Sometimes in the hustle and bustle of social media, a brewery can forget that a classic way to get information to the public is out there still: local and regional media. Making connections with those means and informing the media is a great additional tool to building connections to a local community, and introducing the brewery’s branding, imaging and story in another avenue.
“There are so many breweries out there now, that it’s sometimes hard to stand apart from the crowd,” said Giotto Troia, the Marketing & Communications Manager for Destihl Brewery in Illinois. “As a member of this growing industry, we need to make sure that we’re telling the world our story. Media, I believe is definitely a piece to that puzzle.”
Laura Moore, the Events Manager & Marketing Coordinator for Figueroa Mountain Brewing in California said the brewery is constantly looking for new ways to communicate its ideals and values to customers.
“We think that being family owned and operated, awarded, and having a huge specialty beer program including a wide variety of styles speaks to people, and we want that information to be accessible to the public,” Moore said.
Steve Miller of California’s Anderson Valley Brewing said the brewery is often approached by regional publications in the greater San Francisco Bay Area, North Bay and beyond to answer questions regarding the latest brewery releases.
“Although we don’t create press releases for every little thing we do — like installing new fermenters, planting new hops, etc.— we do announce when we open new markets or make contributions to local non-profits, such as sharing 100 percent of the proceeds from our annual sponsorship of the Legendary Boonville Beer Festival.”
Cris Ellenbecker, the Brewmaster for Tennessee’s Yee-Haw Brewing said that the best spokesmen for his brewery is either himself, the owner or the GM of the taproom.
“Collectively we know everything that happens inside and out of the brewery.,” he said.
Destihl has several different people representing the brewery depending on the media type explained Troia.
Podcasts warrant a little more casual conversation and can really emphasize and even humanize the personality of brewers and sales people. Written and visual media as well as certain types of radio need a little more refined approach but with an adaptive personality, so Troia says he prefers to stick to a representative from the communications and marketing department for those.
“Matt Potts, our CEO, founder and Brewmaster, is a rock star — quite literally he’s a drummer — so he’s usually the main focus of photos, cover shoots, etc,” Troia said.
Having a handful of stock “press photos” of the brewery and beers to share for articles is important, pointed out Miller. Anderson Valley also has a “green sheet” that touts sustainability efforts at the brewery.
A media kit that a brewery can share with new media contacts is found to be very helpful when building relationships, added Moore.
“Through the kit, we can embody our main brand as well as inform our audiences of our six taproom locations and what sort of amenities they each provide,” she explained. “Each taproom has a sort of branding of its own; they’re each in very different areas of California that cater to a wide range of audience’s tastes and interests. The media kit is our simplest way of consolidating that information in a presentable manner with plenty of links and resources for more information.”
Being proactive is important stressed Troia.
“On occasion, a journalist or other member of the media will contact us for a story but we know that the best way to get attention is not to sit in the corner and wait like at a middle school formal, but to go up and ask that girl to dance,” he said.
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