Craft distilling is more than just an artisanal pursuit. It’s a marriage of passion, skill, and the desire to share a unique drinking experience with the world. It’s interactive.
However, just like any artisanal endeavour that wants to become a business venture, you need an audience to take note and to care. No one is going to discover you just because your liquid is now in a bottle and YOU are ready. You’ve got to grab attention! You have to get the message out there. That’s not as easy as it sounds and it’s where Public Relations (PR) comes into play.
Before exploring whether to hire in house vs agency, let’s start off with some top line strategy approaches.
Let’s begin by understanding what PR is used for at a distillery level, vs at a product level.
Differentiating product and distillery focus
While the product – the spirit – might be the star of the show, the stage, its setting, and the directors – the distillery and founders – play key roles that have the potential to be under the spotlight too.
Determine upfront if the narrative is about the product or the broader brand story. Ask yourself if you want a short flurry of awareness or longer term media seeding.
This decision will not only guide the content (and the pitches being made) but also its placement.
Product vs. Distillery. Different stories, different approaches
- Product-centric features: These focus primarily on the spirit – its taste, creation process, unique selling points, and other tangible aspects. They’re generally more technical, diving into specifics like ingredients, distillation methods, how it differs from category norms, where it sits in the context of category legacy or flavour profiles.
These narratives often fit well in dedicated product reviews, industry trend pieces, or the new product launch sections of lifestyle publications.
They often sit as a bottle shot and in small news sections and can range from a quick mention to a full-blown article. The key to understand is that there are often clearly defined “drinks / news / product placement” opportunities. As a drinks product, what success looks like is quite predictable.
- Distillery or founder-centric features: These narratives dive into the heart and soul of the distillery. They might explore the founder’s journey, the history of the distillery, its ethos, or its impact on the local community.
Such stories find their home in feature sections, interviews, or profiles, offering readers a more profound, more emotional connection to the brand.
The key to understand is that founder and business profiles have the opportunity to be slotted into non-drinks sections of sites and magazines, and often completely different types of media all together. What success looks like can vary hugely.
Campaign vs. Ongoing representation. Duration and depth matter.
- Campaign representation: Typically tied to specific goals, such as a product launch, campaigns are time-bound and have a focused objective. They require intensive short-term strategies, targeting specific segments of media and audiences.
- Ongoing representation: This is the continuous narrative of the brand, ensuring it remains in the public eye and continues to build its reputation. It goes beyond sniping out opportunities to get a product listed (although that happens too). It’s about long-term strategy, focusing on building and maintaining relationships with media, influencers, and the audience.
What you are looking for defines what strategy works best.
Let’s recap. Product features and distillery stories appeal to different segments of readers. They often find themselves in distinct sections or even entirely different publications.
While a niche spirits magazine might delve deep into a product review, a broader lifestyle magazine or entrepreneur-focused publication could be more interested in the distillery’s vision or the founder’s journey.
Therefore, your timeline matters. When you expect results should account for how long it will take to seed the story and / or product.
If you are looking for the big feature about your vision – it’ll take longer to pitch and a different set of contacts that will require nurturing. Unless you are an A-list celebrity, it’s not a quick-fire process and suits looking for ongoing representation and a timeline of months, not weeks before you start seeing results.
As one PR agency once put it to us – if you want to catch big fish, you need a big boat, deep waters, the time to get out there and some patience. You also need the right bait.
If you are looking for drinks focussed media coverage about a new release, then a campaign lead by a specialist agency might be better suited. It’s reasonable to look at weeks before results and an overall timeline of 3 months from the moment the PR agency has been appointed. To use the fishing analogy, this process is more like commercial line fishing.
In-house or PR agency?
Now that you know the type of coverage you are looking for, and some reasonable assumptions for the time it takes, let’s look at who’s best placed to achieve it.
For start-up distillery founders, the decision on how to manage PR effectively is essential. Do you hire in-house? Do you engage a PR agency? Or do you find a balance between the two?
For many, a combination of both approaches proves ideal.
A PR agency without a guiding hand that understands the nuances of the drinks industry, the category context and product might not fully tap into the full potential of the brand and all the possible angles.
This is where an internal PR expert becomes a game-changer.
They provide informed timelines, the requisite knowledge and assets that ensures seamless collaboration between the agency and the brand. They can work collaboratively internally and externally to fine tune campaigns and make them more relevant for both brand USP’s and media hooks.
There’s no point in having an agency if there aren’t great image assets or pertinent story lines. Worse still if there isn’t a responsive client nor the ability to augment any positive engagement though a distillery’s own channels. Having that person internally to help ensure there is a constant stream is vital.
For larger brands, almost all will have a Comms Manager or PR Manager who performs this role. In addition to sending out releases themselves and nurturing their own contacts, they actively collaborate with the agency. When wearing that hat, they are as much there to ensure an agency is delivering on targets as they are to ensure the distillery is giving them what they need in the first place.
For those starting up, this may be too much of an expense, which is why it often starts as a combined role. Just look at Marketing Manager or Brand Manager job specs on LinkedIn for context. That said, if you look at it another way and it may actually save you budget and increase performance…
Beyond the added internal collaborator to improve results, internal headcount is often cheaper than ongoing agency retainer. This is especially true when you have to factor in the time it takes to host journalists and influencers at a distillery multiple times a month.
Moreover, consistency matters and often, coverage is generated through reliable presence and timely responsiveness. Having a clear go-to person helps with this. It’s not like the only role they play is managing an agency – they are a PR creating leads and continuing conversations in their own right.
Assuming a journalist cares to find out who your current agency is, wait for a response, make the actual request with all cc’d, and then wait again for the required answer / result etc. is naive. Thinking that the former agency who has been contacted will be so kind as to forward on a request long after their campaign is over is also optimistic…
Having someone in place that is known in the industry as the person to speak to about your brand and distillery helps build long term bridges. You can still choose to augment product launches with short term external agency help. You can still choose to work with influencer marketing agencies (often also PR agencies) for specific channel help.
It’s easy to see why combining internal and external is perceived as the best solution. But there’s also a case for why it may be the most cost effective for those looking for value.
How to hire the right PR Agency?
Choosing the right PR agency is not just about signing a contract and hoping for the best. It’s about forging a partnership grounded in shared objectives, clear communication, and mutual trust.
Here’s a few pointers for how you can get off on the right footing.
1. Determine your PR agency budget.
Before diving into the vast ocean of PR agencies and freelancers, it’s vital to have a clear understanding of your budget. Remember, the most expensive agency doesn’t always translate to the best fit.
Be realistic about what you can afford while keeping in mind what your objectives are. Ask other distillers and drinks brands – many are quite open about who they work with and if they are satisfied. Look at which agencies and freelancers turn up to shows and how they represent their clients – get an idea of what your spend will afford you. Who’s being recommended?
2. Decide on your goals.
Before anything else, crystallise your objectives. Set Clear KPIs (Key Performance Indicators).
KPIs are your compass. They provide direction and allow you to measure the effectiveness of your PR campaigns. Whether it’s media impressions, social media engagement, bottle sales or brand mentions, having set KPIs ensures both the brand and the agency are on the same page.
It’s a really useful discussion to have, as success is subjective with metrics like relevance, tone (sentiment), share of voice, AVE (advertising value equivalent) and engagement all up for debate.
Discussing them openly is the best approach and what’s expected by good agencies.
Form a few opinions ahead of time, but remember it’s a collaboration, so this is best done together, not by dictating arbitrary goalposts and assuming an agency will agree. It’s a partnership! Remember to set S.M.A.R.T. goals once you’ve reached an understanding (Specific / Measurable / Achievable / Relevant / Time-bound)
Be open to critique and feedback. It is hard to give a potential brand negative feedback or a reality check. Moreover, the agency has a vested interest to convert you into a client. Be proactive in addressing this – honesty is key to success.
The conversation is about discussing potential challenges and mitigating friction points, be it budget constraints or market dynamics, to ensure the journey is smooth sailing from there. Sometimes – the limitation is you.
3. Crafting the story (key messages) together.
Every distillery has a story. But how this story is narrated makes all the difference. Both the distillery and the PR agency should agree on the key messages. Some work better for the brand USP’s, others to get a foot in the door with an editor…
Be open to shifting your ideas to make the story something that’s of interest to publications, but do ensure it relates back to your core objective. This harmony ensures that the brand’s essence is communicated effectively and authentically.
4. Look to hire an extension of your team.
Your PR agency should feel like an extended part of your distillery family. They should understand your brand’s ethos, voice, and vision. This ensures that the stories they tell resonate with what you stand for. Invest in building that understanding.
Some freelancers even have distillery email addresses they become so closely embedded in the brand.
They should also be good at Drinks PR! The spirits world is unique. An agency might have an impressive portfolio but zero insight into the distillery or product placement realm. Ensure your chosen agency has experience in the spirits sector and understands the difference between trade and consumer PR.
Do they know the key players? Do they have any context about how spirits are made, hospitality trends, and category dynamics? What successes have they had in securing drinks coverage before?
Don’t bank on one agency to be a jack-of-all-trades.
5. Time and resources matter.
PR isn’t an instant game. It requires time, assets, perhaps samples, and a strategic approach. Discuss expectations upfront. Discuss how collaboration will work – it’s not a case of hiring someone and letting them get on with it.
Be ready to invest the time and resources to ensure your brand gets the spotlight it deserves and understand that just because you have an agency doing the outreach, it will take a significant time investment your side too in the form of support, management, being available for opportunities, hosting and more.
Hiring the right agency can be the trigger for brand acceleration and increased awareness. It can be the difference between being hot on everyone’s lips and just part of the pack. It can also be a huge waste of time and a cost drain.
Now that you are equipped to pick wisely – have a look at this article to ensure you have the type of Media Kit needed, or if that’s going to be the first task for your new appointment.
