On the Rocks to On the Rise: Tequila Sales Rebound with Retail Media

Surfside helped the brand turn awareness into action, both online and in-store, driving an 18% incremental sales lift at independent retailers. The success of the pilot campaign led to expansion across the brand’s national footprint.

Challenge

After a year of stagnant growth, a leading tequila brand set out to reverse seasonal sales declines between January and April 2025. While more than 90% of their product sales came from physical retail, the bulk of their media budget had been directed toward delivery platforms. This gap revealed a key opportunity to better align their advertising strategy where purchases were actually taking place and drive more in-store sales during a historically soft period.

Results

Surfside’s solution was designed to activate retailer first party data to get the brand in front of customers who were qualified to make a purchase. California, accounting for 25% of total sales, was chosen as the test market to prove out the approach before scaling nationally.

A multi-funnel strategy leveraged ads across popular, LDA-compliant apps and websites to get the brand in front of relevant retail shoppers who were not active shoppers of the brand. Meanwhile, onsite retail media put the brand in high-visibility real estate across retailer websites, influencing shopping decisions and driving conversions in-the-moment.

• Audience Targeting: The brand tapped into Surfside’s purchase data sourced from 3,000+ liquor stores’ ecommerce and point of sale systems. They identified Competitor Brand Shoppers, Tequila RTD Buyers, and Lapsed Brand Customers who made a retail purchase within the past 30 days.
• Offsite Advertising: Rich media ads used personalized messaging to capture attention, while dynamic click-through URLs and built-in store locators guided shoppers to local retailer digital and physical storefronts.
• Retail Media: High-impact hero images ran across California independent liquor store websites where the brand was in-stock, appearing in prominent positions across home, category, and cart pages
• Holistic Sales Measurement: Surfside’s direct integrations with retailer ecommerce and POS systems enabled real-time performance tracking and optimizations, driving measurable lift in both online and in-store sales.

Surfside helped the brand turn awareness into action, both online and in-store, driving an 18% incremental sales lift at independent retailers. The success of the pilot campaign led to expansion across the brand’s national footprint.