Know-How Exchange : Advertising/PR

Use the Google display network - target broadly at first. The display network is where you put ads that get shown through the Adsense network, that is to say all across the internet. You should find some interesting places to advertise, which you can then scale up to printed magazines or other media when you know it'll be cost-effective.

You could also use Facebook for it's sheer flexibility - and they come back with results from their "likes" algorithm that you can then reverse-feed into the display network (and vice versa). Putting both together and you have a very broad and extremely responsive platform from which you can base all the rest of your advertising on. If you even need it ...

My usual disclaimer applies: limit your campaigns to $5 a day until you know what's going on. Only spend as much as you can afford to gamble with, because at this stage that's all it'll be. You're after data at this stage, once you know what's working is the time to ratchet it all up - turbocharge the systems. OK?

You might want to target larger, bulk orders through direct mail pieces sent to companies wishing to offer their clients seasonal "thank you" gift boxes. This way, you could increase your volume per transaction.

As for people looking to celebrate ... how about gifts for new Dads, gifts for new graduates, gifts for sports teams, gifts for college or business parties.

You could also advertise through handbills in bars, or via beermats and drinks coasters in bars, restaurants, pubs, and clubs that stock your products.

Using a QR code on these pieces you could send potential buyers directly to your "I confirm i am over the age of 18" landing page, and thence to your online sales process.

The beer mats presell the idea, the QR code tracks the source (if you integrate it with FourSquare (or some other geo-targeting app), and the sales page could connect with the shopper through video (which demonstrates the product), before leading the prospect to a sales page link.

On that page you offer set packages in set quantities at varying price points (6 pack, 12 pack, 24 pack0, and then you ask people which one they want. Radio buttons take care of selection, your prospect then proceeds to the payment page, they enter their details and they press the "OK" button.
You THEN advise the buyer to wait, you redirect them them to a post transactional, one time offer where they can, if they choose SUPERSIZE their order for half the price. that is, they can order ANOTHER gift package fro themselves, or for someone else, at a discounted price (a price that's low enough to cover your margins, but that's high enough to provide you with a decent profit margin.

The prospect either goes for the offer or they don't (your YES PLEASE button needs to be larger than your "no thank you" button) to steer their thinking.

This is what's known as a post transactional upwell.

If your punter takes the offer (and you might see take up rates of between 20 and 30 percent), you automatically add to the value of each transaction, making each pound you've spent on marketing
work all the harder.

By tracking the QR code use (or the link use if you choose not to use QR codes), you can, with smart attention to detail, then highlight drinkers and buyer ins specific bars and pubs on the beermats. You tell people that 123 people at the Rose & Crown on High Street are now the proud owners of custom beer. You could even include a Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram stream on your sales page that the people who have already bought from you can connect with your brand with.

This then brings social proof into the mix. Add THIS with press releases aimed at major media outlets about you use of beer mats and you create additional buzz.

Turn this into a tour of the nation, with a truck that's all set up with your printing equipment, and you can offer custom gifts right there on the street. This creates massive visual appeal and curiosity.

I hope this helps. good luck to you and well done on keeping beer real.

Those are some amazing ideas from Gary Bloomer! I love the idea about the truck - and I've got a European "C" licence too ;-)

The display network is a very different animal from Adwords - the standard PPC campaign. It's very important to realize that you aren't using Google's algorithm to refine your sales - it's quite the opposite really. Conceptually it's difficult to grasp - the point is that you're using their algorithm to FIND you clicks. You're allowing Google free reign over your campaign, allowing them to determine what to put where according to their abilities to target your market.

And leave the rest to the Google algorithm.

There are a lot of people who want control of everything they do in marketing - starting with branding! At its crudest, branding is telling people what to think. It means that you have total control and nobody can counter you. It's also why this style of marketing's so popular ... and why it's so hard to get people to allow you to use direct marketing techniques. (Because they might just tell the big CEO that he's wrong ... that he might be wrong anyway is another matter altogether).

The point of saying all that is the keyword targeting is very different. Broader, more flexible. You're also letting Google decide where to put these things, and that can have problems given that algorithms are not perfect. They can't see a webpage, they can only surmise it from a mile-long string of zeroes and ones.

So imagine who's going to buy these beers - think about the insights Gary's offered, use your own imagination. Let's take the wife who wants a special gift for her hubbie's birthday (just one example). Where would she be looking online when in the mood to think "I can't think what to get him, which websites could I look to for gifts?" - or you could take a less obvious route and just target Cosmopolitan magazine! Or one of the supermarket online mags? Bear in mind that the capacity of their algorithm is truly vast. If Adwords is "reach a hundred million people in ten minutes" the display network is more like "reach three billion people" - it's an entirely different ballgame. Depending on your keyword you could be targeting half a billion people with one keyword.

So this is a little more than just popping in a keyword, you have to be on the ball. You could try "birthday" and "present", or "ideas" (with some serious consideration of negatives!). To be honest, it's more a case of finding what comes out in the wash rather than trying to steer it beforehand. Use the ideas that Google gives you as feedback from the marketplace rather than your own demands.