Grass Roots Effort Suggestion - Call to Arms!

[JWalter]

Hey Everyone, If you've read my posts over the time I've been on here, you'll probably seen a similar theme at times. I'm both a lover of great beer, and also a business person, and I'd love it if Ontario were a place where people like Perry, Michael & Ken could get bleedin' rich brewing the great beer that they brew!

I'm sure that we ALL feel this way, but sadly, we as most of us know, we are the MINORITY. I'm not an expert in the market share of the Ontario Beer market, but I seem to remember hearing that it's something like 95% controlled by the big guys (Molson, Labatt, etc), leaving only 5% for all the micros to fight over.

I'm always trying to think of ways that we (when I say we, I'm referring to the active BarTowel community) can do something about that... Of course we all tell everyone we know about good beer, and why fresh Micro-brewed beer is better, etc, etc, etc, but what else can we do?

I've come up with an idea I'd like to share, it won't change the world, but I'd like to know what you all think, perhaps it's a next step that we can take to help educate Toronto beer drinkers...

My idea involves putting together a simple brochure, a standard tri-fold type idea, that would be distributed at/around the Toronto Festival of Beer this summer. The key message(s) we'd be trying to get across:

1) Promote / Increase Awareness of BarTowel
2) Basic Beer Education
3) Why Microbrew is better
4) Recommendations (e.g. "If you like x, why not try a y?"
5) Some establishments around Toronto where festival goers can get this great beer all year round

I'm sure with all of the intelligent and talented people on the forum we could pull together the content and design ourselves, leaving only the printing costs (Hopefully we could we get sponsors to cover this?), and then distribution, again, I'm thinking we can rely on some Bartowelers to perhaps take some shifts handing out the brochures, and/or have them available at the booths of some bartowel-friendly folks who'll have a presence at the festival (Esprit, Scotch-Irish, Blackoak, etc...).

I'm interested to hear everyones thoughts on this. Seeing as it's only February, we'd have plenty of time to get this together, and if it wakes up a few hundred or who knows... THOUSAND new people on to some new beers / new styles, get's them into BarTowel, then it's mission accomplished, and we can all be proud that we've been part of the solution as opposed to part of the problem...

I'm not married to the idea, but I'd like to see us do SOMETHING, so if you'd like to point out a flaw in the idea, please offer a solution!

[Beer Geek]

I first have to applaud your idea. But I will give you brief history on my recent endeavors to help promote the craft brewing industry.

Over a year ago I spoke with many of the Ontario microbreweries and brewpubs to get an understanding of why the breweries had not come together to create a poster to promote the province’s craft beer industry. The consensus was that no one in the industry had the time to spearhead such a project. So I decided that this was a great opportunity for me to help the industry. I’d done some research and found that many American states and regions had their own poster to help promote the local craft. Here are a couple: http://www.allposters.com/gallery.asp?aid=98347414
http://www.allposters.com/gallery.asp?aid=98347414

My poster idea was similar to the “Wines of Ontario” poster put out a few years ago. http://www.superplak.com/pages/poster.html

So this project started off really well, with support from many of the breweries. Until an email went out by Cam Heaps at Steamwhistle to all the breweries urging them not to participate in my poster (this after I met with him and was told it was a great idea). From there things went downhill. Cam (Head of marketing for the Ontario Small Brewers Association) did not want the breweries to participate because the OSBA had just been given $1 million dollars by the government for marketing. The OSBA is in the process of putting together proper branding and felt that my poster would not coincide with their new look and promotional material. This caused quite a discussion amongst the members of the OSBA who believed that my poster was a great opportunity for them. In the end, I did have support from over 20 breweries, but without the support of all the breweries it would not be the poster that I had envisioned.

I was pretty disappointed that this did not go through, not regarding all the work I had put into the project but the fact that this opportunity was lost. I wish the OSBA luck, because much more has to be done to promote these great local breweries. This also can’t be left to the breweries themselves to do, most brewery owners have many different hats to where: brewer, sales rep, delivery guy, grain shoveller!

So if there is anything you need regarding your brochure, let me know I’d be glad to help. I just hope the OSBA does not try to kill this idea too.

[pootz]

I'd love it if Ontario were a place where people like Perry, Michael & Ken could get bleedin' rich brewing the great beer that they brew!

I wish Ontario was a place where I could make a comfortable living selling their excellent beer in my private establishments (no not a bar)

I concur that the evil empire "Molcoorbatt" still has a large chunk of the market...probably always will (they appeal to the cost conscious or brand loyalty image myth seekers) But it is conceivable to see that real beer, craft beer and super premium beer could represent 50% or more of the market given the right market conditions existed.

Public education and culturing a taste for better products is certainly a place to start to elevate consumer sophistication to where it will support a craft/real beer producers...BUT...the major stumbling block to elevating awareness is through the propensity of "exposure".

It is hard to widely expose people to new beers when the distribution and retail level of the packaged product business is a monopoly that small players cannot get around.

There must be a change of heart/ideals towards the alcoholic beverage consumer business at a governmental level before the flood gates open to true private sector competition where variety will elevate exposure...from there it is like watching the dominos fall. Carry Nation stigmatization of beer drinking still permeates the government culture (witness their reflexive cow towing to the zealotry of MADD or anti smoking lobies)

We also have a different situation in Canada that the US craft beer privateers did not have to face when they took their risks on the craft beer revolution. They had a very large market potential 10 times larger than ours....that is why risk management for small brewers or private retailers/distributors must move slowly here so as not to over extend investment before the market support is there. Like all things manufactured in Canada...to become truely wealthy you have to seek export markets...seems that avenue is risky for a small brewer.

Change will come here...but atb a much slower pace than we see the revolution happening in the US....an in the end I doubt if we will ever see the widespread consumer sophistication of Europe for beer or wine because the exposure required to culture this taste is regulated by government import strictures and makes the spread of import beers financially restrictive.

[JWalter]

Beer Geek - Thanks for your post. I think it's really crappy that the OSBA is so short sighted to look a gift horse in the mouth like that. I mean, good for them that they have $1,000,000 to spend, but to stifle independent, inexpensive marketing assistance seems silly to me. If you want to catch a fish isn't it better to have more hooks in the water??

I can understand how many large consumer organizations are very concerned about their Brand Image, and rightly so - ie. Nike, or Adidas, they wouldn't want some amateur coming up with their own Nike logo or Tshirts or Posters or something, but the Ontario Micro Brew scene isn't Nike or Adidas is it? A brochure or a poster that we put together would of course only be using pre-approved artwork or marketing materials from each individual brewery. So given that information, what would the OSBA object to?? Is the way that they are displayed collectively or as a group really that CRITICAL?, could a poster that, for instance, organized the breweries alphabetically instead of regionally, or perhaps had ONTARIO BREWERS written in Times New Roman instead of Arial or Blue instead of Red really DAMAGE the Brand of Ontario Brewers? Give me a break!!! Perhaps the OSBA are just flexing their muscles in order to justify their existance? Perhaps they could be invited to join this forum and explain their actions??

My view is - Let's make sure we keep our guns focused in the right direction and not caught up arguing about what type of ammo to use...

Please everyone, keep the feedback on what we can do at a grassroots level going, please feel free to start volunteering to take part in the project, perhaps if/when we can get a project team defined we can take this offline... - Or maybe if Cass is involved, create our own forum or something like that to use a communication tool.

[Beer Geek]

Give me a break!!! Perhaps the OSBA are just flexing their muscles in order to justify their existance?

I think this is exactly it. Ultimately, the OSBA had no real say in the poster since it was up to the individual breweries if they wanted to participate. It was just unfortunate that many breweries felt that they should side with the OSBA since they were paying members. As I mentioned, I did have lots of support from many of the smaller breweries who felt that if this was left in the hands of the OSBA it would never get done. But unfortunately just like the brewing industry, as a whole, is controlled by Molson & Labatt’s, the microbrewery industry is also controlled by a few larger micros.

I tried to make the poster different then just Ontario Microbreweries. My heading would have been something like “Craft Beers of Ontario”, which would include not only the breweries but also the brewpubs and contract brewers.

I would love to see something happen. In my opinion a map of Ontario with directions to all the provinces breweries would be the best type of promotion. Again this is not rocket science, every other brewing region in the world has this type of marketing…except Ontario!

[Bobbyok]

The major problem that the OSBA was probably looking at with your poster, Beer Geek, was the fact that if anypne from the government were to see another marketing piece not done by the OSBA, the government would take that funding away or not renew it. But the fact that you were about to beat them to the punch should have told them to hurry up and do something! What you both are and were planning on doing is exactly what an org like the OSBA should be out there doing.

The OSBA would have a hard time stopping a Bar Towel focussed brochure though. They don't own it and I assume Cass and/or the website are not members being that The Bar Towel isn't a brewery.

I'd love to see something like the OSBA or any of the State Brewers Associations in the US here in Atlantic Canada. The was one a few years back, but it was just a committee of the brewers themselves, with no employees of its own. As the brewers got caught up in running their own businesses (as they should be), the Association just kind of died.

Is this how the OSBA operates or do they actually have employees? With $1 million in government funding, they should hire somebody to spearhead the organization if they haven't already. The individual brewers will always put their own businesses first (again, because that's the way it should be), while an OSBA dedicated employee would make sure that OSBA initiatives would happen.

[the.brewer]

Yes, one problem with small (read v.small) breweries is that it is hard to spread the word about their beer - to a certain extent the beer can sell itself, but marketing budgets have by necessity been very limiting. More significant, though, is that the economies of scale are such that it is very difficult to make money if one sells the beer at a price that can compete with the imports and that seems not unreasonable to the consumer. This is why the response by the Provincial and (hopefully) the Federal governments is so timely and much appreciated. Funding from the Ontario government will allow a coordinated marketing effort similar to that pioneered by the wineries, and if enacted, reduction in the Excise Taxes payable to the Federal government will allow small breweries to sufficiently profitable to survive and grow.
The OSBA does have employees, three in total. The President, an Administrative consultant, and a recently hired Marketing Director. All are very well qualified.

[Rob Creighton]

Historic Note:

Keep in mind that the inability of the micro's to cooperate or show the fundamental trust to support each others needs comes from way back. The OSBA has existed in a number of forms dating back to the early '90's. Unfortunetly, Frank Heaps (Cam's dad), John Sleeman, Drew Knox (Algonquin) and Jim Brickman could not work together in a logical fashion. Over the years I have heard management from all 4 companies blame the other groups for trying to "own" or "control" the process. The group even voted against a government initiative to grant a bar licence to us because of paranoia about the advantages it would give the others or the macro's. Go figure.

The end result is we presented a negative image that government would not take seriously. The more we blamed our competitors for our problems, the less legitimate we looked. During this time, the Ontario Wine Council (I think this is an accurate title but I might be wrong) developed and nurtured the VQA and joint advertising and have leveraged it for millions in sales.

Thanks to efforts from Cam and Howard T and all the others (inc. Jim B.), we have managed to get past the nonsense and we are on the verge of putting our best foot forward. But... don't kid yourself. Cam still puts the needs Steamwhistle above all others as do the other guys with their breweries. I am convinced that Beer Geek had no ulterior motives other than he may pick up some design work in the long run from companies he has a passion for. There is nothing wrong with that. Unfortunetly, his timing was off and his project did show some small thinking from some of the owners. Oh well, it will happen in every group that has their life savings on the line.

Hopefully Beer Geek will be able to contribute to a future project.

-Rob-

[JWalter]

First off, I don't want to flog a dead horse, so... Thanks for all who did reply. Unfortunately no one has thrown their hat in the ring to assist with the project, and as much as I'd like to help, I can't take on a project like this on my own, so I'll stick with my tried and true guerilla tactics to promoting the scene... ie. I'm bringing 14 friends with me to the Winking Judge Beer Fest, picked up our tickets Wednesday night... Cheers Everyone! Hopefully see many of you there!