Food52 Launches a New Drinks-Specific Vertical

Culinary publisher Food52 has launched a new sub-brand this week dedicated to the ritual of making and enjoying all kinds of drinks, capitalizing on the pandemic-induced appetite for at-home tipples. The vertical, aptly named Drinks52, includes content like cocktail recipes and odes to morning beverage rituals, initially publishing roughly three pieces of content a week from Food52's full-time content staff of 44 people with support from dozens of freelance contributors. The new brand's Instagram page has over 5,000 followers so far following yesterday's 10 a.m. E.T. launch. Drinks52 aims to open up new revenue opportunities through commerce and brand sponsors looking to partner with Food52 on drinks-focused content, sponsorships and ads, said Matt Greenberg, vp of brand marketing for the company. "When you create more focus in your content offering, it uncovers greater opportunity for the brands," Greenberg explained. Of the many pandemic-era hobbies that people developed over the past 15 months, one of the most common is figuring out how to make drinks at home—whether that's your morning coffee or tea, happy hour cocktails, dinner pairings or nonalcoholic sippers. As such, publishers like Food52 have seen traffic and revenue windfalls. In 2020, Food52 doubled its 2019 revenue thanks to the increased interest in at-home beverage-making, which emerged as one of the major trends of the past year, according to CEO and co-founder Amanda Hesser. A new home for all things drinks As drinks paraphernalia was flying off the virtual shelves at Food52, Greenberg said the brand started having more "meaningful" conversations with advertisers in the drinks industry, too. Drinks-related pantry items and nonalcoholic spirits grew 285% between November 2019 and November 2020, the company said. Commerce is a sizeable 85% of revenue while brand partnerships make up the other 15%. When the company fielded the idea of a dedicated drinks vertical among its brand partners, such as LaCroix, Diageo, Proximo and Pepsi, it was met with enthusiasm, Greenberg said. "It was a no brainer in matching consumer interest with advertiser interest." Drinks52 is the second themed subcategory of Food52's content and ecommerce platform. In Feb. 2020, it debuted kitchenware and decor sub-brand Home52. "We started carrying more home products and they were just selling really, really well, which signaled to us that there was interest and trust," Hesser said of the Home52 launch. Keeping true to trends: canned-wine and nonalcoholic spirits To build the new vertical, Food52 worked with industry experts to help shape content curation around new trends like nonalcoholic spirits, canned wine and ready-to-drink cocktails. Julia Bainbridge, author of the 2020 book Good Drinks: Alcohol-Free Recipes for When You're Not Drinking for Whatever Reason, consulted with the team on how to launch the vertical and develop the inclusive and non-pretentious point of view that Food52 was going for. The brand will also have its own resident program, an extension of an ongoing collaborative project with experts in different areas of Food52's content coverage. John deBary, bar expert, author and creator of nonalcoholic spirits line Proteau will be the first Drinks52 resident. "The biggest difference in building this out is not only making sure that it was a centralized place for people to find content of a specific kind, but then also expanding out the creator network," Greenberg said. "There's a whole culture around all of those different [beverage] movements. Brands are always looking to work with people that have a pulse on those types of things." While Food52 isn't hiring specifically for this new extension, the platform announced in March that it's planning to expand its 115-person staff by roughly 50% this year. Many of those hires will contribute to Drinks52, Hesser said. Brand elasticity while keeping purists happy While the goal is to expand content, advertising and commerce opportunities and ultimately, revenue, the company is mindful not to alienate its core cohort of readers. "We felt like it was time to approach content around this in a way that just felt like more inclusive, dynamic and fun," Hesser said. "This isn't [just] for the ultimate spirits or beer experts, it's really for everyone." How We Cooked at Home During the Pandemic, According to Allrecipes

Alcohol Industry News

Food52 Launches Drinks-Focused Vertical, Driving More Commerce and Brand Partnerships

Drinks52—which launches this week—houses spirits, wine, beer, nonalcoholic, coffee and tea content

Kathryn Lundstrom

About

Subscriptions

Events

Publications

WORK SMARTER - LEARN, GROW AND BE INSPIRED.

Subscribe today!

Kathryn Lundstrom