Fulton Brewing wanted its taproom open to the public but still gauge attendance for an upcoming beer release and cookbook signing. Making it a ticketed event was needed and Jill Drum, who is responsible for the taproom’s day-to-day operations and large-scale events, knew it needed to have a ticked aspect to help create that difference.
“Selling tickets allowed us to partner with the author to sell their book and our food and beverage,” explained Drum, Fulton’s Director of Hospitality. “Attendants felt the value of the experience with the food and beverage and provided something exclusive as a hook to drive sales.”
In 2021, the city of Cleveland hosted the NFL Draft, and Saucy Brew Works did a beer release/watch party with Denzel Ward of the Cleveland Browns.
Saucy Brew Works Marketing Manager Amanda Kantor explained that they wanted it to be a personal and exclusive event, so they limited it to 150 tickets and sold out pretty much immediately. Creating interesting events such as this does take planning and preparation. Sometimes that means creating new opportunities to connect with new organizations and a brewery like Saucy thrives on that.
“Implementing partnerships and collaborations is one of our favorite aspects of this business,” Kantor said. “Everyone has such a great niche of supporters and it’s great to bring those worlds together for a cause or a really fun event.”
But with a new audience, creating a smooth and easy ticket sale takes some effort.
Ticket Sale Platforms
For the cookbook event at Fulton — in which purchasers received a copy of the cookbook, a chance to meet the author and have it signed along with a pint of the beer and a specialty appetizer released in tandem to the book event while other patrons outside of the event were also on hand — having a ticket made the most sense. So Drum said they utilized the platform Tock, a system the brewery used during the pandemic to monitor reservations.
Fulton has now moved over to utilizing Eventbrite for both ticketed and non-ticketed events.
“I like this platform because it allows fans of the business to follow your organization and receive automatic emails for newly posted events,” Drum said.
Utilizing a platform like Eventbrite expands a brewery’s marketing capabilities as it operates as a search engine for upcoming events in the area to anyone who uses it.
“Selling tickets through the site is a benefit as well because we do not have to execute sales or ensure staff collect all necessary information from guests,” Drum said. It also compiles all guest information and reserves that info for future promotions if needed.
“With all the many things we all do every day operating a brewery, it is worth the small expense to have a trusted site process ticket sales and market events,” Drum said.
Kantor said that Saucy used to sell through Eventbrite and did for the event with Ward during the NFL Draft, but the brewery now hosts ticketed event sales on their own through the shop on their own website.
On a portal like Eventbrite, Drum said each event has a dashboard where you can see live updates of current sales including full details from each guest. Tock, she added, would even collect guest notes for reservations including special days or allergy considerations.
“We receive emails anytime a guest wants to directly communicate with us and refunds are quick and easy,” she said of using a tool like Eventbrite. “Since most of the platforms do not pay out until the day of the event, we do not have to monitor any refunds through our point of sale or revenue tracking.
“We are able to customize all levels of guest experience from the copy of the event to the confirmation emails. We can put in additional information including direct lines for questions or driving and parking directions.”
Sponsorship Opportunities
For Fulton’s book signing event, Drum — who joined Fulton in 2021 and served as the taproom’s general manager for three years until her recent promotion — was able to connect with the author’s audience as well as the Minneapolis’ own fans to cross-promote something a tad out of the ordinary.
“Many other events we host are on behalf of other organizations, through collaboration and shared marketing we are all able to reach new audiences,” Drum said. “When we collaborate on beer releases with other brands/breweries, we find these also draw a new segment of consumers.”
Drum said a few examples included brewing with the band Rush; creating a Winter Warmer with Minnesota’s oldest textile manufacturer, Faribault Mill; along with collaborating with former professional hockey players and the local newspaper. Finding connections this way can boost brand awareness.
“We focus on who aligns with our philanthropy and who can help us make the experience even more enjoyable,” Drum said. “Those we partner with get the opportunity to be visible to our clientele through in-person interaction and our media outlets to give them a reach they may not have.”
Crowd Control
Creating a checklist to see what measures will be taken to ensure the safety of attendees, staff, and vendors along with knowing what sort of security personnel will be onsite, and how crowd control will be managed is a priority.
All of Fulton’s listed events include a copy of the brewery’s safety and security policy including awareness of harassment and removal with no refund (if the ticket came at cost), Drum explained.
For large events, the brewery will add additional staff on site to float the grounds and assist in clean up as well as help guests as needed or be mediators should there be disruptions.
READ MORE: Goals to Set When Planning an Event
“In our location, local police are often required for extremely large events and we hire contracted security to work entrances and exits,” she said. “This allows our hospitality staff to do what they do best and leave the safety measures to professionals.
“All of our events are either hosted inside our facilities or within tightly created grounds and event management checks in and walks the grounds often.”
Also, since there is always the idea that overconsumption can happen, creating tickets for designated drivers or working with rideshares or public transportation can be options made available for attendees who may need them.
Event Responses
Looking at the sales of the event is one of the easiest tools to evaluate if an event was a hit or miss, but Kantor said they also like to look at the impressions and interactions the post got on social media, along with the clicks and opens of email marketing, and how the brand received exposure.
“Sometimes things that necessarily can’t be tracked but still play a big part,” she said. “We find it important to look at the aspects of the event to see for ourselves what we did, how it could be better, and survey our attendees through social media or polling through email marketing.”
As the event coordinator, Drum will send out thank you and feedback request emails to all vendors and sponsors after events as well.
“After large events, we host internal town-hall-style meetings where staff can attend and provide feedback on their experiences that we collect to review and improve the event next year or for future events,” she said. “We could do a better job of collecting attendant feedback, but it’s a fine line between gathering useful data and sifting through anonymous noise.”
Each event, Drum noted, has a purpose and a goal. For each large invested event, P&L tracking is utilized across all stakeholders and it is reviewed. For recurring events targeted towards new or repeat guests, guest count trackers are reviewed and observational data is collected to determine the success.
“The purpose could be something as concrete as a large revenue or profit goal for that day, or as nuanced as wanting to reach new audiences or create more regular guests,” she said.
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