Project Insight: Brew Central Social Media

Brew Central is a craft beer and beverage-focused initiative of the Central New York Travel Region that we dreamed up more than a decade ago. The Stories on Tap video series is the centerpiece of this effort with each episode (there are now north of 30) highlighting a producer in the region. We talk about their business and passion for brewing and get their insights into what makes the area unique and worthy of a visit by both the craft beverage-inclined and just-curious tourists.

Each year, we release three to four of these episodes and organic social media, which we manage for Brew Central, is our primary means of getting this content to our target audiences. So, we start with strategy and the goal to increase visibility of and visits to Central New York. We need to appeal to a pretty wide audience anchored by fans of craft beer, spirits and hard cider (a little wine too). So, we begin thinking of the assets we want to create to make that happen.

Prep

Before we even head out on the shoot, we nail down all the material we’ll need to create assets: video and photography that feature the space, facilities and our popular “pour shots” wherein our subjects work the taps and we catch multiple enticing angles of their primary product. There is, of course, the interview that we build the episode around as well. The line of questioning is hammered out well in advance to ensure we tell the story and get the soundbites needed to create tons of social content. We come up with a massive list of assets that grows every year as our Creative Department’s awesome new ideas enter the fray.

Creative

In the case of Brew Central, we create upward of 20 pieces of content each year solely for the promotion of new episodes. These include numerous series including the episodes themselves, photo posts, Q&A with the brewer, graphics with quotes from the brewer, a Meet the Producer series and those beautiful pours. These materials are branded with similar elements throughout to give them some cohesion. The messaging and voice, naturally, is consistent as well. Then it’s time to roll these bad boys out to the world.

In the case of Brew Central, we create upward of 20 pieces of content each year solely for the promotion of new episodes. These include numerous series including the episodes themselves, photo posts, Q&A with the brewer, graphics with quotes from the brewer, a Meet the Producer series and those beautiful pours. These materials are branded with similar elements throughout to give them some cohesion. The messaging and voice, naturally, is consistent as well. Then it’s time to roll these bad boys out to the world.

Planning and Execution

There are so many considerations here. Given the volume, this plan is for months instead of weeks and requires a lot of thought. It starts with the actual episodes, which premiere over the course of a week to establish there’s new content coming soon. That content needs to be mixed, not matched, so that the same producer isn’t featured consecutively. The series are also divvied up so something like a Q&A doesn’t run back-to-back. Since we’re highlighting the same three or four places for an extended length of time, this is an important part of the overall process.

Paid Considerations

Our efforts coincide with a paid campaign, so we have to factor that in as well for continuity of look, messaging and the like. On YouTube, where the campaign drives to a playlist of the entire series, it’s important to pay attention to what comes first on that playlist as it will capture the most views. So, we rotate that first episode to spread out exposure evenly. In addition, each episode ends with YouTube on-screen features that drive to other episodes in the series to increase awareness of the series and initiative as well as views.

Measurement

In our case, we use software that isolates the campaign results for comparison to typical organic numbers. But, that’s not all we do. We dive a little deeper to get a better understanding of demographics and who we might target with paid efforts down the road. We use successes as inspiration to create similar assets for other producers and ideas for future series in our month-to-month social are born at this stage.

Brew Central is just one example of how we approach organic social with a paid mentality. We’ve seen success with this method for many clients and, quite frankly, each of the steps is a lot of fun – especially when the hard work pays off.

On that note, be sure to follow Brew Central on Instagram and Facebook as well as subscribe to the YouTube channel that’s attained more than 1.3 million views in part because of our social promotion. We’ve got plenty more good stuff coming in 2024!