Best Call To Action of 2008 = Post & Win Some Shit

So I'm a big fan of beer. The kind of geek who stands in front of the store beer selection for 5 minutes -- pondering exactly which 6-pack to buy -- until his wife finally quietly demands that I JUST PICK SOMETHING ALREADY!

Craft brewers ("microbrewery" is sooooo Beer 1.0) have some of the most loyal consumers in marketing. The ones who proudly wear branded t-shirts, hats, and sometimes even tattoos. Choose their restaurants based on the beer list. Drive across state lines to buy a limited releases not available in their area. Pay $8 for a 4-pack.

If you have heard of -- and preferably imbibed -- beers from Bell's, Dogfish Head, Flying Dog, Ommegang, Lagunitas, Rogue, New Glarus (JUST PICK SOMETHING ALREADY! ) then you know what I mean.

These brands are the perfect test case for guerrilla marketing. They can't afford big advertising campaigns, instead thriving off rabid fans and word of mouth. It is only natural that they take advantage of social media and online communities to talk to their consumers and reach new ones.

Denver's Flying Dog Brewery is a great example. They have their blog, Flickr stream, Facebook mascot page and fan page, YouTube channel, and even an open source community project for developing new beer recipes. None of these gather the number of users or views that would strike fear in the hearts of mass brewers. But for craft brewers every consumer counts.

My favorite initiative is a promotion they ran in December via Twitter. Using a new mobile-based beer review site (Beerdo); they awarded prizes if you posted a review for one of their beers. Here's the scoop, promoted via their Facebook page:

For the next two weeks any Flying Dog beer reviewed on Beerdo will be entered in a contest to win some Flying Dog shit. We’ll draw a name at random and the lucky winner will receive some awesome Flying Dog merch. We’ll also be giving out prizes to some of the more creative descriptions of our beer. Think of it as our Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa/Festivus present to you.

Here’s how to rate a beer via Beero from twitter:

1. Create a new tweet.
2. Start it with @beerdo
3. Next, type the name of the beer you’re rating. For example, Flying Dog Doggie Style Pale Ale
4. To rate your beer, use 1-5 exclamation points (1 is low, 5 is awesome)
5. You can then use the rest of your message to describe the beer you’re drinking.
So your tweet would look something like this:

@beerdo Flying Dog Gonzo Imperial Porter !!!!! This beer is as big as Hunter’s reputation, and I love the massive but balanced brew.

We’ll be monitoring all tweets with “@beerdo” and “flying Dog” in them, so make sure your reviews about our beers contain those terms.

We’re really excited about Beerdo for a bunch of reasons. One of those is that it’s a unique and innovative way to rate beers on the fly. So if you’re at a bar and trying Double Dog for the first time, it’s easiest to review the beer as you’re drinking it.

So tweet away, fans of Flying Dog!

The beauty is that this isn't a closed-system promotion. If I "tweet" about their beer, it is not only seen by Flying Dog but also anyone else following me via Twitter. Whether they know of Flying Dog or not. If I post 5 times about Flying Dog beer, then that is 5 brand impressions reaching a potentially new consumer. And if they are my friend on Twitter, then odds are they are someone who might enjoy a Snake Dog IPA or Horn Dog Barley Wine.

It also would make a great call to action when consumers are enjoying their product = bottle labels, bar table tents, coasters.

I continue to debate the marketing potential of Twitter. Not just their advertising revenue (or lack of), but also how brands can leverage it to support campaigns and drive loyalty. The use of status posts as promotion entry could be one of the first marketing tactics that makes sense.