Simplicity for Clients. Sophistication for Agencies.
Closing the Gap Between ATL and BTL in the Alcohol Category
The Situation
In the alcohol category, brands live in moments, TV spots, billboards, events, retail activations, and social rituals. But too often, the top (ATL) and bottom (BTL) are run like separate planets.
The client wants a simple answer:
What are we doing—and what will it drive?
But the agency is stuck in the weeds:
Who owns what?
How do we connect awareness with conversion?
What does “integration” actually look like beyond a shared hashtag?
The Strategic Gap
We were brought in by a top alcohol brand mid-campaign cycle.
The ATL was performing, but BTL was lagging—not because the ideas were bad, but because they weren’t linked in structure, timing, or story.
Worse, the client was overwhelmed by marketing layers—activation decks, promo plans, creative rationale, media calendars.
So they pulled the brake and asked:
Can someone just tell me what we’re doing—and why?
What We Did
We simplified the story for the client and sophisticated the system behind it for the agency.
For the client:
Delivered a one-page narrative explaining what we were doing, why it matters, and how success would be measured.
Removed tactical noise. Replaced it with a storyline of moments, behaviors, and business logic.
For the agency:
Built a master integration map linking ATL assets to BTL triggers across media, shopper, and social.
Structured timing across teams so retail and digital could meet consumers with the same message, same feel, and same intent.
Set up strategic checkpoints tied to business priorities, not just campaign phases.
Outcome
Brand reapproved full BTL spend within 3 weeks.
Lift in conversion + in-store activation correlated with the campaign’s second phase rollout.
Internal agency teams adopted the model for future programs, finally bridging creative, promo, media, and shopper with shared logic.
The Lesson
Clients don’t want more details. They want more clarity.
Give them the story.
Build them the confidence.
Let the agency carry the complexity.
The bridge between ATL and BTL isn’t tactical.
It’s structural.
We help teams build that bridge—quietly, clearly, and on time.
