Beverage Beat

Digital discovery

As much as I enjoy listening to throwback hits from my coming-of-age years, I’ve always had that yearning to stay in tune with up-and-coming music artists. However, flipping through stations can make it hard to know who you’re listening to if you want to hear more. With today’s digital music apps, new artist and music discovery is much easier, but music consumption isn’t the only market where digital solutions are introducing consumers to new products.

Tinuiti recently released its “2025 Food and Beverage Marketing Study,” which addresses a host of topics like tariffs, artificial intelligence (AI) and how consumers discover new products. Tinuiti surveyed 1,005 adult U.S. food and beverage shoppers as well as 200 director level and above food and beverage marketing professionals in June 2025.

“Asked to identify where they recall first seeing or hearing about a new prepackaged food and beverage product that they later went on to purchase, the shares of shoppers selecting grocery store apps, social media, in-store displays or signs, and television were nearly identical, with grocery store apps narrowly winning out above the rest,” the study states.

The results showed grocery store apps as the top choice, with 32% listing the digital solution, with social media, in-store displays or signs, and TV (not including streaming videos) in a three-way tie at 30%.

The research, though, also showed a generational divide in terms of new product exposure. When asking survey-takers, “where do you recall seeing or hearing about a new prepackaged food or beverage product that you later went on to purchase in the past year?” 41% of Gen Z respondents stated social media, however, only 13% of baby boomers listed the source.

When it comes to which social media platforms consumers are using, the generational divide remained intact.

“Facebook won out as the social media platform that respondents most commonly discover new food and beverage products on, followed by YouTube and TikTok,” the study states. “But while Facebook is the top choice for millennials and older respondents, it’s a distant third behind TikTok and YouTube among Gen Z.”

In fact, 41% of baby boomers stated “None of the above” among social media platforms that they most often discover new prepackaged food or beverage products.

Another divide the survey found was which social media platforms that food and beverage marketers indicate are the most effective at reaching consumers.

“By comparison, marketers selected YouTube as the most effective social media platform for reaching customers, followed by TikTok and Instagram,” the study states. “Facebook placed fourth, with just 37% of marketers believing it to be a top three most effective social platform for customer reach.

“For marketers who see their audience as only millennials as older, Facebook fares better, with 56% of respondents citing it as a top three social platform,” it continues. “Among the same group of marketers, just 29% say the same about TikTok.”

As marketers are tasked with new, creative ways to get consumers to try new products, it looks like digital will play a growing role in those plans.