C’mon, look how fun this looks.
As the forces of Big Beer continue their march for global tap domination, craft beverage producers need to stay as many steps ahead of the curve as they can. That means reading the sometimes insightful articles here on CBB, and it means attending conferences to network with peers and hear from experts.
One such conference is coming up this November. The Craft Beverage Expo (CBExpo) has grown every year since springing to life in 2012. Organizers bring together the entire craft beverage industry to discover and share best practices for everything post-production and address the business needs for independent producers such as marketing, business development, navigating beverage laws, finding the right distributor for their product or catching the attention of retailers.
By attending CBExpo attendees will learn how to stand out, create a compelling marketing package and get their products in front of consumers either through distribution or direct to consumer shipping. Early registration deadline has been extended to Sept. 15, 2017 — attendees registering before Sept. 15 can save $100.
And we just caught word of this year’s keynote speakers: Christian McMahan and Tom Flanagan.
Meet the speakers
Christian McMahan, president of Wachusett Brewing Co., has over 20+ years of beverage and marketing experience including his work as managing partner of Smartfish Group, chief marketing officer for Heineken USA and vice president of marketing for Diageo North America. He has been recognized as an early pioneer among marketers in social media including features on ABC News, CNBC’s “The Facebook Obsession” and the Wall Street Journal.
Speaking from his vast experience, McMahan will present Creating Brand Reappraisal, A Marketer’s Toughest Test. In this session, attendees will learn how companies have gone about trying to achieve the hardest of all marketing strategies, brand reappraisal. He will share his thoughts on how some companies have succeeded and some failed. McMahan will explore the multiple levers brand marketers have to pull from when going about this strategy and how to best identify if and when a brand is indeed in need of this approach.
As co-founder and partner of Nut+Bolt, Tom Flanagan is responsible for driving content strategies and creative services for global brands and entertainment companies. As a former EVP and managing director for Leo Burnett, Flanagan helped lead the company’s entertainment marketing and content creation efforts. As a beverage marketer, he has worked with Bacardi, Kastner & Partners (Red Bull), Gallo Wine and others and is the founder of the new Dive Bar Beverage Co.
Flanagan will present, How to Find Your New Competitive Advantage. In this keynote, Flanagan will discuss how helping to create a new market and/or growing a tiny portion of a current market into a very large one is the better strategy. He will share proven tactics to ensure that independent producers are developing the right beverage at the right time for the right audience.
