As the former head of Mike’s Hard Lemonade, Anat Baron spearheaded the alcoholic brand’s rise into a $200 million juggernaut all while never taking a sip of the product.

Instead of her allergy to alcohol being a curse, the marketing maven considers it a blessing because it forced her to take a deep dive into the malt beverage’s consumers.  

“Sometimes, when we’re trying to market a brand, we make the mistake of thinking that it’s for us,” Baron says. “If it’s for me, I’m going to think all the customers are like me. Because I was allergic to alcohol, I never thought it was for me, so I had to find out who is drinking this stuff and why they like it.”

Curiosity has fueled Baron’s 40-plus-year career, which has included roles in various industries, such as hospitality, film, entertainment and technology. The “portfolio life” was ingrained in her psyche from a young age, as the native Israeli lived in different countries while her father worked for an airline.

“Maybe because I moved around so much as a kid, I have this vision of my life as constantly moving and evolving,” Baron says. “While most people want to learn one thing, excel at it and then just do that, I don’t like repetition. I look at everything as a challenge to solve. Once I get good at something, it’s on to the next.”

A sought-after futurist and strategic advisor, she studies trends to help business leaders drive innovation and leverage technological disruption. And she’ll be bringing her insights to The PPAI Expo 2024 in Las Vegas.

The Power Of Promo

On Monday, January 15, The PPAI Expo 2024 kicks off with The PPAI Expo Conference, a one-day educational event with a curated slate of experts from both within and outside the industry to enlighten promo professionals and spark conversation throughout the rest of the four-day event.

  • Baron will open the conference with a session on human and AI collaboration, explaining how it will help us succeed in a world where we need to connect, predict and adapt in real time to meet customers’ needs.

Thanks to her tenure at Mike’s Hard Lemonade, she’s also familiar with the importance of promotional products in building and scaling a brand.

“I was on the road all the time and had a Mike’s Hard Lemonade sticker on my laptop,” Baron says. “People would constantly approach me, even the flight attendants would tell me how much they love the product. It gave me an opportunity to connect with customers not because I was drinking it, but because people saw the branding and immediately had a very strong reaction.”

Promo also led to Baron discovering a misconception about Mike’s Hard Lemonade.

While she was living in Beverly Hills, she heard a strange noise on the roof of her apartment. After calling 9-1-1, a fire truck and police cruiser arrived with 13 first responders. Upon walking into her apartment, they lit up at the slew of branded merchandise on her dining room table.

“Everyone had told me Mike’s Hard Lemonade was very girly, but these guys all asked for the swag, depleting my entire stock,” Baron says. “Their reaction to being proud of a brand and wanting to show the world was something that helped me understand what this brand was. People wanted to be associated with this new brand that made them feel something about themselves.”

“The Next Great Transformation”

At The PPAI Expo 2024, Baron’s session will focus on “The Next Great Transformation.”

Some of the trends she’ll be discussing are:

  • technology adoption, particularly spotlighting AI’s impact on business
  • the new consumer
  • the new workforce and accompanying generational changes: by 2025, 75% of the workforce will consist of millennials
  • the battle for attention.

“The biggest issue we have is that we’re overwhelmed with information every single day of our lives, mostly because of social media,” Baron says. “We’re bombarded with information so much so that it causes bubbles in people’s thinking.”

RELATED: AI’s Role In Promo Grows Despite Hurdles

“At the same time,” she adds, “the battle for attention is an opportunity for the promotional products industry because you’re dealing with something that’s in the real world and increasingly online, too. Let’s not forget the greatest thing that could happen to any logoed or promotional products is to get it to an influencer or celebrity.”

Here’s a sneak preview of Baron’s insights: She predicts in the next five to 10 years people will no longer use cellphones. What will replace them? Find out at The PPAI Expo 2024.

Register Now For The PPAI Expo

Register early for discounts on select hotel accommodations. For more information on The PPAI Expo 2024, visit expo.ppai.org.

To register, click here.

If you have any questions or topics that you’d like Baron to address during her session, please leave a comment below.