With cost-of-living pressures leading consumers to cut back on food and beverage spending, many breweries and cideries are turning to technology to get new customers in the door at their venues.
One way that breweries are engaging new customers is with the Amber Hour app, which offers beer fans six monthly credits that they can redeem for a free drink at a brewery, cidery, distillery, or other craft venue. Users are only able to redeem one credit at one venue per month, encouraging them to try a range of different venues. Consumers pay a monthly subscription fee to the Amber Hour app, but it is free for producers, or Crafters, to join.
Brewery experiences
Sharynne Wilson, Managing Director at Moffat Beach Brewing Co., has been trialling Amber Hour at the brewery’s beachside brewpub, as well as its tasting room at the production brewery.
“Amber Hour came to us a while ago and offered us the opportunity to trial the system and see how it works. It was slow going at first, because it takes people a while to catch on with anything new, but it’s going really well now. At the moment, any little bit of help you can get is good,” she said.
While participating breweries provide Amber Hour subscribers with their first drink for free, most producers find that consumers purchase more than one drink during their visit. In fact, a survey of 300 Amber Hour users found that 98 per cent of respondents said that they typically would have two or more drinks when socialising at a venue.
“What usually happens is that the users will come in for the deal, but then they’ll stay and have another drink. Amber Hour is about getting them through the door. Funnelling traffic that way is especially important for our production brewery, which is a bit out of the way,” Wilson said.
At Atomic Brewery, Venue Manager Adam van den Bok has found that group of Amber Hour users will visit a venue together.
“On average, we have a redemption every three days, and it’s rarely one person coming in to redeem the free drink. It’s usually a group of people who all have the app coming in to drink together. You do get return business from that free drink, and you’ll often see those same people coming back again.”
Saving time & money
The Amber Hour app provides a list of venues where users can redeem their drink credits, encouraging people to try new places. This makes it quicker and easier for consumers to find affordable options to go out.
“Everyone is a little bit more cash poor at the moment, and they have less time on their hands. Instead of paying for a cleaner, they’re cleaning their own house, which takes time. It all adds up. Now, people are finding us by using the app, and they’re saving money with the free drinks. It’s helped us bring in people who are interested in beer, but don’t have the time to drive around finding all the new breweries. They can just open the app and work out where they can go and what they can get,” Wilson said.
Jimmy Young, owner of Milton Common, said that the exposure in the Amber Hour app is particularly helpful for smaller breweries.
“A lot of smaller breweries like us don’t have the marketing budget to get our name out there, so it’s a good platform for everyone to be seen,” he said.
As well as saving time for users, Amber Hour is simple to operate from the venue side.
“Our sales rep is helping with deliveries, and our head brewer is doing inventory control. We’ve got so many people doing so many different roles because it’s tight out there and there’s not a lot of jobs going in brewing at the moment,” Wilson said.
“This app is good because I don’t have to spend much time operating it. It generates the traffic for us with the discount. There are other technologies that we could use, but I find that they take up a lot of time.”
Consumer experience
Once the app attracts people to a venue, van den Bock emphasised the importance of providing consumers with a memorable experience.
“I always try to keep a really high standard of customer engagement. Anyone can learn to pour a beer, but it’s about the conversations and recommendations you get from the staff. Our motto is good beer, good food, and good times, so we do try to make the time to engage with people, have a chat, and give them a bit of the history of the wider brand. Those people are going to remember that they went to Atomic Brewery and they had a good experience,” he said.
So far, Amber Hour has partnered with more than 170 craft venues across the country, and has plans to expand the app with new features to enhance user and operator experience. Upcoming features include tap listings, guest forums where users can share their experiences, activities and giveaways, and the ability for users to filter venues, such as seeking out dog friendly venues, ones with live entertainment, or ones with non-alcoholic options.