Finding unique marketing opportunities can abound for craft breweries. Even “non-traditional” routes lead to great ways to expose your brand to new consumers.
“We believe these types of deals accomplish two goals,” explained COOP Ale Works‘ Sean Mossman, who is the Oklahoma City brewery’s Director of Sales and Marketing. “They expose the brand to customers who may not be familiar with our beer and our companies values. They also deliver on our promise to use our limited marketing resources supporting the communities that support our beer.”
COOP has done a handful of “non-traditional” deals in the past two years. They recently entered into a multi-year sponsorship deal with the Oklahoma City Thunder. They also recently entered into a deal with a local music venue, The Tower Theatre, to sponsor a monthly local music showcase.
“The [Thunder] deal gets us some branding exposure inside the arena and on television as well as branded bars stocked with COOP beer for ticket holders,” Mossman explained about the brewery that produced more than 12,000 barrels in 2017. “[The music venue] helps us deliver on our promise to support local art in Oklahoma City and provides exposure to up-and-coming musicians while promoting the brand.”
In a graphic from Nielsen for COOP about the equivalent media valuation of their sponsorship with the Thunder. Through the first half of the season, COOP’s digital stanchion has seen 64 minutes of television exposure, which results in a 100 percent Media Equivalency value of $587,000.
Exposure relates to the brand logo that appears on the backboard stanchion periodically throughout the game.
“Our Q1 Media Value — which takes into account how visible our logo is, which media equivalency does not — is $107,500,” explains Mossman. “$70,000 from that has come from television, and the other $37,600 has come from exposure on social media. This is really the metric we use to judge the value of the partnership.”
The media equivalency value represents more than a 3-to-1 return on the investment COOP has made with the team to this point.
Mossman also said they found a great deal of value in sponsoring cycling events like Hotter n’ Hell in Wichita Falls and as title sponsorship of the F5 MTB Mountain Bike Endurance Race.
Social media, mainly Instagram and Facebook has been a great marketing outlet for New York’s Montauk Brewing.
“We’ve built an active fan base with over 47,000 followers who share their Montauk experiences with us,” explained co-founder Vaughan Cutillo. “We love our fans and Instagram serves as the perfect platform. I run all that so everything stays natural, authentic, and true to the “Come As You Are” vibe — our trademark motto.”
In most every case, the venue came to COOP with an idea. COOP doesn’t have the benefit of huge financial resources for marketing activities, Mossman noted.
“We’ve had success with type of marketing in the past years and are now trying to be more proactive about seeking opportunities,” he said. “We have to be targeted and we have to find captive audiences. We’re always going to look at the opportunity from a cost-benefit perspective and how crowded the space is with other brands.”
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