2023 BEST PRACTICES AWARDS

Best Off-Premise Partnership

by Kyle Swartz

As a result of these achievements , the OHLQ won our Best Off-Premise Partnership Best Practices Awards for 2023 . The goal for these two new events was to “ increase customer engagement , expand brand awareness , drive foot traffic to OHLQ locations and turn bottles in to dollars ,” says Jim Canepa , OHLQ Superintendent .

“ Liquordation ” was a multi-day , multi-location series of pop-up stores that featured a wide selection of discontinued and discounted products , priced to sell . Each event included one-time buys , releases of allocated products and raffles for more than 200 empty whiskey barrels .

Altogether this created more than $ 300K in incremental sales across four days of activation .

Choosing items for this event was a matter of identifying “ slow-moving products based on sales data ,” Canepa says . In raffling off the empty whiskey barrels , “ shoppers were able to enter their name to win an empty barrel at no cost ,” Canepa explains . “ Names were drawn every hour out of a tumbler / hopper , and customers could take their barrel home immediately .”

This raffle was a timely promotion , given the immense popularity right now of the American whiskey industry . Beverage alcohol retailers across the country have had success auctioning or raffling off used whiskey barrels , which consumers can use as furniture or decorations , especially in their home bars .

“ Single Barrel Saturday ” was an initiative hosted on December 10 , 2022 . The program was announced via email on Sunday , November 27 , 2022 , followed by a “ Countdown to Single Barrel Saturday ” that included a new product “ reveal ” each day on social media . Locations of these sought-after products were hidden until 7 a . m . on the morning of the event , and revealed exclusively via email .

In total , 96 single barrels of OHLQ Exclusive single barrels released simultaneously at 9 a . m . on December 10 , 2022 , resulting in more than $ 3.4M in incremental sales ( a 62 % increase over normal Saturday sales ). Also , the event generated the highest levels of consumer engagement across all OHLQ social platforms – owned and enthusiast – ever measured .

The key to this multiplatform success ? “ Partnership , collaboration , communication , training and marketing ,” says Canepa . Picking single barrels for this event was “ based on the number of barrels we bring in a year through our OHLQ Exclusive program ,” Canepa explains . “ We ran out of weeks to release !”

“ Single Barrel Saturday ” proved a popular promotion with consumers . “ Customers were very happy with this event !” Canepa says . “ They liked the ability to have a chance to actually get a bottle due to it 1 ) being held on a Saturday and 2 ) having nearly half of the OHLQ locations ( 225 / 489 ) stores participate to allow for more bottles available across the state .” “ Keeping the locations a secret until 7 a . m . the day of was a big win in controlling the mania based on consumer sentiment across social media ,” Canepa adds . “ Other customers were happy that their stores weren ’ t participating , so the normal chasers weren ’ t in line allowing for others to have a chance at a rare bottle .” What ’ s next for both programs ? “ Planning is well underway for 2023 Single Barrel Saturday ,” Canepa says . “ While we aren ’ t planning another Liquordation event , all OHLQ locations now have a ‘ Last Call ’ section with discontinued product , and we continue to identify in-store marketing ( shelf talkers ) to move product .”

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14 StateWays | www . stateways . com | Fall 2023