Advertising FCBA

Richard · January 10, 2011, 07:45:40 PM

Hi,

A thought occurs. Once this site is off the ground we could perhaps get Noble Grape/WineKitz/etc to put up a little notice or otherwise make people aware of this site. We would, in return, list their stores under Local Supplies in the Wiki...

What you guys think?

Dave Savoie · January 10, 2011, 08:29:24 PM

Good luck tried that already with Noble Grape Wine Kits and Blue Ridge no go but what I was thinking was have a few hundred business cards made up its cheap vistaprint.com and hand them out to them and maybe include one with each beer kit sold or something

Shawn · January 10, 2011, 08:40:33 PM

If they aren't willing to put up a notice, I can't see them willing to hand out business cards with every kit purchase.

Sounds like the only way they're going to help out is if it's worth their while... something along the lines of what Richard mentioned.

Dave Savoie · January 10, 2011, 08:51:27 PM

what I was thinking is if we go in most beer kits have a plastic lid ask them if we could put the cards under the lids with the yeast and such blue ridge did put up an add for us now that I think about it noble grape didnt have any place to put up a small flyer but the business cards are small can sit on the counter

Kyle · January 10, 2011, 09:04:07 PM

I asked Noble Grape about the business card thing, no-go, I wouldn't ask them again.

One of the local universities, UNB, has a periodic "beer snob" section in their student paper, maybe we could post in there. Although, one of their reviewers said "Belgian's should stick to waffles and chocolate," which is not a good sign.

In the end, we should do up a few posters, and get club members to ask people to put them up in high-traffic areas.

Maybe CBC radio would be interested in us?

Richard · January 10, 2011, 10:07:50 PM

Kyle/David: Did either of you speak to management, and did you offer anything in return? No to either of these questions and I've no doubt they didn't want to play ball.

That's not to say they'll agree anyway, but authority and enticement are required to get anything done.

We'd do well to explore other avenues in the meanwhile (like the suggested posters)

Richard · January 10, 2011, 10:58:23 PM

Quote from: "Kyle""Belgian's should stick to waffles and chocolate,"

Sounds like they could use some... educated commentators

(we should try getting in touch with them, too. I know some people on campus)

Dave Savoie · January 12, 2011, 01:04:52 PM

We need to start a craft beer revolution here in the maritimes Im sick of having to order all our supplies outrageous shipping costs less than fresh ingredients

I have no idea how to do this but I know one thing while i'm in St Andrews I will be Starting another craft brewing group I think we Should adjust the name of the group to Maritime Craft Brewing Association

Please list your thoughts on the name change !!!

Richard · January 12, 2011, 07:33:21 PM

Personally I think since we've got CraftBrewing.ca we should try and take this country-wide, as a major goal.

Mull this over before Friday; I've already given it some thought.

Kyle · January 12, 2011, 09:33:59 PM

You mean inviting other clubs to post here?

We should not try to compete with HBT.

Is there a financial cost (or benefit) to having lots of other groups be under the craftbrewing.ca umbrella?

would we lose autonomy?

Some questions to assist in mulling... see you Friday

Shawn · January 13, 2011, 01:09:42 AM

In my opinion, we should probably try to keep this more local. Other homebrew clubs have their own websites and groups; that's how they keep their autonomy and have their own meetings, competitions, etc.

I know it's not anywhere near this level here, yet, but if you made it "country-wide", it would really just be another homebrew forum.

Richard · January 13, 2011, 03:09:35 PM

Quote from: "Shawn"In my opinion, we should probably try to keep this more local.

My idea was ultimately to offer hosting to different home-brew clubs in canada; provide them with a forum and access to the other features we bring together. The benefit being that it would put all the homebrew clubs in one place, so inter-club discussion, competitions etc would be much easier to facilitate.

Quote from: "Kyle"You mean inviting other clubs to post here?

Yes absolutely, but each club being given their own top-level forum (note how Fredericton Craft Brewing Association is an enclosed set). Each club can be given autonomy over the forums it owns, and there could be a number of inter-club forums for non-local discussion.

Quote from: "Kyle"We should not try to compete with HBT.

Yes and no. Certainly we shouldn't try to fragment their user base, but I feel the quality of their offering is something to aspire to on any level -- local up to international. It would be my hope that we could be complementary to HBT, providing a service for individual clubs to communicate; both intra- and inter-club. There is no concept of clubs on HBT that I am aware of...

Quote from: "Kyle"Is there a financial cost (or benefit) to having lots of other groups be under the craftbrewing.ca umbrella

It depends on how it were managed, but not significantly. If traffic ever reached a significant level we would need to have a discussion regarding advertising versus donations for hosting costs. Right now it's negligible as it's piggy-backing on servers I already have.

There are functional benefits; such as competitions, knowing where good homebrew can be found before you get to a place, and establishing a network of clubs, rather than the scattered base of individuals that constitutes HBT.

Quote from: "Kyle"Would we lose autonomy?

Absolutely not; and that would be the main underlying concept. Each club would have its own autonomy within the site, having the power to moderate its forums + users as they see fit.

Your concerns regarding autonomy are I suspect the biggest ones to overcome if we would be to host further clubs on this site.

I'm not looking to force anything here, so this discussion needs to continue until we reach some kind of democratic conclusion.

Dave Savoie · January 13, 2011, 04:38:34 PM

I think what Richard is getting at is a great way to help fund the FCBA and being able to converse with other home brew groups would be great this Richard guy is a shaker and a mover cheers to you mate locking in www.craftbrewing.ca I believe will open up a lot of possibilities not only for FCBA but home brewers across the country.

Richard · January 14, 2011, 08:00:03 PM

Well I certainly can't do this alone, but I'll drink to that

Sláinte!

Richard · January 14, 2011, 08:16:44 PM

Dave: Is it your birthday today? This site is telling me it is O_o