Alcohol-free beer marketing in the UK: social media data, the playbooks and the regulation

Key takeaways

• UK Gen Z alcohol participation rose from 66% to 76% between 2023 and 2026, according to IWSR's Bevtrac survey.
• 29m people in the UK population now drink low and no alcohol products, and UK sales reached 200m pints in 2025, equalling 2.7% of the total beer category.
• Non-alcoholic beer brand Bero's Instagram following is skewed toward women, with around a third of its audience aged 18–24 while Stella Artois UK's audience is mostly male, at 78.3%.
• Compliance is central to creator campaigns in this category, as UK regulations require marketers to understand the ad audience’s age.
• Dry January is no longer the main driver of growth for these products.

What’s happening with low-alcohol products?

Over 29m UK adults now consume low and no alcohol drinks every month, according to KAM's low and no alcohol report.

Gen Z and Millennials drive a large chunk of consumption, with 43% of 18–24-year-olds and 40% of 35–44-year-olds buying them semi-regularly. But the idea that low alcohol consumption in younger generations drives growth is a myth.

IWSR's Bevtrac survey of consumer behaviour found UK Gen Z alcohol participation rose from 66% in April 2023 to 76% in 2026. Millennials have the highest percentage of drinkers, at 81%, followed by Gen X at 77% and Boomers at 71%. But Drinkaware's long-term research found that Gen Zs are now 2x more likely to drink at high-risk levels than over-25s.

So why are alcohol-free beer sales rising? Because people are changing drinking styles. KAM's 2026 report found that 45% of UK adults now "zebra stripe" by alternating alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks, up from 34% in 2025.

KAM also found that 40% of drinkers order alcohol-free drinks discreetly to hide that they are moderating, rising to 67% of 25–34s and 59% of 18–24s. The marketing job is to make ordering alcohol-free beer acceptable to the population.

Five of the best alcohol-free beer brands - audience analysis

The audience for low alcohol products is larger than alcoholic beer, as both drinkers and non-drinkers buy them. They also fit in settings where alcohol doesn’t, such as sports clubs and health groups. Newer low and no alcohol brands are using that opportunity to target audiences that legacy beer brands struggle to reach.

On social media, UK audiences for alcohol-free brands' social media accounts are vastly different, according to Kolsquare’s platform estimates from 17 September 2026.

The data shows that each brand has a unique appeal and strengths:

• Bero: A fast-growing brand with an engagement rate per Reel of 3.3%, and average Reel views of 1m. Actor Tom Holland’s brand has a young audience and is more popular with women than men.
• Lucky Saint: This brand has an average engagement rate of 0.2% on Instagram but 5.9% on TikTok, where the account is much smaller at 5K followers. On Instagram, audience interests are led by sport/fitness and healthy lifestyle. The brand appeals more to over 25s, but the gender split is even.
• Heineken: The global account @heineken has 877K followers but only a 2.6% UK audience and is 76.5% male. In the data, we have used Heineken’s UK presence, which is also more popular with men and those over the age of 25.
• Stella Artois: The global account @stellaartois has 309K followers, 3.5% of them UK. The UK account is growing quickly and popular with younger audiences.
• Asahi Super Dry: UK audience interests are led by sport and fitness, but the gender split is relatively balanced.

Alcohol-free-native brand, Bero, is reaching younger female audiences at a higher rate than any other brand on this list. It proves how these brands can break into new markets.

What the Kolsquare data shows about creator partners for non-alcoholic beers

The creators who tag these brands on social media provide insights into their activations and the niches they target.

Here’s a breakdown of the creators tagging each brand:

• Bero: Unsurprisingly, founder Tom Holland comes in first. He promotes it to his mostly female audience on social media. Bero is also tagged by Salt & Straw, Target, Chase Sapphire, Barry's and Aston Martin. These are celebrity, lifestyle and premium-brand partners, reflecting Bero's founder-led, mainstream celebrity positioning.

• Lucky Saint: Tagged by Unsanctioned Athletics, Midnight Runners London, Run Limited LDN, Saucony EU and a sauna partner. These are running and fitness accounts, a sign the brand is using sport and wellness spaces to reach audiences beyond traditional beer marketing.
• Heineken: Tagged by Axel Arigato, Charlie Jeer, Graduate Fashion Foundation, @its_tiannah and @dairematiluko. These are fashion, modelling and entertainment creators, putting Heineken in style and pop culture spaces as well as nightlife.

• Stella Artois UK: TopJaw, Proudlock, Roman Kemp and Jess Pickless tag this brand. These are London food and nightlife creators, keeping the brand anchored to traditional pubs and hospitality.
• Asahi Super Dry UK: Tagged by Arsenal, Manchester City, Patrick Vieira, Steph Houghton, plus smaller UK creators. These are sports clubs and athletes that tie the brand to its rugby and football sponsorship heritage.

Rights-led or culture-led

The five brands have two distinct playbooks. Some boost reach and recall through sponsorships with football clubs and Formula 1, while others focus on building cultural relevance and community.

Sponsorship rights-led content

Heineken 0.0 renewed its global Formula 1 partnership in November 2025. It remains Silverstone's Official Beer and Cider Partner. In January 2026, it took over London's Bakerloo line, renaming it the Bakerl0.0 line.

Asahi Super Dry signed a multi-year partnership with Arsenal in June 2025, and Stella Artois 0.0 launched on draught at Wimbledon in July 2025.

Culture-led content

Lucky Saint has been Official Beer of the Dry January challenge for five consecutive years. Its brand-reported figures for January 2026 include 100K pints given away across more than 1K pubs. It also opened its own pub on Devonshire Street, Marylebone, in March 2023.

Bero is another cultural player. It ran a guerrilla activation around Wimbledon 2025 with no official tournament sponsorship. Shopify’s case study shows that Shopify being a commercial partner of the brand, running a pop up collaboration produced a 92% week-on-week lift in UK orders and more than 20K new Instagram and TikTok followers. Bero’s cultural approach allows it to reach a wider audience and perhaps become more desirable.

Culture-led campaigns allow these brands to reach new audiences by targeting areas that beer brands have failed to target.

The compliance layer that makes audience data mandatory

Brands advertising low alcohol products aren't exempt from regulations. Drinks with 0.0–0.5% ABV fall under the Committee of Advertising Practice's (CAP) rules 18.18–18.24, the same alcohol marketing codes that apply to full-strength drinks. But alcohol-free products can be shown in settings where alcohol ads would be considered unsafe.

Here's how to stay compliant while marketing low alcohol products:

• Age matters: No one who is, or appears to be, under 25 may play a significant role in promotional content. That applies to the content creator.
• Audience age also matters: Rule 18.23 states that no medium may be used if more than 25% of its audience is under 18. During creator selection, this makes verified audience age data a compliance requirement. Using an influencer marketing platform like Kolsquare gives you detailed audience breakdowns to help you stay compliant.
• ABV must be clear: The ABV must be stated prominently in the ad itself. The ASA upheld a complaint against Heineken UK on 18 December 2024 over a Heineken 0.0 display ad featuring Max Verstappen, finding that the ABV shown only on the bottle label wasn't prominent enough. In creator content, that means the ABV has to be spoken or legible in the post.
• Watch out when combining ads with alcoholic drinks: If the content also promotes an alcoholic drink, then you need to follow alcohol rules. For example, showing the 0.0% alongside the full-strength version of the same brand will mean that the full alcohol rules apply.
• Don't make sobriety seem boring: The Portman Group's Alcohol Alternatives Guidance points out that marketing must not make sobriety seem dull or questionable. The ASA now uses AI-powered ad monitoring to scan more ads in less time. A 2025 trial screened nearly 6K paid-for alcohol and alcohol-free ads across search, display and social media. Almost half (48%) of alcohol-free ads were flagged for potential breaches, almost all relating to unclear or missing ABV labelling.

Alcohol-free products can be shown in settings that wouldn't be permitted for full-strength alcohol, for example, someone about to drive, a pregnant woman, or a water sports scene, as long as viewers clearly understand it's an alcohol-free product. The ABV must be clearly displayed to avoid confusion. This opens up messaging and creator collaborations that wouldn't be available to full-strength brands.

Dry January is no longer the whole story

Alcohol-free sales may be growing, but Dry January's growth has halted. These products are now being incorporated year-round rather than seasonally.

NIQ data for the four weeks to 25 January 2026 showed low and no products growing by just 3.4% year on year, a noticeable slowdown. During the same period, functional soft drinks grew by 28.5%, suggesting that during Dry January, people are opting for different types of drinks.

The real growth is now in drinking months. The BBPA's figures from summer 2026 show record sales, with alcohol-free beer reaching 200m pints in 2025 and 2.7% of the total beer category. That has a direct planning implication. A creator programme built entirely around January is now missing the real opportunity. Low-alcohol marketing should be treated as a year-round tactic rather than a seasonal one.

Creator selection is a data problem first

The CAP’s rules mean a creator's audience demographics need checking before an activation starts. A creator can look right on paper, but none of that matters if more than a quarter of their audience is under 18.

Verified audience data has to sit at the start of the brief. Kolsquare's audience demographic data and Creator Compliance Score are two ways to check this data.

Uncover creator audiences fast

If you're building a creator programme for Dry January 2027, you can check a creator's UK reach and under-18 audience share with Kolsquare's audience demographic data and Creator Compliance Score, before you brief them, not after.