Brief:

• On-demand alcohol delivery service Saucey partnered with e-commerce platform Boost to let people order D'ussé cognac using special hashtags on social media or SMS, according to a press release shared with Mobile Marketer. Registered users of Boost can place an order for D'ussé by including the #DUSSE100 hashtag in any Instagram post or tweet.
• Smartphone users without social accounts can text the same hashtag to 81000 and file the order by replying "Yes" to a confirmation text. Boost asks first-time users to complete a one-time express checkout on the mobile web. Once the order is processed, Saucey delivers the cognac to the customer's door.
• Saucey provides 30-minute delivery in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, San Diego, Sacramento and Chicago, and also ships nationwide. The partnership with Boost will run through the summer.

Insight:

D'ussé, which is partly owned by rapper and producer Jay-Z, clearly recognizes the power of mobile apps to reach consumers who rely heavily on smartphones and spend a significant amount of time on social media.

The partnership with Saucey and Boost demonstrates how brands are looking for new ways to simplify their ordering processes and ramp up convenience to meet consumers' growing demand for immediacy via mobile. Efforts like this one hope to meet the challenge head-on by letting people order products via SMS or on social media platforms that they already use, without the need for downloading additional apps or navigating websites to process transactions. The news signals how marketers can leverage mobile technology to replicate some of the success that giants like Amazon have seen with Dash buttons, one-click ordering or voice transactions to make online checkouts quicker and more seamless for shoppers.

Alcohol delivery is not an entirely fresh idea, as services like Amazon, Drizly and others have already gotten comfortable in the space. However, the cognac brand appears to be taking a new approach by offering its products through invisible points-of-sale like SMS and tweets and perhaps forging stronger brand awareness among consumers ages 21 and older in the process. For D'ussé, offering the kind of seamless digital experience that consumers have come to expect is easier with exclusive partnerships with e-commerce and delivery companies than through a traditional app where the brand could appear alongside lower-ticket spirits. The move also positions the company as a more innovative brand, and makes the cognac a bit more easily accessible to consumers looking for a late-night treat.

D'ussé is among the spirits brands that are testing ways to simplify mobile ordering and payment among the growing industry of alcohol delivery services. Campari America, the U.S. distributor of Skyy vodka and Wild Turkey bourbon, began distributing special refrigerator magnets in January that people could tap with a smartphone to place an order for home delivery. The "Campari on Tap" magnets are equipped with a near-field communication chip that opens a product page on Drizly.

Saucey last summer ran a promotion featuring actor Channing Tatum, who personally delivered bottles of his Born and Bred brand of vodka to unsuspecting customers, per Us Weekly. Tatum posted videos of the promotional stunt on his social media accounts and racked up hundreds of thousands of likes on Instagram and more than 150,000 views on Twitter, generating major reach for the brand.