Bacardi India put 100% of media spend into digital and rebuilt its events (interview)
Marketing director Goodies Narayanan says Bacardi India now spends 100% of media on digital and rebuilds events like CASA Bacardi as content ecosystems.
What was changed
In a February 2026 interview with exchange4media, Goodies Narayanan, marketing director for India at Bacardi, described a decisive shift in how the company approaches media and culture in urban India: 'Our approach today is digital-first but experience-led. With our media investment now 100% digital, we're able to meet consumers where they already are.'
The event playbook changed accordingly. Bacardi's early music-led properties in India drew 15,000 to 30,000 attendees; recent CASA BACARDÍ editions in Goa intentionally pivoted from single large venues to immersive, multi-zone environments — a beachside hotel turned into workshops, mood-specific music stages and creative stations. 'Success is about how meaningfully consumers engage with the brand, not just how many people pass through a gate,' Narayanan says. The company tracks engagement depth, time spent and digital amplification rather than headcount, not gate count.
The numbers Bacardi cites for the strategy's backdrop are self-reported: revenue of Rs 1,766 crore in FY23, 'high double-digit growth' since, the premium segment growing at twice the overall rate, FY24 EBITDA up 78.28% and net worth up 42.61%. Narayanan does not attribute business performance to any single activation, describing experiential as one part of an integrated ecosystem with digital engagement and in-store visibility.
Adjacent moves point the same direction: reusable rice-husk drinkware at NH7 Weekender under the Good Spirited sustainability strategy, and Shake Your Future, a bartender-training programme that launched an all-female cohort in India in 2024. Bacardi also points to its Bacardi 2026 Cocktail Trends Report on the 'cocktail-curious' shift among younger consumers, and to industry data — cited by the company — that Gen Z and young millennials account for over 40% of spirits consumption growth in urban India.
Why it worked
Alcohol regulation limits direct brand communication in India, so cultural platforms and community-led engagement have to carry brand-building.
Discovery for younger audiences now happens in mobile feeds and creator-led narratives, which is where the entire media budget went.
Immersive participation is believed to build stronger memory structures and content spillover than stadium-scale footfall.
Physical events double as validation spaces that convert digital interest into lived experience — the two budgets only work integrated.
What can be applied
When regulation blocks direct alcohol advertising, media can go fully digital and events become the brand medium — provided success is redefined from gate count to engagement depth.
Aftermath
Exchange4media's closing caveat is the one to watch: whether depth of engagement consistently translates into sustained business performance. The company says it is confident that experience-led storytelling on a digital-first media base is the right formula for the next phase of expansion in India's alcobev market.