More and more we hear & read about the sharing economy, where people and organizations that work collaboratively, can spread the burden of acquiring capital, sweat equity or the right skill sets. Many brands have succeeded and even profited from this new approach.
We would like to “share” (pun intended) how this approach built a highly successful brand in 2 short years.
In 2014, Yield was approached by 4 charitable service clubs in the Georgetown area looking to solve a big problem – donation revenues were declining and it was becoming harder and harder to raise desperately needed funds to support each club’s charitable activities. So they embraced the sharing economy to create a new property that would sustain fundraising activities over the long term – and so, the Georgetown Craft Beer Festival was born.
Yield harnessed this idea further to build the brand by collaborating with local talent, businesses, and media to launch and grow the new festival. The principle behind the approach was simple – everyone must win!
- The event organizers wanted to stand out from craft beer festivals in the GTA while Yield wanted creative work that would stand out, deliver results, and build the firm’s profile. So the organizers gave us full creative freedom in exchange for our donated time;
- Georgetown wanted to be seen as a great place to visit and live and the Craft Beer Festival would help do that, allowing people to experience what the town has to offer, so the town generously supported the marketing efforts;
- Local businesses wanted to be seen as good corporate citizens and the Craft Beer Festival needed their financial and in-kind support, so various businesses offered up advertising space, voice & production talent for radio ads to name a few. This allowed businesses to be connected to an important event that would result in community enjoyment and pride;
- The Hamilton radio station is HTZ-FM wanted to dial up a promotion they were running about a beer drinking experience. We needed air-time to get our message out to neighboring communities, so they got free access to our event and we got free media plus on-air mentions as part of their promotion, working as an endorser of the event.
After a very successful 1st year, the event grew by 66% in year two doubling the amount of money given to charities. This included Rotary, Lions, Kiwanis & Kinsmen as well as Food4Kids which provides healthy food to at-risk kids between the ages of 5 and 14.
Eva Podoski from Food4Kids illustrates the value of the Festival for her organization:
So together is better, when everyone wins the results can be amazing.
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