes to advertising, which severely limits their ability to market toward new customers. Even an ad with messaging as simple as “Buy JuneShine at X Retailer” is not an option for them. (If you’ve ever wondered why Budweiser commercials focus mostly on puppies and horses — this is probably it.) They also struggled with many of the same issues that non-alcoholic CPG brands do when it comes to retail sales — discounting was owned by each retailer making it unscalable and fragmented.

“We generally can’t say anything to incentivize the purchase of alcohol but Aisle lets us get more creative with what we can convey and opens up retargeting opportunities” — Annie Atwell, VP of Marketing

Strategy

Partnering with Aisle in December of 2022 helped JuneShine get creative on their quest to acquire new customers. Aisle’s tech allowed them to reach new prospects with geo-targeted paid social ads, abiding by the restrictions as needed while, more importantly, collecting a large volume of SMS & email info that could be retargeted later with a stronger brand introduction and detail on how to claim retail offers. They were also able to control the discounting process across retailers, which helped them drive new customer sales in impressive quantities (even for Meta campaigns with spend investment as low as ~$1,800).

While supporting various retailers throughout 2023, JuneShine focused on key metros while distributing different offers via Meta ads. They offered two 4-packs or 8-packs for $0.01 and for $5 off, two packs for 50% off, BOGOs, and also broke out campaigns to support their core product lines (Hard Kombucha and Ready-To-Enjoy cocktails). While they were excited by the 16 - 53% conversion rates of sign-ups to purchases that they drove with these discounting strategies, they were perhaps most excited by success from an Aisle-driven giveaway. A Willy-Wonka inspired ‘Golden Can’ promotion allowed JuneShine to increase their SMS list by 92% compared to the month prior, and grow their email list by 45% MoM. Not only were the results within Aisle great, but this inventive campaign where 40 lucky sweepstakes participants could each win $500 drove so much hype that their website hit record traffic numbers.

“What’s so refreshing about it is if you are a marketer working in retail, all of the programs you’re reliant on are very fragmented, retailer specific, and living 10 - 20 years in the past. Working with Aisle, I feel like they are speaking the same language and have the same goals but also with an understanding of retail. It brings that entire dusty industry into present-day.” — Annie Atwell, VP of Marketing

Results

Needless to say, unlocking a 72.5% more efficient CAC compared to previous DTC advertising efforts was a significant win for JuneShine, instilling confidence in their ability to drive new customers. The cherry on top has been getting tangible data back such as a measurable repurchase rate, LTV, and information about purchases driven by the Aisle program for each retailer, which arms JuneShine’s sales teams with extra data points for conversations with those partners.