By Shared Spirits
Sampling as a Service ROI

Sampling as a Service ROI

A wine supplier recently asked us about our Sampling as a Service ROI. We thought it an odd question given the ROI of any supplier spend is largely unmeasured. Ultimately, case counts are the only measure being considered by the spirits and wine industry. However, when you're launching a new category, in our case digital activation, you have to educate people to new language. We're using this post to layout an example of sampling as a service ROI. In the graphic below, you see a table featuring hard metrics, these are measurable metrics. Soft metrics are important and in this…
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By Shared Spirits
Marketing Your Beverage Program with Sampling as a Service Software

Marketing Your Beverage Program with Sampling as a Service Software

Marketing your beverage program with Sampling as a Service Software is fun, easy, and nearly free! Nearly means, it costs you nothing but a little time. This isn't meant to be an all inclusive list of how to leverage our system. We know the best ideas and implementations are yet to come!  Here are some suggested ways to leverage the platform. 1) Knowing that many of your customers would "gift" cocktail, wine, and beer experiences with friends, colleagues, and consider a "Flight". Flights are terrific ways for customers to experience your environment in new and exciting ways.  If you're a cocktail…
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By Shared Spirits
How do I make my beverage program more viral?

How do I make my beverage program more viral?

How do I make my beverage program more viral? A VIRAL beverage program? What is this even about? Sprout Social defines viral social media as follows. It's called “going viral” when a piece of content really takes off on social media and reaches a large audience very quickly by receiving an unusual amount of shares and exposure. Whether it's a tweet or an Instagram Reel, many different types of content can go viral. So in traditional terms, a piece of content goes viral when shared in unusually high degrees. The ability to share a purchasable, shareable, and redeemable cocktail, wine, or…
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By Shared Spirits
How Jim used beverage marketing software.

How Jim used beverage marketing software.

Jim used beverage marketing software. We'll find out how but first a question. What is beverage marketing software? Shared Spirits conceived and built a mobile app and underlying software system that allows spirits, wine, and beer brands to leverage marketing spends in new ways. Software becomes exponentially more valuable when it is used by multiple parties. The more people in a supply chain use the tool, the more valuable it becomes for all users. Shared Spirits software compliantly converts marketing dollars from restaurants, bars, and brands to digital drink credits. What's a digital drink credit? A digital drink credit represented…
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By Shared Spirits
Spirits and Wine Brands Support On-Premise Accounts While Growing Depletion

Spirits and Wine Brands Support On-Premise Accounts While Growing Depletion

Spirits and wine brands support on-premise accounts while growing depletion. How so? I've been doing considerable research on the state of the industry lately. Workforce issues lead the list as the biggest issue facing operators. Margins remain razor thin and some hours have had to be modified to account for staffing issues. Here at Shared Spirits, our focus for the year is the restaurant or bar operator that's been killed via covid-19 hurdles. We have some thoughts on how the spirits, wine, and beer industries may support these key on-premise partners and still win in ways never before imagined. It…
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By Shared Spirits
Sales Feedback is so Valuable

Sales Feedback is so Valuable

Sales feedback is so valuable. It is not always fun. I recently approached a local hospitality group on Facebook that had a section for Mentors. I approached a few people feeling I could have a short conversation. I wanted to talk about what Shared Spirits had built. During this period, approached 10 mentors with a quick request. Have a conversation with me. The request included my offer to pay for their time. My goal? Share our new beverage marketing software pricing plan. As a CEO, it's my job to be able to sell our product, our company, our investment potential,…
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By Shared Spirits
We Own Alcohol Industry Digital Activation

We Own Alcohol Industry Digital Activation

We own alcohol industry digital activation. There, I said it. In Play Bigger: How Pirates, Dreamers, and Innovators Create and Dominate Markets, the breakout book on category design by Al Ramadan, Dave Peterson, Christopher Lochhead, and Kevin Maney, it's argued that companies shouldn't just want to compete if they intend to survive. They should instead seek to create an entirely new category. This category can be thoughtfully designed and intentionally dominated. Successful companies end up owning the category they created. By the time others have found out what happened, it's too late for anyone to catch up. One of the…
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By Shared Spirits
Moving the adult beverage business to digital activation.

Moving the adult beverage business to digital activation.

Utilizing the Buyer Utility Map framework from Blue Ocean Strategy, found in the breakout business text Blue Ocean Shift, I'll demonstrate why we are moving the adult beverage business to digital activation.  In this case, the buyers of sampling and tasting programs are spirits and wine brands and occasionally, the distributors that have agreed to rep their products. Be mindful that in today's spirits and wine business in the US, the distributor has literally purchased the products from distilleries and vineyards or "suppliers". There is a LOT of money at stake.  Diageo, the world's largest spirits and wine conglomerate with…
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By Shared Spirits
Collaborators Wanted

Collaborators Wanted

Shared Spirits is sharing an important message. Collaborators wanted! A couple of years ago, my company launched a technology allowing for the compliant purchase, sharing, and redemption of individual cocktails, wine, and beer drinks from participating bars and restaurants on our mobile app. We limited the exposure to Nashville, TN. There is no point in growing downloads where you don't have a merchant, bar, or venue footprint with an app like ours. The beta went fairly well. People have received the premise of the technology very well. The biggest value innovation is what we've built behind the app. The C2C…
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By Shared Spirits
Hospitality Job Loss. A Problem Worth Evangelizing.

Hospitality Job Loss. A Problem Worth Evangelizing.

Hospitality job loss. A problem worth evangelizing. "Today's jobs numbers are devastating for our operators and our employees. The industry has nearly three times more unemployed workers than the next closest industry. As we go into 2021, the availability of the vaccine provides some hope, but it will be months before we start to see recovery for restaurants." Sean Kennedy, executive vice president of public affairs at the National Restaurant Association. Sean Kennedy adds, "Owners — from small independents to franchisees — are doing everything they can to survive, but without help from all levels of government, the instability and chaos of…
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