For a number of years now, alcohol brands have operated age-gated websites, meaning consumers must say they are over the legal drinking age by entering their date of birth before being allowed access to sites.
Up until now, there has been no way of replicating the process on Twitter, leading alcohol marketers to express concern at the inability of the site to control the age of the audience interacting with their Twitter marketing activity.
Bud Light, Jim Beam, Heineken and Bacardi are among the first brands to sign up to the new service, which was unveiled last night. In the US, Bud Light will use age-screened promoted accounts to reach people who are 21 and older and interested in the NFL, during its #whatyoursuperstition campaign.
Tarun Jain, Twitter product manager, revenue, confirmed that the system would work on Twitter.com, iOS, and Android devices. He said: "Starting today, alcohol brands can safely grow their of-age network of Twitter followers in a way that’s simpler than before.
"Our hope is that this approach to age-screening will enable alcohol brands to responsibly and safely connect with the right audience on Twitter."
Last year, during his time as chief marketing officer of Diageo, Andy Fennell admitted that his company was "reticent" about the platform because of this issue and revealed that he was having meetings with Twitter executives to plot a way forward.
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