In May this year, Fulton Beer introduced a new American IPA under the Minnesota brewery’s Hop Kingdom brand family.
“It was the first in the series that came out at a lower ABV, lower price point, and different visual packaging — white versus black,” explained Holly Manthei, the VP of Marketing for Fulton. “The Hop Kingdom brand family celebrates iconic animals that call Minnesota home and this latest release featured our state fish — a walleye.”
Like consumers in many states, Minnesotans are fiercely loyal to Minnesota things, so when it came to creating a marketing plan for this release, Manthei and the Fulton team wanted to get great pull through on the effort and budget they could afford and capitalize on Minnesota cultural, culinary, sports, celebrities, cities, hobbies, and such can help in that pursuit.
“Minnesotans have an inordinate amount of pride in things ‘from here’ and this beer capitalized on that out of the gates,” Manthei said. “At Fulton, we try to align our marketing efforts from all possible sides to maximize our effectiveness with a small budget.”
For this new Hop Kingdom American IPA release, the brewery leaned into the idea of fishing for beer on packaging day to create photo and video content for social.
“Whether our customers love to fish for walleye or simply love eating prepared walleye at their favorite restaurant – the package design had wide appeal,” Manthei said. “Leaning into the audience of Minnesotans who ‘go north’ to their cabins in the summer months, we aligned the beer with the places where this consumer spends their time.”
The brewery sponsored the Governor’s Fishing Opener in Minnesota, a ceremonial event that kicks off fishing season in May each year.
“We were able to load the beer into all the coolers on the boats, catering to 500 local celebrities, athletes, dignitaries, and guests of the Governor,” Manthei explained. “Everyone was encouraged to share photos of themselves with the beer while fishing.”
The beer was also the official beer at the community event which kicked off a fishing opener that had exposure to 5,000 people in attendance.
Other aspects included working with fishing guides and fishing influencers around the state to supply them with beer samples for their boats. Manthei said of the 20 influencers they shared product with, 19 posted photos or Instagram reels of the beer with their followers.
For consumer marketing, Fulton produced slot limit fishing ruler stickers as giveaway items for the sales team to leverage at on-premise events in key lake-friendly accounts delivering 20 media kits to local television and print news outlets to help secure coverage for the beer.
Last winter Voodoo Brewing came up with a campaign to run between Christmas and New Years that they called, Betwixtmas.
“We celebrated that confusing time between Christmas and New Years with a week of drink promos, food specials, and a whole lotta holiday fun,” said Tom Guzick, the brewery’s Chief Marketing Officer. “We had something new going on each day and a lot of our locations saw a nice increase in pub sales and just overall visitors to their locations during the time, compared to the previous year.”
Guzick said they first map out a strategy for the following year, usually beginning around the end of Q2 and throughout Q3.
“We take a look at the campaigns we have run and determine their success and what we can do to improve those campaigns,” Guzick said. “We like to use a mixture of media, digital, print, visual, to really capture as much of the user base as possible.”
Before the following year’s overall budget is done by the finance department, the Marketing department submits a budget, giving the finance team an idea of what and where the Marketing team wants to spend for the next year.
“(It’s) with the understanding that things something changes and new opportunities arise, but the marketing team tries to line up their goals with the goals of the Production team, Culinary Department and the Liquor Program,” Guzick said, adding that it’s to meet release schedules and help to further enhance the promotion of those departments.
Leveraging digital marketing channels, such as social media and email marketing, can also help reach a target audience cost-effectively.
“Targeting is key,” Manthei said. “Knowing what different audiences (including demographic, socio-graphics, or geographics) you’re trying to reach on Meta and customizing content for them via advertising with different images, graphics, and/or copy can be effective for modest spends (usually under $500).”
Voodoo tries to engage with its audience through social media channels as much as possible, including likes, shares, and comments.
“Our weekly email blast goes out through our customer network letting them know of upcoming events, beer releases, new cocktails, and weekly special food items,” Guzick said.
He added that they do take a look at a few different metrics to determine the ROI of any campaigns.
“We like to look at the growth of pub sales, website traffic, Google Analytics, as well as growth in our following across our social media channels and email campaigns,” he said.
For Manthei, ROI matters a little less when you’re on a tight budget because you’re not spending tons of money on things that “just have to work” versus trying lots of different, but less expensive things.
“(It’s about) moving the ball forward a little more each time based on where we’ve seen success,” she said.
Some metrics Fulton does pay attention to include owned social engagement, which can give them feedback compared to other types of content; email opens and clicks can provide an indication for interest; while looking at Eventbrite and Facebook event RSVPs can help gauge interest.
Earned media value for any PR efforts is determined while even looking at the number of entries for any sweepstakes or contests can help see what works and what doesn’t.
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