There's a conversation happening in spirits marketing that's long overdue. Every year, brands pour significant budget into paper POS — the shelf talkers, tent cards, and posters that fill back bars and gather dust on sticky countertops. It feels like activation. It looks like presence. But when it comes to measurable growth, it's largely decoration. Take a £100,000 budget. Spent on printed POS distributed across outlets, that money buys you physical material, logistics, and t

Visits are down but occasions are bigger. The alcohol brands winning in UK pubs and bars right now share one thing in common: activate in the right moment and in the right way June 2026 — 5 min read In a channel under real pressure there is an insight marketing teams should be grabbing hold of; CGA by NIQ data shows the ten most valuable trading days last year generated a five percentage point higher share of annual sales than they did the year before. On-premise visits

From QR codes nobody scans to AR experiences nobody opens, the on-premise is littered with activation spend that delivers near-zero return. Here is what the data actually shows — and why the bar environment defeats most digital mechanics before they start. Every agency pitch for an on-premise activation looks roughly the same. A QR code on a table talker. An AR experience triggered by the bottle label. A hashtag campaign on branded glassware. A social mechanic printed on a ba

The industry keeps putting QR codes on on-premise POS. The data on what actually happens when it does is damning — and almost nobody is tracking it. June 2026 — 7 min read Walk into any well-activated UK pub right now and you will find QR codes. On table talkers. On bar mats. On tent cards. On branded coasters. On the backs of menus. Brands spend significant budget producing, printing and distributing this POS, and their agency contacts assure them that QR codes are growi