As summer holidaymakers toast marshmallows over campfires, Sarah Neish asks marketing experts whether campers are a smoking hot demographic, and why this consumer segment is left out in the cold by many drinks brands.
“Camping is a near-universal ritual, the outdoors, open stars, and a fire pulling people together, wherever you’re from,” Mark Neal, marketing director for New Zealand whisky brand ThunderDonk, told db.
“That makes it incredibly fertile ground for a brand to build a real story in, and it’s exactly the space we are claiming.”
It is also why Thunderdonk has just launched its new Campfire Coffee whisky expression, pairing “rich Colombian coffee beans, toasted coconut flakes and aged New Zealand single malt for a bold, smooth, espresso-led sweetness.”
Neal paints an evocative picture of sipping the whisky incorporated into a Martini, garnished with a toasted marshmallow pulled straight off the fire. It’s an experience, he says, that’s “hard to beat.”
Rich pickings
In the summer months especially, the camping world is surely rich pickings for brands looking to capitalise on festival-goers, staycationers and intrepid explorers looking to throw a backpack (and a tent) over their shoulder and set off in search of either solitude or forging a connection with nature and fellow campers?
However, if you’re looking for brand longevity, camping can’t just be a seasonal marketing message, says Neal.
“With ThunderDonk, the outdoors isn’t a theme we added, it’s where the brand already lives,” he said, adding that the cornerstones for the whisky maker are “good company, tall banter and late nights by the fire.”
Changing roles
Tim Dexter, business director for London-based food and drinks marketing agency Wonderworks, told db that from a drinks perspective, the opportunity lies in “understanding the behaviours, rituals and needs that emerge when people temporarily step away from everyday routines and consumption habits.”
He points out that camping changes the role that food and drink play.
“At home, food and drink can easily become functional; when camping, they become part of the experience itself,” he said. “Preparing food outdoors, opening the first drink after setting up camp, sharing drinks around a fire, watching the sun go down with friends, these aren’t just moments where food and drink happen to be present. They are often the moments people remember most.”
The brands that succeed in tapping into this potential are the ones that “resist the temptation to become overly literal,” said Dexter. “I don’t think the answer is creating products that scream ‘camping’. The bigger opportunity sits in format and design.”
Camping, he claims, “isn’t really about tents.” Instead, it’s about “freedom, exploration, slowing down and spending time with people whose company you enjoy. The visual cues I’d be drawn to are those moments that people romanticise and remember. The golden hour drink as the sun starts to set or the glow of the campfire. The sense of discovery that comes with being somewhere different and the feeling of escaping routine.”
According to Dexter, “camping naturally rewards products that are portable, easy to chill, and easy to serve and share. The brands that win will make the occasion feel easier and more enjoyable, rather than simply decorating a pack with mountains and pine trees.”
Captive audience
Weighing up the commercial potential of camping-led products, Tom Khan-Lavin, CEO of drinks marketing firm YesMore, takes a realist’s perspective.
“Consumers stock up heavily before leaving home, and once at the camp site, drinks brands are
fighting a losing battle against limited refrigeration space, passive coolboxes, and melted ice,” he told db. “When you factor in physical storage constraints, the potential spend once campers reach their
destination shrinks fast.”
That said, he admits, “when campers run out – and they usually do – they become a completely captive
audience.”
Khan-Lavin recalls a recent camping trip “where we ran out of beer mid-weekend.” Based in the middle of nowhere, “we couldn’t face packing down the campervan to drive to a supermarket. There was no campsite shop, and the on-site pizza place, cafe, and spa didn’t hold an alcohol license. Deliveroo and Uber Eats didn’t cover the area either. When you’re stranded like that, you will buy whatever cold drink is put in front of you.”
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Social currency
Food and drink, Khan-Lavin said, “are the main event” when it comes to camping.
“Camping provides a space for people to take their time cooking properly over an open flame. Without having the hard data to cite, I’d bet that close to 100% of UK camping trips involve a BBQ.”
On a recent trip, Khan-Lavin reminisces, he pitched up next to a British-Jamaican family slow-cooking two whole jerk chickens over a low-heat BBQ with an upturned fire pit balanced on top to trap the smoke.
“I traded a few pours of Torabhaig ‘Taigh’ – a lightly peated Scotch from one of our distillery clients
– for some chicken. We ended up congregating around our adjacent pitches trading stories
about whisky and smoke pairing while the kids ran around with water pistols.”
Drinks facilitate that kind of social currency, but like ThunderDonk’s Neal, Khan-Lavin caveats this by saying “but only if they fit the occasion. I brought that specific bottle because Torabhaig’s ethos is ‘smoke with taste’ making it the ideal complement to open-fire cooking.”
RTDs and clever tech
For Khan-Lavin, the immediate win in the camping category is premixed RTD cocktails. “Grab a fresh bag of ice from the campsite shop, chuck your cans into a coolbox or a bucket with ice, and you’ve solved the serving dilemma instantly,” he said.
“Brands that innovate around outdoor functionality will win – and they will win in other drinking
occasions too, such as picnics, parks, beaches, home gardens and festivals. Wine subscription
services like Good Pair Days hit the mark by offering a coolbox with a customer’s first order.”
He also namechecks ShakaCan, which has engineered a unique lid attachment that turns the brand’s RTD cans into an active mini cocktail shaker on the spot. “That kind of self-contained, zero-fuss functionality is built for camping,” Khan-Levin said.
Festival life
According to Wonderworks’ Dexter, festival camping is where things become most interesting.
“What I’ve observed consistently is that drinks perform best when they become part of culture rather than simply appearing alongside it. Festival campsites are temporary communities with their own rituals, behaviours and social dynamics… They’re chasing experiences and memories, which means the emotional role of brands becomes far more important than functional product benefits.”
Furthermore, for Khan-Lavin the festival environment is “a goldmine” for third-space bars and brand sponsors. “No matter how many warm cans of lager a camper hauls to their tent, everyone eventually reaches a point where they will happily pay a premium for an ice-cold draught beer or a fresh cocktail loaded with real ice and garnish.”
How to make campers cough up
For physical distribution, campsite mini-convenience stores are one possible entry point, “though you have to accept lower volumes and a slower rate-of-sale if selling direct or via cash-and-carries,” said Khan-Lavin.
“A bolder move is mapping high-density UK campsites and investing in branded pop-up bars –
deckchairs, beanbags, parasols, and proper glassware or high-end polycarbs,” he proposed. “Offer the
campsite owner a zero-headache, shared-revenue model where you handle licensing and lock
them into serving your range exclusively. You get a captive, relaxed audience drinking your
brand in ideal conditions, driving halo supermarket sales when they return home.”
And whatever you do, beware treating ‘camping’ as an identity rather than an occasion, cautions Dexter.
“Most people don’t wake up thinking of themselves as campers. They’re thinking about spending time with friends, going to a festival, escaping for a weekend or creating memories with family. Brands can become very narrow if they focus too heavily on the activity itself. The more useful question is how a product can make the camping experience better.”
The opportunity isn’t ‘campers’, he said. “It is understanding the occasions that emerge when people disconnect from routine and reconnect with experience.”
Potential pitfalls
Thinking of dipping a toe into the camping market? For Khan-Lavin, there are a few pitfalls to be aware of.
“The obvious killer [in the UK at least] is seasonality. We have a notoriously tight, unreliable weather
window where consumers feel confident enough to book a weekend under canvas,” he said. “If you build a proposition solely around pitch-side drinking, your core revenue window is brutally short.”
Secondly, he added, festival camping is “heavily gatekept by pay-to-play sponsorship models.” Trying to
bypass that by selling direct-to-consumer ahead of the event may sound tempting, “but if your
audience is travelling by train or coach, then dealing with glass bans, pack weight, and warm transit temperatures will kill conversion rates fast.”
