Representation in Social Media Marketing
Women & Whisky: Female Representation in Social Media Marketing
This annual report from the OurWhisky Foundation monitors the representation of women across the social media marketing of the world’s most influential whisky brands.
Whisky has long had a reputation for being a ‘man’s drink’. It’s an outdated perception that is changing slowly as more women enjoy the spirit and take on roles within all areas of the industry, from distilling and blending to marketing and sales.
Women now account for 35%* of whisky drinkers, a figure that has gradually increased over the past 10 years**. But how has whisky marketing changed to embrace its changing consumer demographic, and how is the industry representing its growing female workforce?
With social media playing an increasingly important role in brand awareness and considering its powerful ability to shape consumer opinions, OurWhisky conducted a study of the Instagram accounts belonging to 150 of the world’s largest and most influential whisky brands.
Charting the number of posts and visibility of women, men and people of colour over a five-year period from 2016-20, OurWhisky aimed to uncover a snapshot of how women, both drinkers and distillers alike, are represented by the industry's leading brands.
*Distill Ventures, 2020: New World of New World Whisky Report. 35% of UK and US whisky drinkers are female.
**Kantar, 2020: Women in the UK now drink 40 million more glasses of whisky a year than they did in 2010, a rise of 15%
Report methodology
Researchers surveyed 150 whisky accounts selected from a pool of best-selling brands according to IWSR 2020 volume sales, top trending brands identified in Drinks International’s 2020 Brands Report, and other world whiskies. The global accounts with the most Instagram followers were selected for this survey. Local brands have been excluded from this report. Where brands did not have one obvious global account, the largest and most active national account was audited.
headline findings
In 2020, the world’s leading whisky brands posted 3,896 images featuring men, and 1,707 including women – 228% more images of men than women.
82%
Of the people-centric posts made in 2020 featured men
36%
Of the people-centric posts made in 2020 featured women
18%
Of the people-centric posts made in 2020 featured people of colour
Female representation by whisky category
In terms of regional categories, Canadian whisky posted the highest representation of women in 2020 (42%), although only three Canadian brands were analysed for this report.
Canada was closely followed by Scotch – a marginal difference of 0.12% for a much larger category represented by 37 brands. However, just 16 Scotch whisky accounts posted above the overall industry average (36%).
For this report, the New World whisky category comprises 33 brands from non-traditional whisky-making countries such as Australia, England, Taiwan, France and Sweden. Collectively, they have a high level of representation of women (37%), led, in part, by female-owned brands and those with women on their distilling teams.
Irish, Indian, American and Japanese whisky categories all posted below the overall industry average.
Representation of people of colour
The study also analysed the representation of people of colour in whisky brands’ Instagram accounts. In 2020 non-white ethnicities were represented in just 17.9% of posts that featured people, an increase of 5.3% on 2016.
The greatest representation was found in the accounts of whiskies made in Asia and India, and certain Scotch whiskies with large South American and Indian followings. People of colour accounted for 14.8% in posts made by brands outside of India, Japan, Mexico, South Africa, Taiwan.
In those markets, 71% of people depicted are of non-white ethnicity.
“In the last five years we’ve seen a welcome rise of female representation in whisky marketing, however this study demonstrates we’re still far away from achieving gender equality. By simply being more inclusive, brands can appeal to a wider demographic of potential customers, which has obvious business benefits as well.”
— Becky Paskin, Founder, The OurWhisky Foundation
Full report
The full Women & Whisky: Female Representation in Social Media Marketing report is available to purchase. It includes:
• Full breakdown of post frequency per brand, per year
• Details of female, male and POC representation per brand, per year
• Each brand’s representation score, compared to the industry average
• The ‘Power 50’ list of the most influential brands
• In-depth analysis and insight
• Easy and effective tips for improving representation
To order your copy of the full report, or for further information, please contact
Becky Paskin, Founder, The OurWhisky Foundation