Approaching Video Marketing for a Brewery Business

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Ales, Pilsners, Stouts, Lagers, and IPAs are not just different types of beer, they are different approaches to beer. Each is uniquely crafted and has its own story to share. When you’re filling your basket with beer you’ve never had before, you’re unknowingly being beckoned and lured by the story that the brewer wants you to know. Like you, there’s a crafter behind your purchase, and one of those is a video production company.

Just like the shape of glassware can augment the flavor of beer, video storytelling can shape the perception between maker and customer. A seasoned storyteller will draw you in like a cold beer on a hot day, quench your thirst and yet leave you with wanting more.

Successful videos are not one dimensional just like calling a beer a “sour” doesn’t do it justice to its complicated note profile. Having the right video production company to guide the concepting process will guarantee a multi-layered end product and will elevate your marketing to the next level.

Approaching video production for the first time can feel like completely starting over with your marketing. Your mind might be flooded with endless possibilities, however, no matter how many great marketing ideas you have, not all of them will be right for your brand. Your brand identity may be locked in and cohesive across print and digital yet articulating for video is a whole other matter. So, if you haven’t approached it from a video perspective, it’s worth going through the steps again to really flesh out the story. A new video production campaign is a powerful device for promoting your brand and a fully realized story creates the opportunity for customers build a relationship with your brand.

Engaging Your Demographic

In every successful marketing lifecycle of a popular brand, it is inevitable that you will plateau. You’ve cultivated your brand, nurtured it, and released it to the market. Consumers drank it up. That being said, the public is a finicky beast and tastes can change on a whim. How do you stay relevant? Ask the people on the front lines. Visit the local taverns and spend time having conversations with the barkeeps who pour your ale. Are your customers hipsters? Old fogeys? Are they outdoorsy? Do they wear t-shirts or button-ups? Jeans or skirts? Is this a beer for Friday nights or a beer for a work lunch? The content of those conversations can become the foundation upon which you can begin to build your marketing campaign.

After you’ve gathered your research, begin brainstorming a marketing plan with clear goals and measurable milestones. Take what you learned from your customers and craft your strategy around that knowledge. A strong partnership with the correct video production company will take you beyond knowing your consumer base, and help you learn how to reach them.

Finding Your Voice

You should have a basic understanding of your brand identity when you decide to invest in video marketing. You should be able to clearly articulate your brand’s values and benefits. At that point, engagement with a professional video company can pick up where you left off and put your information into a format that is both entertaining and easy to consume. The storytelling experts at your video production company will take a multi-faceted approach to listening and understanding, and be able to answer questions such as: what does a bar sound like where people are drinking your beer? Are the patrons loud and full of cheer, or warmly engaged in conversation? Does your brand take its time or is it about quick thrills? Would your brand fit in better as a member of The Beatles or The Rolling Stones? These questions aren’t vapid storytelling exercises, but are an important piece of discovering your personality.

Hiring a Video Production Company

One of the most obvious approaches is to find an agency to represent you and let them handle all of your marketing. You probably didn’t start a career brewing beer because you love marketing, but while an agency can be a solid resource for clarifying your brand and overall marketing strategy, there are two big reasons not to simply turn everything over to them. First, you know your brand better than anyone. Any agency that tells you they can handle your marketing for you or implies that your hands will be free to focus on your product while they focus on marketing should be avoided at all costs. The second reason is agencies are notoriously bad at video. When you hire an agency to handle your video marketing, one of two things happens: they have an internal team of videographers who will do the job cheap and quick, making the agency more money in the process, or your agency will hire out to a video production company which results in price hikes to your bottom line. If you already have a great agency, or are looking for one, awesome! Now, find a video production company to work with them, not one who works for them.

If you are up for finding your own video marketing partner to save money, beware of a second common pitfall and stay away from the one-person band. Graphic designers, illustrators, and website designers often come in ones. But while one person can be really good at what they do, video production is a different animal. Being a master of “videos” is like being a master of “cars.” Do you mean designing them? Building them? Repairing them? Driving them? No one is going to be great at all of those things, just like no one is going to be great at script writing, directing, lighting, running a camera, recording audio, and editing. Nothing will tank your brand faster than poor marketing content. If budget is an issue to hiring the company you want, save your budget for the following year.

In the end, you want to seek out a video production company that listens to you, learns about your brand, is eager to craft content around it (rather than throwing spaghetti against the wall), and has the chops to back it up.