Broken Bat Brewery Co.
Grand Re-Opening Campaign

From the unimaginable to the

Grand Re-Opening

The owners of Broken Bat Brewing Co. set out to make great beer for their friends and community – and they did! After a successful year operating their taproom in Milwaukee's Third Ward District, they had plans to further grow their distribution, partnerships, and market.

Then the unimaginable happened – steam pipe burst in the taproom. The damage was devastating to the taproom space and the thousands of gallons of beer brewed and stored in the facility. Forced to close up shop, rebuild, and re-brew, they gave themselves an aggressive timeline of three months to complete the task.

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The Solution

In the months following, while the Broken Bat team was busy rebuilding the brewery, WaterStreet Creative (WSC) got busy strategizing and implementing a Grand Re-Opening campaign – "Life's a Pitch, Drink Great Beer." As a result, Broken Bat Brewing Co. was able to not only retain but also grow engagement in social media, leading to a successful Grand Re-Opening.

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Campaign Goals

The campaign focused on three goals:

  • Ensure that the current customer base stayed engaged with the taproom and its story even though they could not hang out there or drink the beer while it was closed.

  • Promote the Grand Re-Opening event schedule just three months later.

  • Attract new customers from the local community.

Through the digital and creative support of WSC, Broken Bat Brewing Co. began with a video press release pushed out through social media. This conversational approach to the traditional press release gained the guys a ton of support from their local brewing community and core market.

 
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Increasing Digital Reach

Over the next three months, WSC used a mix of organic and paid posts on Broken Bat Brewing Co.'s social media, targeting their core market through geo-targeting and common interests. In addition to these efforts, WSC continued to update the current Broken Bat followers with photos and videos of the progress.

 
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One week before the event, WSC ramped up its efforts announcing the tap lineup for the Grand Re-Opening through a series of video countdowns, each day featuring one of the beers on tap for the grand re-opening. In addition, WSC began to announce teaser campaigns to announce new partnerships and send out email marketing updates to their lead list.

The Results

By launching the Life’s A Pitch, Drink Great Beer Grand Re Opening campaign Broken Bat Brewing Co. was able to recover lost following and re-engage its community.

  • Video Announcement Organic social media reach of 5,500 people

  • Paid and organic social advertisements resulted in an increase of 261 new followers in only 3 months

  • Daily engaged social media users increased by 3%

  • Daily social media reach increased by 45%

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