Long Live the 2015 Festival

[whitedj]

Another successful festival in the books. I think all the 'nuts showed up with beer, and everyone helped to make this a success! I'm guessing the actual ticket sales were somewhere around 300-325 range this year (we'll see what we come up with with Benz ticket sales, and we didn't do a great job keeping track of people entering into the festival)

I wanted to use this as a post-mortem on the festival. What worked well, what can be improved upon, comments, etc. This will also be the starting place for the next festival.

[Matt F]

I should probably brew more FYF 3IPA next time.

[whitedj]

Setting the date: I think we need to have the date set in stone by the club meeting in February so that we have time to get to other club meetings as well as making direct contact with members of other clubs across Iowa. We tried to send E-mails to contacts listed in the AHA's website, but most clubs either have this data out of date or they don't check it [I actually updated our information because it was out of date, too!].

Poster design also needs to be started early. Include that this is to support PFP. I feel like the idea that a portion of sales will be donated to charity wasn't mentioned as much as it should have been.

Jobs- The first people at the front gate were there for too long. Next year we should nag more people to rotate jobs.
Speaking of jobs. I think we need a tap master for each bar just to organize changeovers and help grab others to move kegs.

Kegs - maybe another Jockey box? some of the kegs were rotated out every hour. Should the club get a smaller jockey box 4 taps? or pile together cobra taps at a 4th location [MUGZ did this and it seemed to work well]? or a couple more borrowed jockey boxes from members?

[Matt F]

If we can get folks to commit beers sooner we could get a tap list together sooner. Then we could make some tags with a prominent display of tap location and time.

[DrPaulsen]

I second the comment about getting the date settled earlier. Looking at the financials, we basically broke even based on gate sales, which I interpret as meaning we should put more focus on early ticket sales. Maybe have a placard ready by Benz Fest?

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[DrPaulsen]

I think we should consider building a Fest Planning document.

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[DrPaulsen]

Another idea would be to ask folks to brew NHC Gold Medal winning recipes. We could put something like "Award Winning Brews" on the poster with this.

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[DrPaulsen]

The guys from MUGZ were using these to pour really nice pints directly from a keg sitting on ice. Maybe do something like this at a "Special Tappings" booth?

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[DrPaulsen]

It would be good if someone reached out to the other clubs and asked for feedback.

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[daryl]

For the first hour or two of the festival:

We should have at least 4 people manning the front table; 2 to do ID checks/wristbands and 2 others to take money/tickets/check digital receipts, etc.

I was a floater and stopped by to help; and we had about 4 guys; the wait time under those conditions was pretty good once we hit our stride. If it were only two...the line would have really backed up.

Also, once wristbanded, we could have two lines for our patrons....one for prepaid (those who have tickets, receipts or digital confirmation) and the other line for buying tickets.....cash purchases went fast....the cube purchases were not slow, but took a little more time.

[daryl]

During the event, one of our patrons approached me; a lady, I would say was in her 40's, with a group of 4; and she asked me how she could find out about this event for next year. They just stumbled into it this year.

I am not sure how applicable this is, but a rule of thumb that I saw used for another (larger) non-profit, with regard to the marketing budget; expect to spend in the 10-20% or your gross, on marketing.

If our gross is smaller, and we want to grow, that percentage could be larger at first.

Radio is a good option....that last week...maybe twice in the AM and twice in the late afternoon drive home (WMT?...or appropriate to the demographics we are after).

Penny Saver...maybe we could volunteer to write an article on our selves and the event.

We have a great product and a good venue; if we get the word out, and the weather cooperates, they will come.

Having said all that, I thought we had a great event this year and I am looking forward to this again next year.

[Matt F]

Very good points. Felt like we got going late this year. Need to spend that marketing money wisely. Radio is good, but pricey. My question, and I may be in the minority here which is why I ask, how many people listen to the radio? I am almost 40 and the radio has not been on in my car or home in years. Listen to music from MP3, Pandora, etc...

Getting free press from local news and paper are fantastic and priced right. We should know someone with an in. I recall one club member even lives right next to Bruce Aune.

I have an MBA and do know marketing money must be spent. The key to good marketing is to make sure you use a medium applicable to our target audience. My wife still listens to the radio so it may still be money well spent. I can't take that top 40 crap myself. Long ago I listened to 100.7 until classic began to apply to crappy music too. Outside of Hank, Willie and Johnny Cash, I do not do much country.

Club members, let us know what you listen too. May help us direct our radio spots.

Definately would be huge to be able to adverstise during Benz Beerfest. Many people do not know they are two different events from folks I talked to Saturday. Cheap too.

Do any of the major employers allow adverstising for this? My HR shut me down so I was stuck with an email to co-workers I know and a poster on the door of my office. Does Rockwell have some boards somewhere? Mercy, St. Lukes, etc... Flyers at local colleges (Kirkwood, Mt. Mercy, Coe, Cornell) may also be a good target.

[fargo41]

Rockwell does have boards that we can post stuff up on and Dan and I did, but I noticed one disappeared before the last week before the fest. I want to find out about putting more up in more visible locations. I did see some people from my Rockwell building, that I didn't know, so maybe they saw the poster.

As far as music I radio hop around, I heard our ad on 94.1 a couple times. I only listen to radio because it easier than getting my phone out and plugging in the headphone jack every time.

I think we need to do something about foam control and maybe those flow control faucets are the way to go, and maybe we need to get some kind of bin or a feed trough to keep the kegs on ice. I'm curious if that will fix the issues, if someone carbs there beer for 2 or 3 times the line length of the jockey boxes? I'm honestly curious, I know line length has an impact on how many lbs of CO2 you set for serving, if keeping the kegs colder works then I'm all for that.

[daryl]

...
Do any of the major employers allow adverstising for this? My HR shut me down so I was stuck with an email to co-workers I know and a poster on the door of my office. Does Rockwell have some boards somewhere? Mercy, St. Lukes, etc... Flyers at local colleges (Kirkwood, Mt. Mercy, Coe, Cornell) may also be a good target.

Getting the word out to the local colleges and U of I is a really good idea (there are commuter students and alot of students on campus whose parents live in our area).

Unitypoint (St. Lukes, Jones Regional Medical Center (Anamosa)) screens their postings with regard to healthy lifestyle - we've struck out with them because of the event being related to alcohol consumption.

I wonder what a spot on the NESPER (sp?) sign on 380 would cost us. Or, if the electronic billboards would cost.

Could we post an advertisement on the scoreboard at the Kernels...they might do that for a non-profit.

And I concur with completely with Matt on marketing expense; you can spend a lot of money on marketing and not gain much traction...it is something that has to be thought through and tracked over time (festival to festival).

Just thinking out-loud for next year's notes/planning....

[Matt F]

I like that we have some good discussion going on here.

For foam, my experience has been as long as a keg is properly carbed and kept COLD, it will pour fine. May want to throw kegs in buckets or tubs of ice to keep chilled even when going through a cold plate. Personally, I have always preferred kegs on ice with standard proper length beer line. That is mostly because it is simpler and something I am more familiar with. The main bar poured pretty well through the cold plate. Maybe the chilled tower system helps a bunch. I did not pour at the other stations but heard foam was an issue for some beers.