Sometimes it’s not enough to post to social media every day. For some breweries, thinking outside the box has led to increased consumer participation which can lead to higher sales.
Catawba Brewing is one example of a brewery that has a unique strategy to get beer drinkers more involved. In 2017, the brewery began a passport program with a commitment to brew at least 52 different small-batch beers for the year.
Customers can stamp their passports each time they drink that week’s beer, and Catawba offers incentives like prizes and private beer tastings to passport regulars.
Catawba’s Marketing Director, Brian Ivey, told Brewer, “And, in the process, we get to experiment with recipes and explore beers styles from around the world.”
Looking forward to a new beer every week keeps customers coming back for more.
MobCraft Beer was the world’s first crowd-sourced brewery, where the founders found a way for customers to be actively involved in the brewing process, specifically through its ingredients. MobCraft customers from across the US submit and vote during a three-week period on what kind of beer they want to see next by pre-ordering online.
The beer with the most pre-orders is chosen, brewed and packaged in a bomber four-pack, where consumers can pick it up from the brewery.
The brewers enjoy the challenge, and have brewed an extensive variety of beer, including one with the smelly Indian fruit, durian, a sour blood orange, and a ghost chili chocolate Ale.
Eel River decided to get consumers involved via surveys for its new hard sparkling water formations. 
The brewery invited customers to taste the sparkling waters after each batch was made and answer questions about the flavors. To get that sweet spot between an overwhelming flavor, and not enough flavor, the customer feedback was crucial in the product development.
Though online marketing was utilized, the face-to-face interactions with consumers helped the brewery meets its consumers needs head on.
Offering this product captured a market that might not include the usual craft beer drinkers, so offering hard sparkling water helped Eel River expand its consumer base to those it didn’t initially hook with craft beer.
Very interesting article. Well done guys