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BrewDog: yet another hip company using 'rebel' language to sell its stuff

Beer in bars just seems a rip-off if you’re not getting pissed. I got by for a long time on pints of orange juice and soda, which isn’t too sweet and only cost me a quid at the place I’d go to most often.
 
Fairly scathing for the FT:

Remember BrewDog, the Scottish beer-for-people-who-think-they-like-beer company that's managed to raise money from over 110,000 "equity punks" (AKA ordinary and really quite un-punky retail investors) around the world?

Well, it's raising again. Or trying to, anyway. In the company's latest "Equity for Punks" crowdfunding raise -- its sixth such round -- it's aiming to raise another £7m, with a "stretch goal" of £50m. The £7m would bring the total amount of money BrewDog has raised via crowdfunding to an impressive £74m. (Although it should be noted that it also raised £213m from a somewhat less punky US private equity fund back in 2017.)

The offer had been open between April 6th and July 5th, per its prosectus. But on July 4th, with the £7m goal not yet met, the company appears to have suddenly been overcome by an even-more-punky-than-usual urge.


Suddenly, BrewDog decided it was time to accept crypto.

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Simulaneously, BrewDog announced it was launching a new beer called Cryptonite: Intergalactic Liquid Currency" -- which anyone buying with crypto would receive six cans of -- and that it was extending the fundraising period until April 2020. The extension, of course, wasn't about not meeting the fundraising goal though. Rather, it was "to celebrate this milestone" of accepting crypto.

In a press release, the company said:

This is the natural next step for us as a business. James and Martin started BrewDog to be an alternative to the status quo; to challenge perceptions and revolutionise their industry. The developers, miners and users of cryptocurrency are exactly the same. Joining forces to link the old and new financial systems is a perfect fit.
Status-quo-challenging cryptocurrencies accepted by BrewDog include the three main versions of bitcoin (bitcoin, bitcoin cash, and bitcoin BSV), thinking-bro-coin Ethereum and XRP, the banker-coin once known as Ripple that's trying to replace SWIFT.

Other ways that BrewDog gets people to invest -- or to "join the revolution" -- include referral schemes, a ticket to the annual "#punkAGM", and membership to an "exclusive social network just for equity punks". There is also a "tiered benefits" system depending on your level of investment, and anyone who invests is entered into a draw to become a "BrewDog Millionaire".

So this all makes sense right? I mean, we would have thought the BrewDog-bro-to-crypto-bro venn diagram would show a significant overlap already, but there's surely no harm in trying to make that still more more significant. And crypto does, after all, have a remarkable capacity to get people to part with their cash, with no certainty on future returns. So go on, if you think you're punk enough. Artisanal coins for your artisanal beer.
 
The FT does not sound surprised. Now, considering they raised £100m from a US private equity firm not even 2 years ago, why aren't they raising more money from current investors?

There was a 2018 article that reckoned their costs had spiralled, so their burn rate must be high.

I wonder how much the negative publicity around the tribunal for disability discrimination has affected this equity round.

Obviously I'm very sad about their equity raise problems. Very very sad.
 
It's not like the stuff they sell is cheap and it's everywhere. Even the little one stop on my estate. I mean Punk isn't bad beer. But they have done some dam good marketing. I even saw it in France.
 
Has anyone ever been in a Brewdog bar? I mean, I've been in plenty of hipster places, but these just look so shit.

Passed plenty in various cities, but never had the urge, or even a slight pang, to wander in, even out of morbid curiosity.

I'm sure they used to sell Punk IPA in wetherspoons, so why wouldn't you go there and pay half the price, instead of paying twice the price to drink the same pint in somewhere that looks like and has all the atmosphere of a wetherspoon's kitchen?
 
The FT does not sound surprised. Now, considering they raised £100m from a US private equity firm not even 2 years ago, why aren't they raising more money from current investors?
Many possible reasons but probably because PE firms take board seats as well as equity in the investment and the owners will want to control the amount of shares and influence that individual investors accrue. The company and its capital raising strategy has been tremendously successful. In less than 10 years they've gone from one bar in Scotland to over 70 all over the world, have 5 breweries in different countries, and a hotel.
Rasemary Jest said:
Has anyone ever been in a Brewdog bar?
I've been to the one in Paddington basin. It's ok if you like that sort of thing. Beer's pretty good but expensive, food's ok but expensive, but this is London. What did annoy me was having to pay extra for chips with my 10 quid burger. Chips should always be included with burgers.

Oh, and Brewdog didn't let my dog in.
 
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Spot on. These guys know exactly what they're doing and they're doing it very well. Very few businesses have 35 page threads on U75 dedicated to them.

Hmm - maybe, but I'm not sure. They're the advertiser, not the ad host: they don't get revenue just from clicks. And if this thread really is an example of their strategy at work, I'm not convinced it's one that's effectively netting them new customers. Their appeal rests on the type of people (broadly speaking) who frequent this site having a not very well thought-through 'that looks like the kind of beer people like me would like - I'll give it a try' reaction, and this thread will surely have stopped more of those knees jerking that it's started.

(E2a: I say 'maybe' rather than 'no' though because clearly something's netting them new customers, so something's working... I'm just not sure it's working for the demographic that's slagging them off in discussions like this one.)
 
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Hmm - maybe, but I'm not sure. They're the advertiser, not the ad host: they don't get revenue just from clicks. And if this thread really is an example of their strategy at work, I'm not convinced it's one that's effectively netting them new customers. Their appeal rests the type of people (broadly speaking) who frequent this site having a not very well thought-through 'that looks like the kind of beer people like me would like - I'll give it a try' reaction, and this thread will surely have stopped more of those knees jerking that it's started.
One of their major strategies has been based on inflamatory marketing. It's free advertising and for every person who thinks "twats" there'll be one or two who'd never heard of them who look at their websites, perhaps be attracted to some other aspect of the offering, and give them a go. There are ad agencies that specialise in this type of "provocative marketing". Granted, your average Urb is probably not likely to read this thread and rush down to a Brewdog, but then this isn't their target market anyway so they settle for just being talked about. Look at what they've achieved in the last 10 years. Possibly the most successful new bar group in Europe?
 
Hmm - maybe, but I'm not sure. They're the advertiser, not the ad host: they don't get revenue just from clicks. And if this thread really is an example of their strategy at work, I'm not convinced it's one that's effectively netting them new customers. Their appeal rests the type of people (broadly speaking) who frequent this site having a not very well thought-through 'that looks like the kind of beer people like me would like - I'll give it a try' reaction, and this thread will surely have stopped more of those knees jerking that it's started.

(E2a: I say 'maybe' rather than 'no' though because clearly something's netting them new customers, so something's working... I'm just not sure it's working for the demographic that's slagging them off in discussions like this one.)

Do a google news search for brewdog hybrid burger and tell me that the above tweet doesn’t have an 1000% ROI.

People who buy beer in Tesco get brand awareness and that they are “edgey”.

believe it or not a load of middle aged cynics on a message board isn’t the target audience.

Plus tweet views, likes and forward cause twitter to promote it more.

Every time someone here posts a brewdog tweet, they are schilling for them.

Alex
 
One of their major strategies has been based on inflamatory marketing. It's free advertising and for every person who thinks "twats" there'll be one or two who'd never heard of them who look at their websites, perhaps be attracted to some other aspect of the offering, and give them a go. There are ad agencies that specialise in this type of "provocative marketing". Granted, your average Urb is probably not likely to read this thread and rush down to a Brewdog, but then this isn't their target market anyway so they settle for just being talked about. Look at what they've achieved in the last 10 years. Possibly the most successful new bar group in Europe?

TBH I think the reason that stuff like this thread is helpful to a company like Brewdog is that it treats all their marketing stuff incredibly seriously. Way more seriously than practically anyone drinking in their bars or buying a few cans of their beer from Tesco. All the rage against everything they do treats it all as something real, something that matters. That's the sort of thing that's incredibly hard for a marketing department to buy.
 
It's clearly aimed at provoking the kind of screeching outrage we've seen, but I have to say I can't actually see anything wrong with the concept.
There's nothing at all wrong with the concept if you consider it as a business designed to appeal to 20-40 somethings with decent disposable incomes, rather than a social service. Some of the beers are pretty good and they're nice comfortable big spaces with passable food in popular locations. As Alex says, the very things that us Urban farts rail against are what have made them successful and they couldn't give a toss that a handful of middle aged, middle class, ex hippies, aren't going to be queuing at the door!
 
Most of the brewdog afficionados I know are also middle aged, middle class ex hippies tbf. It's a key part of their market. Middle aged middle class ex hippies often have very decent disposable incomes, after all.
 
Most of the brewdog afficionados I know are also middle aged, middle class ex hippies tbf. It's a key part of their market. Middle aged middle class ex hippies often have very decent disposable incomes, after all.
Fair play but we're far from their target market. I always seem to be the oldest bloke in the Paddington Brewdog but I suppose that might have something to do with me being one of the oldest blokes in Paddington.
 
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TBH I think the reason that stuff like this thread is helpful to a company like Brewdog is that it treats all their marketing stuff incredibly seriously. Way more seriously than practically anyone drinking in their bars or buying a few cans of their beer from Tesco. All the rage against everything they do treats it all as something real, something that matters. That's the sort of thing that's incredibly hard for a marketing department to buy.
Sure. Another point is that even on threads like this it's not all bad. Skim through the thread and there are a fair number of actually quite complimentary posts. All in all, Urban75 is doing a grand job for them.
 
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