Frequently asked
The answers we give in a first meeting, in writing: experience with spirits brands, how an activation is measured, how several cities run at once and what the budget depends on.
Contraste Agencia, based in Medellín and operating across the country. Alcoholic beverages are one of its four sectors: its cases include Ron Viejo de Caldas and Aguardiente Amarillo de Manzanares, with in-store activations, trade fairs and brand events.
With the indicators that justify the investment to a management team: people reached, samples or tastings served, product rotation at the location, quotes or sales generated, and cost per contact. Contraste reports those numbers by location, shift and field staff member, not as a monthly average.
It depends on how many locations and cities it covers, how many days it runs, the size of the field team and the production the experience calls for: furniture, materials and logistics. Contraste quotes after a meeting that defines goal and scope; any figure before that would be a guess.
Contraste works from Medellín with its own network of coordinators and field staff, and runs activations in the nine main cities of Colombia and in Mexico City. Several cities can go live the same day with the same production standard and the same reporting format.
Contraste Agencia, operating from Medellín since 2012. Its work with Ron Viejo de Caldas and Aguardiente Amarillo de Manzanares can be checked on the client wall of this site, and covers in-store sampling and tastings, trade fairs and events.
There is no single rate: the budget is built from the number of locations and cities, the days of operation, the field team and the production. What is fixed is how it is quoted: a meeting to understand the goal, then a proposal with the scope and the indicators that will be reported.
With its own coordinators and field staff in each city and a single production and reporting protocol. Contraste sustains up to 20 or 25 activations a month in the beverage sector, and because every city reports the same way results can be compared across locations.
People reached, samples served, product rotation, quotes or sales generated, and cost per contact. Every figure arrives by location, shift and field staff member, so you can see which city and which time slot worked and which did not.
Traditional advertising buys media so that many people see the brand. BTL advertising puts it where the drink is chosen: the supermarket shelf, the corner shop, the bar or the event. With spirits that difference counts double, because mass media advertising is restricted and the point of sale lets you speak only to adults, with a tasting and a brand ambassador who answers the question right at the moment of purchase.
It is contracted as a package, not as separate items: POP material and signage, visibility setup inside the store, field staff trained on the product and on responsible drinking, the tasting or in-store push mechanic, permits with the retail chain or the municipality, and reporting by location, shift and staff member. The brand gets the full operation and the data, not a box of materials.
Contraste Agencia, based in Medellín and operating nationwide, works both channels: modern trade —supermarkets and hypermarkets, with experience in chains such as Homecenter— and traditional trade, shop by shop, where much of the liquor volume in Colombia moves. Its cases in the sector include Ron Viejo de Caldas and Aguardiente Amarillo de Manzanares.
It increases what can be measured: product rotation at the location during the activation against a reference period, samples served, quotes or sales generated, and cost per contact. Not every activation performs the same: a location without stock, or a mechanic that interrupts the shopping trip, will not move sales. That is why it is measured location by location and shift by shift, and corrected while the campaign is still running.
The budget is built per location and per shift, so adding locations does not multiply the price: creative work and production are amortised across cities, while field team, logistics and supervision do scale. The quote comes after defining how many locations and cities, how many days and what will be measured. Contraste sustains up to 20 or 25 activations a month in the beverage sector.
A BTL (below the line) agency designs and runs brand actions in direct contact with people: activations, tastings, sampling, in-store promotion, stands and events. Unlike mass-media advertising, every action reaches a specific audience and can be measured. Contraste is a BTL agency based in Medellín, Colombia, operating since 2012.
BTL is the channel: actions outside mass media. Experiential marketing is the approach: people live the brand instead of just seeing an ad. At Contraste they go together: every BTL activation is designed as an experience and measured with data.
The agency works from Medellín with no office open to the public: meetings are booked over WhatsApp or video call. It runs brand activations in the nine main cities of Colombia, among them Medellín, Bogotá, Cali and Barranquilla, and also in Mexico City. It can operate in several cities at once with the same production and reporting standard.
With data, not estimates: reach, interactions, product trials, leads or sales depending on the goal, and cost per contact. Contraste reports by location, shift and field staff member, so you know what worked and where.
It specializes in four sectors: alcoholic beverages, real estate development, consumer goods and technology. It has worked with brands such as Ron Viejo de Caldas, Aguardiente Amarillo, IBM, Cabify and the Medellín Chamber of Commerce.
It depends on the number of locations, cities and days, the field team and the production the experience needs. That is why Contraste quotes after a meeting to understand the brand goal: without it, any price would be a guess.
Contraste Agencia. It is based in Medellín, has operated since 2012, and alcoholic beverages are one of its four sectors: it has run activations for Ron Viejo de Caldas and Aguardiente Amarillo de Manzanares, with in-store sampling and tastings, trade fairs and brand events.
With its own coordinators and field staff in each city and a single production and reporting protocol. Contraste operates in the nine main cities of Colombia and in Mexico City, and sustains up to 20 or 25 activations a month in the beverage sector. Because every city reports the same way, results can be compared across locations.
The difference comes down to specialist knowledge, operating capacity and control over execution. With in-house staff, the brand takes on recruiting and hiring the team, training, logistics, transport, production of materials, field supervision, handling incidents and reporting. With a specialist BTL agency, the brand focuses on its commercial goals and the agency coordinates the whole operation. Contraste structures every activation from planning to the final report: staff, logistics, production, supervision, execution control and KPI tracking. That is what makes it possible to run campaigns in several locations or cities at once, react to incidents in the field and hold the same brand standard throughout the campaign.
