A Conversation with Lisa Lee, Baileys Brand Manager

Sep. 24, 2015

Recently, we touched-base with Lisa Lee, Baileys Brand Manager, to discuss Baileys’ strategy going into the holiday selling season and how the brand is looking to connect with the next generation of Baileys lovers online.

Wirtz Beverage: Who is the Baileys consumer and what demographics are you looking to expand the brand’s reach to online?

Lisa Lee: Social media is so important for Baileys. Not only is the brand the original Irish cream, but it’s also a brand that was created for women based on a consumer need for a more approachable whiskey. From a social standpoint, our sweet spot is the female consumer age 21-29. It’s all about inspiring women to shine.

WB: Talk about the success of Baileys Instagram— why does the brand work so well on this channel?

LL:  From a "brand love" standpoint, Baileys is the number one spirits brand with female users, second only to Jack Daniel’s overall. Instagram is a great social platform because it shows what people are doing, where they are and who they’re with. That’s a conversation we want to be a part of.  

WB: What’s interesting about the Baileys Instagram account is that often, the posts garnering the most "Likes" are those in which the bottle is prominently displayed or a new way of mixing/serving the spirit is captured.

LL: Baileys lends itself very well to Instagram because the platform is so visual. On Facebook, the goal is to stand out because there are just so many people and so much information being shared. On Instagram, there’s more power in how you fit in with the community. We don’t want our content to feel like an Ad, we want to be relatable.

WB: Outside of Instagram, what is Baileys currently doing to target customers in the digital space?

LL: We have a social presence on all major platforms including YouTube and Pinterest. We really focus on Facebook and Instagram because we need to be where she is. I like Instagram and Facebook because they fulfill two different purposes. Instagram is about the who, the what, and the where. Facebook is about the how.

WB: What are some of the ways that Baileys will be looking to evolve in front of consumers in the next year?

LL: We know that the female millennial consumer is driven to act by brands that have an authentic presence so our focus is on getting back to the basics. There’s beauty in being a versatile serve and this year, we’re focused on showcasing how Baileys can be enjoyed with coffee. Originally, we were worried that this might be too limiting but if you look at the category, people enjoy coffee in a lot of different ways. I think there’s a lot more creative freedom when you establish some guard rails. 

We took this thinking and merged it with the idea of coming across in a dynamic way. That for us is our influencer program, which we will begin to launch on our digital channels soon. We broke out the Influencer pieces in three ways: Macro, Mid, and Micro. Again, there’s a rationale for each. The Macro Influencer (one with a million Instagram followers or more) is about reach. The Mid Influencer (one with less than one million followers) will have lower reach but allows for more engagement. Consumers may respond more to these Influencers, ask questions. The Micro Influencers (those with less than 10K followers), these are where the dedicated followers are. You are able to target a more specific demographic and you’re getting more natural consumer feedback. This Micro Influencer gets you closer to a conversation than any other. We wanted to make sure we were being authentic in how these Influencers were selected and so we wanted them to genuinely be adorers of Baileys.

WB: What would you say are the key differentiators between consumers who purchase Baileys at an off-premise account vs. an on-premise establishment? What opportunities for increased sales are present in both areas? 

LL: In the on-premise, Baileys is definitely the brand of choice with coffee. We see Baileys as the upsell for servers. We want coffee and Baileys to become something that consumers enjoy any time of day to treat themselves.

In the off-premise, the thinking is, "How can we tie together this story in a very cohesive way?" So all of our holiday POS will showcase the Baileys and coffee serve. The icing on the cake is our national partnership with Keurig, the number one single serve coffee maker.

We’re really trying to play to our strengths this year and we know that OND is our bread and butter. It’s all about tying everything together both online and through our sales channels, bringing Baileys to life for consumers wherever they are.