A great crowdfunding campaign addresses key issues that a target audience or demographic is currently facing, and looks to solve them through an innovative solution.
This campaign from The Good Beer Co. did just that. The Good Beer Co. exists to brew and sell good beer to raise funds and support for good causes — like their Great Barrier Beer for the Australian Marine Conservation Society, or the Love Beer for the Australian Marriage Equality Campaign. They have been partnering with independent Australian craft breweries to create and brew award-winning beers since 2015, taking care of the environment with several campaigns and working with people and businesses who do good in the world.
If you’ve been a part of the Pozible community and following along during lockdown, you probably would have seen some of the great content produced by this campaign and the positive message that was shared as thousands of frontline workers were thanked with their own 4-pack of delicious craft beers (or non-alcoholic beers!)
We’ve broken down this hugely successful campaign, by looking at six key aspects that they excelled in. Read on for some super useful tips for anyone looking to launch their own campaign or interested in what a compelling campaign strategy might look like.
1. Timely Launch
The launch of this campaign came right in the middle of a lockdown that affected the hospitality industry on a scale that has not been seen in recent memory. Bars and restaurants were forced to shut, and breweries were left without a key demand for their product.
Enter James from The Good Beer Co., seasoned crowdfunding veteran and spokesperson for social issues. He curated a list of independent partner breweries from each state of Australia to support the campaign and fulfil the nominations for shouting a 4-pack of their beers to essential services workers that could be nominated by any members of the public.
This idea was received with great support from supporters and essential workers alike, receiving a flood of initial interest via both social media and the campaign page itself, with initial donations and nominations pouring in within the first 48 hours thanks to careful planning.
2. Partners & Networks
The independent breweries that jumped onboard this campaign to donate their delicious craft brews to those essential workers that deserved them are some of the best brands in the Aussie independent beer industry. With them, they brought their own unique approaches to the campaign and their respective followers across multiple channels to increase campaign awareness.
The advantage of having a list of partners, each with their own followings in different states and localities, means that each brings a unique audience of followers to share the campaign message and attract as supporters. With the overall campaign strategy of highlighting the frontline workers and also supporting local businesses, the campaign could rely on each brewery partner to share the message with their supporters in their own unique way, while sticking to the overall styling of the campaign.
3. Media Coverage
Because this campaign was not only launched in a timely manner and had a number of well-known partners, they were able to make a compelling PR story for numerous media outlets to pick up and run with.
The campaign was featured in some well-known and highly credible sources, from Broadsheet and the Courier Mail, to local beer publications such as The Crafty Pint and Brews News. Receiving this initial coverage and the constant PR and outreach efforts from the campaign creator James, was invaluable for the campaign’s momentum, as not only did it provide more social proof from credible sources but it also gave the campaign a wider reach to communicate their message to the readers of each respective publication and source.
They were also able to secure a few different TV spots, including a live interview on Studio 10 and also on ABC News 24. These primetime slots helped the campaign to reach an ever wider audience, after the initial interest from their own networks.
4. Key Stretch Targets
A successful campaign strategy comes down to careful planning of content and management of timelines when it comes to reaching certain targets. By setting key milestones in the form of Stretch Targets, this campaign was able to keep the momentum up as they kept on passing these goals!
Not only is this a great way to ensure you can receive all of the funds raised—by setting an achievable initial target and then stretching it further—but it also created more new and updates to be sharing with your audience and leveraging new successes to media contacts for more coverage on the campaign. The best kind of snowball effect.
5. #UGC — User Generated Content
Once the campaign was up and running, the turning point and the real motivation for people to continue their support was to see the essential workers themselves receive the packages of beers from the brewery partners. This was collected via social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram through the use of a designated hashtag #AGoodBeerAlwasyHelps and via the campaign page itself.
The incentive here was for recipients of the 4-packs to share their gratitude via social media and by tagging the campaign in all of these images, they were then able to use these for future promotional content. It’s also a great way to engage with supporters and bring everyone into the conversations which was ultimately about saying thanks in the most Australian way possible!
6. Transparency & Regular Updates
This was the backbone of this campaign. To continue to push the message of supporting the local breweries while thanking the essential services workers that are working to keep the country running while the rest of us were in lockdown, they needed to keep a regular schedule of updates.
By planning out a content schedule and sticking to a daily regime of updates, the Good Beer campaign was able to capture new and returning supporters and make them feel part of the journey as they continued to progress through the campaign and reach their new targets.
Speaking of new targets, the way they were able to effectively raise over $50K was due to the clever and strategic Stretch Targets that allowed the campaign to succeed on each level and communicate each achievement to all their supporters. They showed this effectively through clear graphics and images that were shared via both social media and posted to the campaign page itself.
Check out the campaign page for yourself here or jump over to The Good Beer Co. website for more information on their story.
