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2021 Craft Beer Marketing Awards with Jim McCune and Jackie DiBella
Find the CBMAs online: craftbeermarketingawards.com  // Instagram: @craftbeermarketingawards

I was honored to be asked to participate in judging the 2021 CBMAs. Since the CBMA organization and awards started last year, I thought it was about time we learned more about them and spread information about the awards. Deadline for the 2021 entries is coming up on January 29th, so make sure you check out all the categories you can enter!

Talking points:

Bringing together creative and marketing folks in the industry
Raising awareness and learning about successful marketing
Recognizing branding and marketing for the beer industry
Highlighting unique categories, such as Pandemic Marketing and Human Rights.
Sustainability in the industry

Quotes:
"How are you getting people’s attention? How are you getting them to buy your beer, get them through the door, wear your merch out. This is a super hole in the industry and now we can really recognize everybody that is apart of it." - Jackie DiBella
"We wanted to make sure it was something that brewers would really want to showcase, really encapsulate the industry, how cool it is, and how much work and passion they put into everything they do from brewing the beer to packaging and labeling it." - Jim McCune
"The CBMAs is drawing together this community that’s never existed. They’re all out there in disparate worlds of “we do merch” “we do tap handles” and “we’re a social media agency” and “we’re an illustrator.”  We’re kind of pulling this together into this network…and really creating this little family." - Jim McCune
"When we went virtual…there were a bunch of breweries who were live-streaming in the brewery to their teams as we were announcing winners, which was awesome." - Jackie DiBella
"The feedback we got was all honestly great. When people had comments or ideas we had a whole document. I would say 90% of the ideas got applied to this year and people are noticing. It’s a very cool thing." - Jackie DiBella
"A big part for me is the sustainable stuff. I love to see tap handles and t-shirts that use reclaimed materials. That’s a big thing in our industry…We have met just incredible people that care about each other and the world." - Jim McCune

Using Untappd for Brewery Marketing with Jon Dispenza and Harrison Hickok
FIND UNTAPPD

website: untappd.com  //  podcast: untappd.com/podcast

Untappd reaches a huge audience, so it only makes sense that breweries look at ways to utilize this platform to increase their marketing reach. I was stoked to make a connection with Jon and Harrison who both work at Untappd and also host the Drinking Socially Untappd Podcast. I figured these guys would be able to deliver some solid insights and advice for using Untappd for your brewery.

Talking Points:

What makes a label successful
Using social media channels alongside Untappd
Data and insights pulled from Untappd reviews
Using Untappd events for new beer releases
QR codes for touchless menu links
Effective ways for using digital beer menus

Quotes:
"Then there’s this classic approach where it’s centered around the label…have a very uniform label, maybe the color is different for each beer… maybe I haven’t had the IPA that is yellow from this brewery, I see it pop up off the shelf  and I want to check it out." - HARRISON
"You’re going to have a profile…doesn’t matter if you’re on an island by Greece or in Detroit, someone is going to check in your beer…Just control that because it is an extension of your brand and if you do nothing more put a label on there, use it as a way to interact with people." - JON
"There’s a space you can enter, on Untappd, where you can learn about your customers, about how the perceive your beer, about where they drink it “this is the best pool beer I’ve ever had” “this is my go-to beer for the summer” all of these anecdotes you can pull from it."   - HARRISON
"You’re hitting maybe a larger audience…on Facebook with cool information on Untappd. At the same time making people that follow you on Untappd and Facebook feel like feel like they’re part of a bigger experience and now not every checkin is a checkin in a vacuum…Wherever beer fans, make sure they see you made a new beer" - JON
"…a lot of times it is new breweries just opening that are spending time pulling honeycombs out of beehives and writing beer names on that…and then by beer 50 they’re like ‘holy cow’ there are no more honeycombs…The business side of it kicks in and my taproom manager is already doing 20 things let’s not make harvesting bees be one of them, let’s set up a digital board" - HARRISON
"With beer releases, make it an event in Untappd. An event in Untappd is unique in that everyone can see them… People are going to see those pop up in their phone. Those events are linkable, right now if you have an online store or you require people to reserve a spot…You can link inside an Untappd event to whatever space they need to go to make that order. Someone is now a click away on their phone from supporting you." - HARRISON

Austin Beerworks with Helms Workshop
Find Austin Beerworks
Website: austinbeerworks.com / Instagram: @AustinBeerworks  / Facebook: @AustinBeerworks / Twitter: @AustinBeerworks
Find Helms Workshop
Website: helmsworkshop.com /  Instagram: @helms_workshop / Facebook: @HelmsWorkshop / Twitter: @HelmsWorkshop

Austin Beerworks co-founder Michael Graham along with Helms Workshop founder Christian Helms join to discuss branding for Austin Beerworks.

Talking Points:

Development of branding and brand identity, beyond just a cool logo
Development of core and seasonal cans
Connecting your branding to the beer you make
Breaking out of the typical look in beer branding and being different.
Creation of premium bottle labels and how they're integrated into the core Austin Beerworks brand.

 

Co-Branding and Collaborations with Jordan Hoffart and Fish Scales
Find Jordan Hoffart and Black Plague Brewing
Website: blackplaguebrewing.com  // Instagram: @blackplaguebrewing
Find Fish Scales and Atlantucky Brewing
Website: atlantucky.com  // Instagram: @atlantucky

The idea of collaborations between breweries has proven to be a successful way to promote brands and your beer. I wanted to take a look at some ways that other industries, brands, and celebrities are collaborating in the beer industry to reach new customers. Jordan Hoffart is a professional skater that co-founded Black Plague Brewing. Hoffart and Black Plague created a collab. beer with Tony Hawk, cleverly named Tony Hawps - Birdhouse IPA.  Fish Scales comes from the music world and the successful group Nappy Roots. Fish Scales, being a brewer himself, has collaborated with a number of breweries and has come up with some great ways to promote those beers and brands.

New Label Initiatives - Craft Label Co and All Together
I have two related announcements that I wanted to bring to your attention. Both of these are efforts to help our community during the COVID-19 chaos.

The first is an initiative that I have been working on for the last month. I have been working with breweries and label printers to assist getting beer into packaging. A number of breweries have never packaged and need label FAST and AFFORDABLE.

I created Craft Label Co. to be a pre-designed craft beverage label shop. You can browse through a variety of label designs and choose the label that best fits you. From that point, you can totally customize your chosen label by selecting colors, your logo, beer name, style, and get a print-ready label generated.

Each label only costs $90!

And since this is a brand new launch, I am also offering 30% off entire orders through April. Use code: LABELS30

With this discount, you can get a lineup of 6 customized labels created for $378

If you know of anyone that could find this useful, I hope you can let them know.

Check it out at: craftlabelco.com
All Together
Our friends Craftpeak brought this to my attention. This initiative has been embraced by over 500 breweries worldwide. They are providing the branding, recipe, and label templates to release one large community beer effort. They want to help raise awareness to support small breweries, but also raise money for hospitality! REALLY cool stuff. Check it out here: alltogether.beer

Working with Marketing In-House or External with Holly Amlin aka PDXBeerGirl
Find PDXBeerGirl:
Web: pdxbeergirl.com // Instagram: @pdxbeergirl Facebook: @pdxbeergirl

 

In the past, we've discussed some ways to navigate working with internal and external teams. Both have unique advantages and disadvantages along with best scenario matches depending on your brewery size. Here's a few points we touch on in this episode:

Hiring within...is that the best way?
Should  your front of house run marketing?
Best fit for your brewery, solo freelancer or agency
Finding help that knows the beer industry
COVID-19 - what is successful marketing and social right now

PDXBeerGirl is helmed by Holly Amlin, local beer writer, marketer, and social media influencer. Her aim is to make beer more accessible to the everyday craft beer drinker, especially women.

Holly has lived in Oregon the majority of her life, but decided to put down roots in Portland five years ago for a job doing web design and branding. She is now one of those nerds who documents her beer adventures, rides her bike when it’s sunny, cheers loud for the Timbers, cries about the last season of Game of Thrones, and explores new places as often as possible.

PDXBeerGirl came to life after a summer road trip to California in 2016, stopping and talking with breweries along the way. The journey made her realize just how welcoming the local beer industry was, which inspired the decision to start writing about her experiences. Holly has since covered all things beer: Brewery reviews, openings, new beers, events, and more. In addition, she has contributed to the Oregon Beer Growler, Inc.com, and been featured in Men’s Health, “30 Female Beer Lovers You Must Follow on Instagram”.

Solo episode here covering a recent article published on Craft Brew Creative. We'll break down these branding ideas: Good First Impressions, Branding Creates Trust and Reaffirms Credibility, Branding Generates New Customers, Attitude Strength, Loyal Customers, Easy Introduction of New Products, and Improve Employee Pride and Satisfaction.

For this episode, we're taking a look at the 2019 BC Craft Brewers Guild Keynote presentation done by Bryan Roth titled: What Narratives and Numbers Can Tell Us, and What You Can Do About Them. The guild has the presentation video posted on YouTube, definitely give it a watch! Of course, Bryan brings his strong game of charts and data, but he does so in a way that tells a story and specifically focuses on how the customer is the hero in these journeys. Since Bryan is great with crafting and uncovering stories, I wanted to pick his brain a bit on how breweries should tell better stories and how their customer fits into those stories.

Jessica Ferrell comes from a deep background in restaurant and brewery experience. Along with just starting her own consulting business, Jessica teaches Pub & Tasting Room Management through the Business of Craft Brewing certificate program at Portland State University. In this episode, Jessica gives us really solid foundations to delivering a great customer experience through easy to understand formulas. It was great to see the alignment between branding concepts and how these can be implemented in your taproom or brewery experience.

Along with doing your own brewery events, I think utilizing a membership club is one of the best ways to market and brand your brewery. Whether you go more towards something like a mug club, or more towards the style of a wine club, you have an opportunity to connect more deeply with your core brand fanatics (or create them!) pFriem Family Brewers is a great case for building a wine club style membership. They have just launched this club and have been strategically organizing it to make sure they can run the club well. So far, they started the club with an invitation only process and are now starting to roll it out more to public. Join in with Michelle Humphrey of pFriem as we discuss the branding benefits that come from running a membership.

Over the years working with breweries of different sizes, saving money on the cost of labels has always been important. Through all of this experience, both in the printing and design of labels, I have been able to better understand ways to save money on labels and in many ways create better branding at the same time (!!) I hope you find these tips useful in saving money, and how you can approach creating your labels.

I have worked with Cleophus Quealy over the last couple of years, and we just moved from a "wine" style label to doing custom artwork for each bottle release. There are advantages and disadvantages to both approaches and I was also curious about the timing and positioning to start creating custom labels for a smaller brewery.

Welcome to this special two-part series where we cover an upcoming seminar that will take place at CA Craft Summit in Long Beach, CA. Freshly Wrapped: An Inside Look at Label Branding Strategies will take place Thursday, September 12th, 2019 at 11:35 am.

For the second part of this series, we dig into the process for creating a label branding strategy. Nick Longo and myself each have similar processes when it comes to branding, but there are many variations that are dependent on each brewery's situation. Here we outline and discuss how each label branding project went with Big Stump Brew Co. and Trademark Brewing.

Welcome to this special two-part series where we cover an upcoming seminar that will take place at CA Craft Summit in Long Beach, CA. Freshly Wrapped: An Inside Look at Label Branding Strategies will take place Thursday, September 12th, 2019 at 11:35 am.

For this introduction, Nick Longo and myself cover the idea of the seminar and our partnering breweries - Big Stump Brew Co. and Trademark Brewing. We learn the special situation each brewery is in and why now is a great time for them to develop a package branding strategy!

There are brewery owners out there that have an added benefit of coming from another professional background. Someone who has an engineering, business, or marketing background for instance, can have a leg up running their brewery. Over the last few years in Portland, I have had the pleasure of getting to know Ben Parsons of Baerlic Brewing. Ben fits this exact mold, he left a career as a professional designer to chase his dreams of making beer and opening up a successful brewery.

There are a many different ways and angles to better sustainability in beer. Many breweries are taking steps to be more eco-friendly, but there is also an important role that beer drinkers can play. Education on the consumer side can help elevate better practices, and also play part in the sustainability process. Rob Van, along with his partner Bob Kelley, started promoting breweries in Massachusetts and connecting drinkers with good beer. The results of their efforts have come together on the website MassBrewBros.com. Rob caught my attention on Twitter with an article he wrote on this topic. Listen in as Rob breaks down some knowledge on recycling and what we can do as drinkers to better sustainability in beer.

There are essential items when it comes to launching your new brand, but I wanted to shed some light on what things looked like after running a brewery for a full year. Having plenty of time to develop your brand before opening your doors is really great, but what happens after things are up and running? Tyler Lucas, the Director of Marketing and Brand Development for Blaker Brewing joins me for this conversation. We get to dig deep into social media marketing, building strong teams, and relationships with your customers. Listen in as we take a look at the first year of Blaker Brewing, on this episode of Branding Brews.

We had some great questions during the Brand Forward seminar. This is a follow up from the previous episode, with the questions and answers portion.

As you probably have heard over the last few episodes, I have been working on a label branding seminar for the Craft Brewers Conference. Not only developing a seminar, but also participating in a special artist series for the CBC 2020 Commemorative Beer labels. For this episode of Branding Brews, I will be sharing with you the audio recording of the Brand Forward seminar at CBC this year.

In this interview, we dig into the role that specialty brands play at New Belgium. What is the strategy in branding and marketing for the specialty beers they offer. What are the goals that New Belgium has around their specialty brands. Kick back and listen as Andrew Emerton speaks some brand knowledge on this episode of Branding Brews.

Carrying on with the topic of rebrands, this episode is looking at a very successful rebrand for Old Town brewing. We dig into the how and why Old Town decided to approach a rebrand. As with any brewery that might struggle to keep up with the ever-changing market, Jordan and Old Town jumped into this rebrand to create a label and branding system that would allow them to be more nimble with their beer releases. The rebrand also brought more attention to the Old Town brand as well, establishing more of a connection with their customers.

During my planning process for the Brand Forward design seminar at CBC, I had the pleasure of connecting with Fred Hart of Interact. Fred and his team do some great work, including the Dogfish Head packaging rebrand. After some insightful conversations, I thought Fred would be a wonderful guest to have on this show.

We’ve talked on this show before about the importance of having a brand or media kit easily accessible. There are a number of ways to manage this, but there is a specific platform, Brandfolder, that was made just for this purpose. Today we are joined by Luke Beatty, who is the CEO of Brandfolder, and has lots of insights on brewery brand management through a number of breweries that use his platform.

Nick Munson-Phelps, the refillable program manager for BottleDrop Refill. Nick has been leading an effort in Oregon to design and implement a refillable bottle program that breweries have already started using. Join us on this episode to learn all about the sustainability and benefits of using refillable bottles on this episode of Branding Brews.

As part of an industry that is creating a product for consumers, having insights behind those consumers can really help drive decisions, marketing, and of course your branding efforts. Rob Cartwright, Co-Founder of DataQuencher, digs into some interesting insights and we learn more about the beer market on this episode of Branding Brews.

Communication is an essential part of promoting your beer and your brand. It’s a major part of how customers understand who you are. The stronger and more concise your communication is, the better your customers will understand your beer. Jeff Alworth digs into some fundamentals of communication on this episode of Branding Brews.

There are many ways to communicate your brand, and Allagash does a great job of telling their story. Jeff Pillet-Shore from Allagash took some time to talk with us about their brand story, how every employee is apart of that story, and is excited to participate in that brand. Join us and Allagash Brewing Company today, to learn about communicating a brand story on Branding Brews.

Continuing the discussion of beer label design and branding, Adam Feller joins us to talk about packaging design. Adam owns Avidity Creative and is also the host of The Food Business Podcast

Beer and brewery photography for better branding! My good friend, Roscoe Myrick, is a professional sports photographer. We discuss some tips-and-tricks for taking better photos discussing photo equipment, planning shoots, and just generally getting into the mindset of taking good photos.

Jeff Schweiger from the Alison Group joins the show again, this time to discuss options for designing and producing Point of Sale (POS) items.

How you approach your branding can have a direct impact on the perceived quality of your beer and brewery. Your potential customers will judge your ability to provide quality beer based on your branding and brand identity. Also, customers are more likely to purchase products from a brewery that has a polished and legitimate brand. On this special one-year anniversary episode, Nick Longo joins us again to discuss perceived quality through branding.

In order to maintain a strong and consistent brand, having a good brand system and brand guidelines is an essential tool. It not only provides your internal team with a brand compass, but it is also a very valuable resource for media, vendors, and service providers. Joseph Szala of Vigor joins the show again to discuss the importance of a good brand system and brand guidelines!

How well is your brewery website performing? I am joined by a super sharp web technology team, CraftPeak, who has narrowed their specialty to the craft beer market. If you follow their Instagram account, you will see they live and breathe beer. We’ll discuss your branding and content, managing your website, how you are placing on Google search, and more on this episode of branding brews.

Using unique label materials can provide a great starting point when it comes to designing and creating a new label. Alex Kidd, the Creative Design Manager for Avery Dennison, joins to talk about some fun and unique options for your labels.

Chris Herron and David Stein from Creature Comforts joins us to discuss the ins-and-outs of developing their brand on this episode of branding brews.

One of our more popular episodes recently covered aspects of legal trademarks around naming. I wanted to follow up that episode with another interview focused on logo, trade dress, and visual graphic trademark. I’m sure most of us aren’t legal experts and focus on areas of brewing, marketing, design and branding, so I reached out to Chris Gartman who is not only a head brewer, but also an IP attorney.

Many breweries, to varying degrees, give back to their community. Ex Novo has made this their core foundation and built their brewery business on philanthropy. Listen in as Joel goes into detail about why he started his brewery with the idea giving back, and all the nitty-gritty details of running a brewery and brand with this in mind.

Beer doesn’t see race, gender, sexual orientation or class. When it comes to branding and marketing, why not take an extra effort to make sure you are being inclusive and reaching a larger audience in a positive way.
We’re going to cover how inclusivity can benefit not only your brand, but the craft beer industry as a whole. With so many breweries opening their doors, it’s important that we’re looking forward and trying to reach and connect with larger audiences and communities. Carla Jean Lauter has been passionate about this topic and has been very active online, engaging other breweries and fans. Carla joins us today to talk inclusivity in the beer market, on this episode of Branding Brews.

With the start of a new year almost here, now is a great time to take an audit of your content and content strategy to work towards creating a new content calendar. Having great content, including photos, videos, blog posts +more, can really help strengthen your brand. Emily Hutto of RadCraft joins to discuss what you can do to get a content calendar started.

Michael Kiser of Good Beer Hunting discusses how important your beer portfolio is when it comes to your branding. How can a brand setup your customer's expectations when it comes to experiencing your beers and vice versa.

Steve Schmidt, host of the Market The Brew podcast, joins to talk about various promotional opportunities to keep butts in barstools. Finding unique and interesting ways to keep people coming back can be challenging, but rewarding. Mug clubs, keep the glass, brewery tours and special tasting events can build a stronger brand and brand commitment.

Jason Frostholm with Creative South Podcast joins for a special crossover episode. Our podcasts collide and we get an opportunity to interview each other. Learn more about me and my history along with the Branding Brews Podcast. Jason dives into his creative past and his involvement with Creative South!

Bryan Roth, beer writer extraordinaire, joins on this episode to talk about authenticity in today's beer market.

Trademark attorney Mike Kanach joins the show to break down the challenges and benefits of creating strong trademarks for your brewery or beers.

Pressure Sensitive labels have all sorts of cool benefits when it comes to wrapping a can or bottle with your branding. Scott McKean from Best Label joins us to discuss current trends, ideas, and tricks when it comes to printing labels.

Nick Yarger, Creative Director of Ninkasi Brewing Company talks with us all about their special artist in residence program. The artist in residence offers a special opportunity for the artists and Ninkasi, different than the usual option of contracting out for design or artwork.

Learn about the process of designing and producing tap handles with Jeff Schweiger, owner of The Alison Group.

Who, when, why, and how should you hire for branding and design help?
With Joseph Szala of Vigor Branding

Find Vigor Branding :

Web: vigorbranding.com  //  Twitter: @vigor  //  Instagram: @vigorbranding  //  Facebook: @vigorbranding
There’s no question that today’s beer market is bigger than ever. Not only are there more breweries to compete with, but today’s beer drinkers are also more savvy and complex.
It’s important that you can stand out amongst the crowd and that you have a clear and unique brand.
In order to accomplish this, you likely need the assistance of a professional branding and design expert. One big question, or possible trouble, is how, where, and when do you hire for this help?
There is a lot that goes into finding a valuable partnership when it comes to working with someone on your brand. Having a good partnership can really help your brewery and brand grow in ways you may not have imagined.
If your starting a new brewery, at what point in planning do you bring on this branding expert?
If you are a brewery already pouring liquid, do you need to take look at how your brand has evolved? Do you possibly need to bring on someone new to assess your brand and help elevate your brewery?
There is a lot that goes into hiring a designer or agency to help you out. Many people do not have extensive experience working with a designer. Where do I start looking for this help? What should I have prepared to help get started in this process? What should I expect and look for when hiring?
Joseph Szala from Vigor Branding has deep experience when it comes to food and beverage branding. Joseph joins us to help shed some light on finding, hiring, and working with branding experts on this episode of branding brews.

Show Links
Grits And Grids - Food, Restaurant, and Beverage Branding Blog

Grits And Grids - Podcast

CODO Craft Beer Branding Guide

Simon Sinek - Start With Why
startwithwhy.com
TED Talk

This Session episode dives deeper into episode BB010 with Nick Bortolin and Nick Longo from 14 Cannons Brewery.

Having a strong team will give your brewery and brand a healthy platform to succeed and grow. Nic Bortolin and Nick Longo join the show to talk about building their 14 Cannons team in the early days before opening.