“The drinks industry doesn’t have a sales problem – it has a bravery problem”
Everywhere you look, the drinks industry is talking about sales. Falling sales. Flat sales. Missed sales targets. Entire conferences dedicated to “unlocking growth.”
The assumption is clear – people are drinking less alcohol, so brands must scramble harder to squeeze the last drops of profit out of a shrinking category.
Let’s get one thing straight: your brand isn’t failing because people are drinking less. It’s failing because it’s boring.
Stop blaming the category slump for your slump. People aren’t bored of drinking. They’re bored of you.
Safe design. Predictable campaigns. Copy-and-paste launches. Another line extension nobody asked for. Another pack redesign that looks like the one next to it. Another ad that could belong to any brand in the category.
We tell ourselves it’s a sales problem. But really, it’s a bravery problem.
The truth is, drinks don’t just compete with drinks anymore. They’re competing with fashion drops, gaming culture, TikTok trends that catch fire overnight. Attention is the currency. And you don’t earn it by playing it safe. You earn it by being distinctive, surprising, and bold enough to cut through the noise.
The brief is broken
Most briefs don’t inspire creativity. They come wrapped in cautious language: “premium cues,” “authenticity,” “younger audiences.”
They’re written to avoid mistakes, not to spark ideas. They aim for safe middle ground and end up in creative no-man’s land.
Here’s the uncomfortable truth – the safest brief is the most dangerous one. It produces wallpaper branding. Campaigns nobody talks about. Shelves full of products nobody remembers. If we want growth, we don’t need more briefs. We need braver ones.
Creativity wins
I’ve seen the difference.
At Thirst, we’ve been lucky to work with clients who don’t just nod along to bravery but demand it. Bruichladdich is one. They’ve never asked us to play it safe. They’ve asked us to break convention, to provoke, to make whisky feel alive again.
Together, we created Not Your Classic – work that didn’t just win attention, but delivered a 29% year-on-year sales increase and helped the brand secure new supermarket listings across the UK and Europe. Proof that when brands back bravery, results follow.
Bravery isn’t permission
We’ve taken the same approach with our own concept, Res. We saw a whitespace nobody in drinks was bold enough to claim – protein fruit punch for gamers. Unapologetically loud, vibrant, and different. No safety net, no “maybe later.” Just an idea to prove that bravery doesn’t have to wait for permission.
At Thirst, bravery is our default. What kills it isn’t lack of courage – it’s briefs pre-loaded with half-baked “solutions.”
“People aren’t bored of drinking. They’re bored of you.”
Clients – bring us the problem. Or bring us the big vision. Just don’t bring us the answer, because chances are, it’s the wrong one.
People connect to brands that move them. That make them stop scrolling. Stop talking. Stop drinking the same thing they always drink, and feel something new. Bravery is refusing to be forgettable.
People don’t need another SKU – they need a reason to care
Here’s another myth: if we pump out enough innovation, people will come back.
Innovation matters. But if your brand doesn’t mean anything, your innovation won’t either. That’s when launches turn into clutter. Another flavour. Another “lite.” Another “0.0.” None of it sticks if your brand doesn’t stand for something.
Consumers don’t count SKUs. They count memories.
They remember the brand that stood for something. They share the campaign that made them laugh, or cry, or double-tap. They talk about the story that made them feel like part of something bigger than just liquid in a glass.
If your innovation pipeline is full but your brand is empty, you’re just adding clutter to the shelf.
The brief for bravery
It means impact. It means focus. It means culture.
Write briefs that scare you. If it doesn’t feel uncomfortable, it isn’t brave enough. Stop briefing categories. Start briefing culture. People buy into ideas that mean something in their lives.
Measure impact by feeling. One campaign people talk about a year later beats ten they forget in a week.
When brands bring this kind of energy, agencies can push boundaries, challenge conventions, and create work that lives beyond the trade press. And when the work resonates emotionally, the sales follow.
The end of safe
We have to stop blaming consumers. They haven’t abandoned us. We’ve abandoned them with bland ideas, beige campaigns, and briefs that aim low.
The good news is that it’s fixable. We don’t need more dashboards. We don’t need more cautious “What if?” meetings. We need bolder briefs, braver agencies, and clients willing to say yes to ideas that scare them a little.
Because here’s the thing: safe is already broken. Safe isn’t working. Safe is why we’re in this mess.
The drinks industry doesn’t have a sales problem. It has a bravery problem. And the brands bold enough to admit it will be the ones people actually want to raise a glass to.
Matt Burns is founder and executive creative director at Thirst.