How Dogfish Head uses social-first marketing as craft beer tides change

Dogfish Head is celebrating the New Year the one way the Delaware-based brewery knows how: with a brand new addition to its trademark line of continually hopped beers. With 95 calories and three.6 carbs per 12-ounce serving, the hop-forward beer looks to balance consumer desires for each flavor and functionality.

To boost awareness for the brand new brew, Dogfish Head ran a campaign around Quitter’s Day, the second Friday in January and the day that marks when as many as 80% of individuals have abandoned their New Year’s resolutions. Like campaigns from Dove and RXBar that tackled toxic resolutions, Dogfish’s marketing gives permission to consumers to go easy on themselves — albeit with a dose of humor.

“Our brand has at all times taken brewing beautiful, technically perfect beers very seriously, but we do not take ourselves too seriously,” said Sam Calagione, Dogfish Head’s founder and brewer. “Let’s make [30 Minute Light IPA] the unofficial-official beer of Quitter’s Day.”

Through Jan. 16, consumers could share stories of a New Year’s resolution they failed to take care of for a probability to attain $30 in beer money and a participation medal, a nod to the symbol of fairness that, like so many innocuous parts of American society, has turn out to be politicized lately.

The Quitter’s Day effort is consistent with Dogfish’s social-first marketing approach that sets it aside from beer brands that depend on traditional TV and out-of-home promoting. Despite merging with Boston Beer Company in 2019, Dogfish has continued to market itself that way, even as it now’s backed by a national sales organization.

“Dogfish was a grassroots company that actually relied on keeping supply below demand [and] marketing on social media to create demand,” Calagione said. “We have that also, but now we’ve got a whole lot of sales people who are selling Dogfish as a part of our [Boston Beer Company] portfolio nationally.”

Beer drinkers — and market — evolve

The craft beer boom of the 2010s eventually ran headfirst into changing consumer behaviors as drinkers, especially younger ones, continued shifting away from mass-market beer to wine, liquor and low- and no-alcohol beverages. For Dogfish Head, 30 Minute Light IPA is a method to be an element of consumers’ lives as they increasingly reach for more functional beverages.

“We have a protracted history of beers which have wellness attributes but aren’t non-alcoholic,” Calagione said. “We love [session sour] SeaQuench Ale and sell the heck out of it, particularly in the hotter months… but having a year-round IPA within the core of our portfolio that also hit on a bunch of those wellness attributes was really appealing to us, and where we saw customers going.”

The release of a low-cal, low-alcohol IPA also comes amid the rise of non-alcoholic brews, from disruptors like Athletic Brewing, beer giants like AB InBev and even Dogfish Head’s sister brands. Being an element of the Boston Beer Company has given Dogfish access to insights concerning the larger beer market, including how consumers are drinking non-alcoholic beer, often alongside regular craft beer.

With Athletic and Heineken 0.0 offering their very own takes on Dry January, Dogfish Head saw a possibility to construct on a previous “JanuQuenchy” effort that saw the brewer challenge drinkers to have only one SeaQuench a day within the month. The release of the 30 Minute IPA gave the brewery a method to proceed the conversation.

“Some individuals are on a non-alcholic journey with their whole life, some individuals are [drinking] in lower ABV, more calorie-conscious beers. But whatever your journey is, be pleased with your journey and come clean with it,” the chief said.

Along with its social-first activations, Dogfish Head is the official brewery partner of Record Store Day, a celebration of independently owned record stores that offers the brand high visibility when the day is widely known on the third Saturday in April and on Black Friday. Similarly, the Quitter’s Day campaign gives the brand a method to find some white space amongst beer brands.