Advice From The Trail: Alex Sage on Video Content Marketing

Photos of and courtesy Alex Sage

Each volume of Craft Marketing showcases a Featured RadCrafter – a craft marketing professional who is crafting content, telling stories, and curating resources about the beer industry. RadCrafters are helping to shape and share the culture that is craft beer. 

This go-around, meet Alex Sage who manages marketing and graphic design for City Star Brewing. We’re unabashed about declaring that City Star runs some of our favorite social media feeds, in particular because of their trendy and hilarious videos.

Tell us about your background before City Star, and your evolution into your current role. 

My job title at City Star is Marketing/Graphic Design. I have been in the craft beer industry for 13 years and have done everything from beer tending to brand ambassador to taproom manager. I started out at City Star beer-tending and moved into social media and marketing. 

Seems like several years back at this point y'all got into the groove of creating engaging, trending, and on-brand video content on TikTok/IG and haven't stopped since.

We started experimenting with videos in 2021. City Star owner Whitney Way and I try to stay on top of researching what is pushed out most through social media algorithms, and at that time everything was telling us videos, videos, videos. Instagram was beginning to ramp up using reels, and I had done a deep dive into TikTok watching people learn fun dances, laughing at funny skits and saw how audios would trend. I wanted to bring that same spirit to City Star so we threw our hat in the game! 

It seems like your audience loves it, and is growing!

Videos have been huge in growing our audience. With the algorithm prioritizing pushing videos, we were able to gain access and engage with new people who our pages did not previously reach. Berthoud is a small town which surprisingly some people have never even heard of and some don't know there is a brewery. Doing videos has put our brewery AND Berthoud on the map for a [destination] place to come stop in for a beer. We constantly have people coming into the taproom telling us they love our videos and asking when the next one will be. It's helped us be able to further engage with our audience both though the internet and in person. 

Do you notice any engagement trends for your audience?

Figuring out the algorithm is half the battle and the other half is knowing your audience and what your goals are for using videos. When we first started out on TikTok we were getting tons of new followers but when we looked at the data, these followers were from other states and even other countries. We had to hone in our goals for what we wanted to be using videos for. Yeah it's cool that someone in England watched our little brewery video...but did anyone in Loveland see it and come visit us? This is where our "let's just show em' a good time" spirit for videos began. Our fun, comedic, silly videos create brand awareness near and far while also encouraging our local neighbors to pop in. We try to make content that if you're a craft beer drinker you can relate and if you're close by you'll want to come see us. 

How do you choose which trends to participate in while still staying true to the City Star brand?

When it comes to videos I try to take the Red Bull marketing approach which is to show the experience rather than the product. Sell the experience not the beer. Yes, we could list what beers are on tap, we could talk about the hops and geek out over craft beer, we could feature our new beers that come out every Friday...but I want someone to watch our videos and think "They're having so much fun at City Star, let's go to THAT brewery!"

City Star strives to produce delicious craft beer that brings our community together so the goal is for people to see our videos and then call up a friend to come visit us for a beer. Our brewery's audience is aged 21-60 with the majority resting in the 25-45 age range. We want to use audios that are going to be most relatable to this age range as well as pop culture references. (It's no fun if someone misses the joke!) If it makes us laugh at ourselves, then we post it! 

Is using both TikTok and Instagram more time consuming?

Doing videos in general is a bit time consuming. We try to be mindful of which platform we use for which audience. Our TikTok audience is mostly people from out of state so we make TikTok videos about relatable craft beer things for all. For Instagram, our audience is more local and more probable to come in and visit us— so we do those videos that are more geared towards that. Unfortunately synching them up can be a pain for matching audio and platform guidelines, I have yet to find a great app for that. 

If anyone reading has a suggested app, please jump into the comments or slide into our DMs!

What video equipment and apps do you use and recommend, especially for tight budgets?

Keep it cheap and easy! I just use my iPhone to record through TikTok, Instagram or Capcut. Luckily these free apps are pretty user friendly for filming and editing your videos. We step our game up with a ring light every once in a while but mostly we just try to show off our space in its authentic state - no cinematics here! 

Any last pieces of advice on using video as a brewery marketing tactic?

It can be intimidating making videos but there are lots of ways to have fun and show off your business without using your face if you're camera shy. Don't get discouraged. We have spent an hour creating a video that got 200 views and 15 seconds on a video that got 660,000 views - you just never know! It's a great tool to bring together your staff and guests. JUST HAVE FUN!

Advice From The Trail: Cara Nosek on Packaging Design and (Re)Branding

Photo of and courtesy Cara Nosek

Each volume of Craft Marketing showcases a Featured RadCrafter – a craft marketing professional who is crafting content, telling stories, and curating resources about the beer industry. RadCrafters are helping to shape and share the culture that is craft beer. 

Ska Brewing – an iconic brand based on a comic book and inspired by all waves of Ska music – recently underwent a brand refresh. We called Cara Nosek, Queen of Graphics at Ska since 2013, to weigh in on how brands can evolve so gracefully too. 

Advice From The Trail: Ben Moore On Beer Photography

Photo of and courtesy Ben Moore

We met Ben Moore at the 2023 Craft Malt Conference in Portland, Maine, which he calls home. His energy and enthusiasm were palpable, and he was both professional and fun to collaborate with on conference storytelling.

So we asked him to be the next RadCrafter in this series. Moved by his passion for his work, we asked him about the life of a beer photographer and what advice he has for others interested in the same craft. Prompted by his social media presence as @activebeergeek, we asked him about his work-life balance. Read the interview and get inspired here.

Advice From The Trail: Trillium Brewing on Content Marketing

Phil Cassella, photo courtesy Trillium Brewing

It goes without saying that Trillium Brewing are masters of content, among so many other things, who make us salivate on the reg with their scrumptious photography and streamlined messaging. Trillium’s Content Designer Phil Cassella and Marketing Director Mike Dyer are inspired, savvy, and generous with their insight— to say the least— and they gave us the lowdown on creating and executing a successful brewery content strategy. It all comes down to hospitality and patience.