Are You Doing Too Many Events? Probably
Originally published on our craft beer newsletter Alcohol Content.
Written by: Ben Butler, APR
Photo by Ngakan Eka
And literally every brewery and their grandmother is loading up the schedule with as many as possible. Live music, trivia, art openings, craft nights, and more.
Too Many Cannibalize Each Other
Events are no small feat. Set up can be labor and cost intensive.
Too many begin to cannibalize one another, and rob them of attendance and impact. That wastes time and decreases team and vendor morale.
It’s also worth considering that customers like successful events. Too many low attendance ones in a row will erode their faith in your future happenings.
You might hear, “Well, we didn’t promote enough.” Or “so-and-so down the street does these every day and gets people….”
Meanwhile:
- So-and-so down the street is in the city and has high foot traffic regardless of events.
- And people are flooded with so many events in your feed they just stop paying attention.
Be More Selective for More Impact
Establish some annual, high-impact anchor events. This can be different for everyone, but here’s a good starting point:
- Oktoberfest. Go big or go home. Align it with live music, food, and limited-edition merch. To insure attendance sell tickets and tables.
- Halloween. Costume contest, DJ, and horror it up.
- Holiday Party. At my former brewery, my team pitched a Krampus-style holiday market and it regularly was our top-trafficked event annually.
Surround Them With Lightweight Recurring Events
But don’t go overboard. Typically a very select few can drive the traffic you want.
- Industry Night. Reward your fellow industry members with discounted drinks. And be sure it’s on Monday when they’re actually off.
- Trivia. These always surprise me, but they work. Make set up a breeze by hosting right in the taproom and delegate the running to a local company.
- Daily or Weekly Happy Hour. No brainer to attract early birds.
And no, “showing sportsball” doesn’t justify an entire event promotion.
Drive Private Events
Private events are a great way to sell beer and get a rental charge in the process.
But be careful. Make sure you aren’t shutting down your taproom unexpectedly too often or people will quickly get frustrated.
It’s ideal if you have a dedicated space to make this happen to keep business running as usual.
Promote you have it. And be sure you have pricing figured out in advance.