We worked with Rocket Comms for a number of years across our GABS craft beer festival and also our Stomping Ground Brewing Co. RC supported us with the launch of Stomping Ground and the opening of our first brewpub in Collingwood, and then have helped promote a variety of projects and new beer launches including the opening of our Melbourne Airport brewpub, the launch and support of our PRIDElweiss campaign with Midsumma, our Movember partnership and the launch of the Collingwood Beer Trail.
They are great creative and strategic thinkers and always great to bounce ideas off, as well as having a dogged approach to driving fantastic media relations results. They are passionate about what they do and have great knowledge and relationships in the food, bev, lifestyle and news sectors.
STEVE JEFFARES, STOMPING GROUND & GABS FESTIVAL
Imagine convincing the most exciting craft breweries in Australia and New Zealand to all brew and release a brand new beer on the same day at the one event… Rocket Comms worked with the GABS Festival from 2016-2021 promoting the GABS Top 100 chart and the incredible GABS events.
GABS is unlike any other beer festival in the world, being the largest craft beer festival in Australasia it has always been imperative that we position GABS as the top of its class.
Each year the breweries taking part and the beers produced change drastically, meaning we adjust our approach to suit consistent themes within the new selection of beers annually. With a unique variety of beers & ciders presented at GABS, it is essential to showcase the craziest, most delicious sounding and weirdest beers that will be available. This strategic approach gives us the opportunity to not only engage the loyal festival goer but a wider audience who can become intrigued by such wild and never before seen beers.
Being such an interesting festival concept GABS provides a platform for brands who share a similar ethos to target their audience directly. Our conscious approach has been to align GABS with brands that could contribute to its exciting and unique nature while adding defining elements to the consumer experience at the event.
The event would be impossible without the diverse range of craft breweries taking part every year. It is an imperative part of our strategy to highlight each brewery taking place and how they are impacting the industry. This approach engages the local communities who support independent craft breweries, this in turn allows GABS to be introduced to new audiences nationally.
GABS is recognised as a leading beer & cider event within the industry. The event is in a class of its own but helps promote individual breweries (small and large) rapidly evolving as the industry continues to develop at a cracking pace. In saying this it is how we deliver our PR strategy that keeps GABS relevant year after year. To keep media engaged and excited around the topic of GABS each year we consciously hold off releasing the full list of the breweries and the beers they are presenting. Instead we produce the ‘Top 10 beers to try at GABS’ media release. This outlines the weirdest, wackiest and most wonderful beers that will be available at the event. This approach allows excitement and hype not only around the top 10 selection but about what else will be in store.
Focusing heavily on the weirdness and uniqueness of each beer is how we structure our local pitches. We group all breweries that are taking place under the local paper they belong to. We then approach local papers across all relevant states with a story that is special to the area and not just a state based pitch they can’t grasp onto. By involving the communities and local journos relevant to the breweries, the respect for GABS as an inclusive event grows. The local pitch is essential to growing our audience, it introduces the GABS brand to an existing fan base that tends to be the most loyal of the bunch.
Rocket also identifies any themes that are trending amongst the breweries, e.g. Asian flavours, use of lollies etc. and groups these beers together to create highly effective media pitches.
The event has a strong festival theme, without the engaging event floor it would not be what it is. A challenge for Rocket as we have developed our relationship and role with the GABS team over the years has been to initiate introductions to potential brand partners who not only increase awareness of the event but help enhance the event experience. In 2018 we introduced the GABS team to Holey Moley, this brought an entirely new engaging element to the event that helped mould what future events will look like.
We successfully saw GABS grow from strength to strength with increased visitation numbers as well as large scale media coverage. In 2021, the media reach for the event was 51.5 million, with an advertising equivalent of $510,000.
