Tag: marketing

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ABInBev TV?

Just when you thought we had reached peak saturation in entertainment choices, along comes ABInBev to glue our eyes to screens since it is better than drinking their beer.

The megacorp (which doesn’t have much money for their purchased craft breweries) is creating an entertainment division, called DraftLine Entertainment which will create films, television and podcasts.

Who knows if Netflix or Spotify will want Bud sponsored content on their streamers but I can imagine a Bud Light RomCom or a true crime podcast about theft of small boutique distributors.

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The Crushies

The first ever Craft Beer Marketing Awards will be held next year. The CBMA awards (aka The Crushies) will honor achivements in 30 categories starting with breweries and extending out to designers, marketing and Social media.

Here are some of the categories that will be judged:

Best Can, Best Tap Handle Design, Best Original Video, Best Merchandise Design, Best Use of Social Media and Best Website Design.

It will be interesting to see which L.A. breweries can garner awards.

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and the Award [redacted]

I have to applaud the Brewers Association. They have walked the fine line of being a trade organization while also adding a bit of policing to their actions as well. This is all due to offensive beer labels. A problem that sits in the corner mostly but will occasionally flare up whenever a brewery in some weird bubble decides to use a name that most would find offensive, primarily aimed (99%) against women.

The plan is that a brewery can make and name a beer in an offensive way and they can enter it into competitions like the World Beer Cup and the Great American Beer Festival BUT if they win, the beer will not be announced from the stage (I assume an awkward pause will be the substitute) nor can the brewery market the win by using the name of the competition won.

Basically, a brewery can say it won a medal and that seems to be the extent of it. They will not be allowed to link the BA or the competition name with the beer. New will be required signing of licensing agreements with terms of use for using the BA name PRIOR to entering a competition.

And while adding this new code, they acknowledged that this action was not going to be easy to enforce. Bob Pease the CEO of the BA made it clear (through some unfortunate phrasing) that , “..it’s gonna be sticky. It’s going to be hard.”

I think this action will help. Either a brewery will change a name, hopefully forcing a burst of creativity, or they will not enter the beer in competition. It does not abridge their rights of free speech or get them blocked from joining or staying in the craft beer club. It basically starves the brewery of the attention that it probably desired. Each time a beer name is typed into a form for one of these two competitions the one doing the typing had better be doing so with this rule in mind.

Before anyone flies off the handle with this is America, this is PC bulls..t, everyone is too easily offended, remember who are Not-My-President is right now. This country could use a LOT more rules about denigrating speech than it currently has on the books.

Breweries need to craft great beer and great beer names.

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This Land is Belgium

So this came about last week but I wanted to read the insta-responses before posting my own. But I recommend also reading THIS and THAT to get a rounded picture.

If you base your beer buying choice based on the word America and all the emotions that it evokes. Well then foreign owned Budweiser may have you covered. They have applied for and received special dispensation for a summer season label that swaps out the Budweiser and replaces it with America. As well as whatever other flag draped patriotic words they could find.
budweiser america main (Custom)
And they are truly banking on people buying for that reason only. Maybe Americans will. It has been a weird and wild primary season and I suspect that many a political after-party will have buckets of “America” chilling on ice for the sheer easy-ness of the image that it will send. The flag lapel pin of beer, as it were.

I have my doubts though. Barring cans being emblazoned with first names or photos of Trump or Clinton, what percentage of consumer who already buys this type of beer is basing it on the label? Has there been a study done on it? My gut tells me that the average purchaser will pick on A) price or B) ingrained love/hatred of one brand over another. There might be a group of “undecideds” out there but of them, I again ask, what percentage will pass by reason A on the way to C) that label has America written on it.

I have grown accustomed to the avoidance of the beer inside the container but I also understand that mountains turning blue or a vortex neck might sway people for novelty in ways that a few word choices simply cannot. The cans will be made in far too great a quantity to be collectible though collecting is preferable to drinking them.

Or is this just some psychological experiment from the advertising world? The knowledge that they are a foreign owned company has probably seeped into their customer base and this may just be a way to stop the spread of the pernicious fact based rumor that they are run from Belgium/Brazil. What does it hurt them to slap a few patriotic words on a new label? Probably a drop in the marketing budget. All in exchange for forestalling their sales slide. Blatant misdirection has worked for the Tangerine Terror this political season (see Trump in his own version of 11 22 63). So, why not for America-wiser.

I fully expect to see a Point the Way USA IPA this summer in red, white and blue striped cans. Or perhaps a Patriot’s Peachy Pumpkin from Elysian.

I also fully expect craft brewers to answer this call with patriotic and hoppy puns combined.

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Miller/Coors Shake-up

I don’t know how much power a temporary CEO has, never risen even close to that high in an organization, but apparently Gavin Hattersley of MillerCoors has enough to discard some senior execs upon taking office.

I don’t usually follow the comings and goings of corporate beer. Though I should since beloved brands are headed deeper into that territory. imageBut I found the “who” fired seemed quite relevant.

Chief Marketing Officer and President of Sales and Distributor Operations gone and replaced.

Two occupations most affected by the rise of craft beer.  Granted, that is a bold statement to make but hear me out. The industrial water lager behemoths don’t care what the flavor of the beer is as long as is tastes within parameters so the only people who catch blame are those advertising it and selling it. If the latter doesn’t happen, then the formers amps up the desperation knowing that their jobs are now on the line because one layer of insulation has been removed.

If both get the proverbial axe to the point where a caretaker can can you then sales have dropped far too far. And where did those sales go?  I can answer that with a question: Who has grown for the past umpteen years?  Craft Beer.  Ergo.  Quid pro Quo.  Me drinking craft beer made MillerCoors change course.

Not just me. You too of course.

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FoodGPS Teaser – 32 Via dei Birrai

I leave L.A. for a week and head to Italy via beers that were sent to me from 32 Via dei Birrai. The story will post tomorrow over on FoodGPS but I wanted to show off the cool packaging that they do for their flavorful beers.

A unique carrying case that can hold a trio of 32 beers.
A unique carrying case that can hold a trio of 32 beers.

 

A beautifully designed publicity package.
A beautifully designed publicity package.

Each cork has a different letter. No word emerging yet.
Each cork has a different letter. No word emerging yet.

 

 

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Women Enjoying Beer

women enjoying beer

There has been plenty of stealth and not so stealthy marketing of alcohol to women. Some people are wise to the fact that they are half of the marketplace and should be treated as a large buying group. Most attempts are crass, mis-leading or both. Select 55, I’m looking at you.

Instead of pushing for better marketing from the mega-internationals, it is time for others to take the lead. That is why I think Women Enjoying Beer is soo cool. They want better beer in the hands of more women! Here is what caught my eye from their website:

1. To Service The Craft Beer Industry
“To help the industry grow and authentically develop the female craft beer enthusiast. In order to create new market segments and gain market share, you have to equally dedicate marketing efforts and a budget that go with the new markets. Marketing to women is not a token or single initiative idea. It’s an enormous opportunity to engage in IF you know that marketing to women is different than marketing to men. If you’re a brewer, brewery, distributor, and any other beer oriented business call WEB to talk about differentiating yourself to appropriately market beer to women. Developing the female market and getting them to buy and enjoy your beers and related goods is a way to strengthen your business and serve more customers.”

2. To Encourage Female Beer Enthusiasm.
“Women are 50.9 % of the population. By courting the female beer buyer more and more women can learn about and learn to enjoy the incredible flavors of beers. As a beer specialists, WEB can help you create affinity groups to help share and grow the beautiful thing we know as beer. These groups are formed to provide a comfortable and fun format to learn about beer and connect with other women – which can help you grow your female clientele (read: no cannibalization of your existing market share).”