Tag Archives: Goose Island

Packed house for yesterday’s American Marketing Association-Chicago Chapter seminar on social media. Adam Lilly from Goose Island Beer Company talked about their social strategy and Nader Ali-Hassan from Razorfish talk about social’s future and how to measure its impact.

One of the big takeaways I hope everyone got was the importance of storytelling. Adam talked a lot about what the Goose is doing to tell its story and how it’s building a following using social media.

He also talked about how the company gets everyone involved. Marketing works with all departments to find stories that might interest their followers. They also use those people in the videos. Gone are the days of a single company spokesperson. If an employee has an interesting story… they’re in!

This is how you serve an audience. Focus on content that they will be interested in and feature real people.

–Tony Gnau

I feel like it’s just been a couple of days since I blogged about Goose Island Beer Company. Oh yeah… it has only been a couple of days.

Well, I can’t help it! They keep doing great stuff that serve as good marketing examples.

One of the things I try to remind clients is that “old” videos can continue to be shown years after their intended air date. The trick is to look for situations where it works.

Case in point… the Goose. Yesterday on Facebook, they posted about the Craft Brewers Conference taking place in San Diego… “It reminds us of a couple of years back when we hosted this party at our brewery in Chicago.”

The post links to this video from two years ago. It’s AWESOME! Possibly the best event video you’ve ever seen. Did I mention T60 produced it?

Okay, maybe that means we’re not quite objective enough to critique it, but the video really did turn out well. So from Goose Island’s perspective… why not look for an opportunity to show it again? And that’s exactly what they did.

The Goose Island party took place two years ago, but because they had the foresight to produce a video… it lives on to this day.

With all the time and money it takes to put on a special event, it only makes sense to add video to the mix. It can give you marketing value years after it’s over.

Just ask the Goose.

–Tony Gnau

It’s no secret. Goose Island Beer Company has been a frequent topic of conversation here because they’re a T60 client doing a lot of things we all can learn from. Today… another example… this one regarding social media.

Adam Lilly is the Brand Director at the Goose. We interviewed him the other day for a video separate from Goose Island. He’s participating at an event put on by the American Marketing Association-Chicago Chapter, and we shoot the organization’s event preview videos.

Anyway, Adam had a lot of great things to say about how Goose Island is using the medium to connect with customers. One of them… no surprise… is video. We’ve done more than a dozen videos for them in the past, but these days they’ve taken their video investment to a whole new level.

Goose Island is producing their social media videos in-house. They’ve bought multiple cameras, quality sound equipment, and they’re dedicated to producing video content for their social followers.

A big reason for all the video is to give people a behind-the-scenes look at the stories behind their great beers. Is it any surprise why I love these guys!?

Anyway, I won’t steal his thunder. If you want all the details on Goose Island’s social strategy, I encourage you to attend the AMA-Chicago event. Both members and non-members are welcome (sign-up here).

Tomorrow I’ll offer some thoughts on Adam’s co-presenter, Nader Ali-Hassan from Razorfish. He too thinks video is a critical component to social media.

–Tony Gnau

Courtesy: Goose Island Beer Company

Goose Island Beer Company is celebrating a milestone. On 3/12, they rolled out 312 Urban Wheat Ale in cans. They look GREAT!

312 is the company’s signature beer. It’s been promoted by everyone from… well… us… to the President. Yeah… of the United States.

We’ve done a couple of videos surrounding 312, but the one that stands out is 312 Events. Company leaders had us running around (literally in some cases) all over Chicago to 312 sponsored events. They wanted a video to show wholesalers and retailers how passionate and excited they are about the brand.

You see… passion and enthusiasm are catchy. The folks at Goose Island understand this, and they also understand that video is a great way to demonstrate those emotions.

What are you passionate about at your company? Where’s that video?

–Tony Gnau

I hope your business is like ours. We have some amazing clients, and just when we feel like we know it all… we’re pretty sharp… one of them teaches us something new.

We share a lot of those stories here, but some of them we single out at our newsletter (newsletter signup). We’re starting an ambitious new project tomorrow that involves sharing some of our clients’ stories through a series of newsletter videos.

Why they use video, how they use it, target audiences… it’s all up for discussion and you’ll hear about it in their own words.

We’re constantly amazed at some of the creative ways our clients are using video, so our hope is that you pick up some good ideas along the way.

First up… Goose Island Beer Company’s Chief Operating Officer. He’s part of the talented team that has led to the craft beer company to new heights. How high? Anheuser-Busch bought them last year for nearly $40 million.

Sound like they might have something to offer?

–Tony Gnau

I was excited to see an article at chicagotribune.com yesterday about Goose Island Beer Company’s expansion. Their success appears to be sudsing over, and it’s no wonder… they have a great product and a terrific marketing team.

We’ve been privileged to work with them on several occasions (T60-Goose Island Videos), but I always go back to our first meeting when thinking about their creativity.

The majority of video work we do these days is bound for the web, so when I first met with the Goose Island team I was surprised to find out they wanted videos for nine beers and none of them were for the company website.

Those videos have since landed there… why not, right?… but their original audiences were wholesalers and retailers. Their marketing strategy was to send these people videos about their beers so they would be better educated about the products. The marketing team figured wholesalers have to sell Goose Island to retailers… retailers have to sell Goose Island to the public… so why not make sure both groups know a little something about the beers to help those sales pitches.

That was a few years ago.  Now they’re bursting at the seams and looking for more space. Sounds like there’s been barely enough time to relax and have a beer, but I guess when beer is your business that’s probably not the case.

–Tony Gnau

T60 VIDEOS: Goose Island Beer Company