Booze News: Postscript Now Supports Brands that Sell Alcohol
Big news for booze brands: Postscript now supports SMS marketing for alcohol products! (We’ll drink to that 🥂.)
Interested in using text to Sell More Spirits? Here’s everything you need to know before you take your shot 🥃.
Does SHAFT still apply to alcohol?
In short, yes—but alcohol brands now have avenues to compliantly use the SMS channel to market their products. So, while alcohol is still a heavily regulated category for text marketing, it is now supported across the US carriers.
If you’ve been in the SMS game for a while, then you’ve probably heard of SHAFT (Sex, Hate, Alcohol, Firearms, and Tobacco [CBD included])—a category of content that is heavily regulated by the Cellular Telephone Industries Association (CTIA).
For a long time, those regulations prevented platforms like Postscript from servicing brands whose products and marketing content fall into any of the SHAFT categories. While some carriers allowed alcohol marketing/promotion on SMS, there was not a cross-carrier solution—which meant those messages had a low deliverability rate.
To solve for that, Postscript partnered directly with carriers to develop a compliant cross-carrier solution that provides in-thread evidence of a consumer's age. This change drastically improves message deliverability, allowing alcohol brands to confidently send marketing messages to their subscribers.
How can alcohol brands compliantly use SMS marketing?
Postscript is able to verify subscriber age within the text thread, which has opened up alcohol messaging across all US carriers.
The really great news for brands on Postscript? We’re a carrier-trusted provider for supporting in-thread age verification. So, alcohol brands can rest easy knowing that we’ll help them cover all necessary compliance bases.
In light of these changes, is carrier filtering still an issue for alcohol brands?
While there’s still a small chance filtering could occur, Postscript has very close carrier relationships that enable our teams to quickly resolve any potential issues.
What are the SMS compliance requirements for alcohol brands?
In order to use Postscript for text message marketing, alcohol brands must verify customer/subscriber age in two places:
Across their entire website (using an age verification app)
Directly within the text thread with a robust (full date) age gate via the double-opt-in process
This means that when a subscriber signs up to receive texts from your brand, you must require them to reply with their date of birth before subscribing them to your texts. This requirement applies to every type of opt-in (desktop, mobile, two-touch, keyword, etc.).
Brands (and their subscribers) also must be located in the US, and they must be on Postscript’s Professional or Enterprise plans.
For more details on the eligibility requirements for alcohol brands on Postscript, check out this help center article.
Can brands in other SHAFT-covered categories use this process to start texting on Postscript?
This Postscript update applies to alcohol only for the time being. While it’s a big step, it’s only the first step—though we are optimistic it will open the door for Postscript to work with brands in other regulated spaces like sexual wellness at some point in the future.
Interested in using Postscript to market your brand’s alcohol products via SMS? Contact our sales team to get started.
Currently using Postscript for a non-alcohol shop—but want to get set up with an account for an alcohol brand? Reach out to your CSM for more info.
