Episode 104 | Filiberto Amati | Zebra-Striping Between Categories To Elevate Occasions

Filiberto Amati, Founder of Amati & Associates and Head of Partnerships at MAFFEO DRINKS returns to dissect the post-COVID reality facing the spirits industry, revealing how the pandemic created a temporary "shock" that inflated off-trade volumes while disrupting traditional brand-building pathways.

Five years later, Filiberto explains how consumption patterns are realigning to pre-pandemic trends, exposing brands that gained artificial traction during lockdowns without building genuine consumer education or loyalty. We explore the ongoing "blurring" of categories as consumers increasingly choose drinks based on occasion rather than traditional spirits classifications, the critical role of route-to-market consolidation across beer, spirits, and soft drinks, and how cultural movements—not liquid quality alone—drive the most successful brand rituals from Aperol's orange visual cue to Corona's lime mythology.

Timestamps:

00:00 Introduction and COVID Impact Context

03:45 Post-Pandemic Volume Normalization

09:20 On-Trade Education Crisis Analysis

16:15 Off-Trade vs On-Trade Dynamics

23:30 Category Blurrification and Zebra Striping Occasions

28:45 Route-to-Market Consolidation Trends

Episode Analysis