Author Archives: Duane Bombard

I want a young man with a good income

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Ok, I personally don’t.

What I mean is that many companies want to—and have always wanted to—reach relatively affluent young men. It’s the golden demographic. Guys with disposable income that they readily spend on beer, gadgets, and shower gel that they hope will have hordes of women chasing them down the street like something out of A Hard Day’s Night.

(Maybe that isn’t the best example. These young guys probably don’t understand the phenomenon of women chasing Ringo down the street…On second thought, do any of us understand women chasing Ringo down the street?)

And where do you find all of these guys? In front of their computers on that productivity-killing Thursday and Friday in March, watching basketball. Pretending to work.

It’s likely that as viewing continues to move from TV to every other conceivable mobile device, more and more advertising will follow. And perhaps the first two days of March Madness, where men everywhere watch games online, will eventually replace the Super Bowl as the ultimate advertising event.

“Marketing Madness” if you will.

If it does, with the personalization made possible for the Internet, a guy goofing off in Rochester will see ads for Genesee, while a guy wasting his boss’s money in Philadelphia will see them for Yuengling.

But some things never change. No doubt we’ll all still have to watch Bud Light commercials that aren’t really funny.

A picture is worth a thousand copywriters

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Over the last couple of days, some very nice things have been written about the copy that is part of the Dundee Ales & Lagers rebranding. It’s been very gratifying…and a little embarrassing.

But here’s some insight into what we, on the Dundee team, knew. Packaging sells beer. No one is buying beer because of a story on the back of the label. Sure, it gives them something to read while they drink…all by themselves. But the cool new look of the Dundee labels and Craft Pack is what stops people in their tracks in the beverage aisle.

And that is the genius work of Paul Hill and Tim Downs, two of the finest I will ever work with.

So I’ll never admit I said this, but save your reading for the cereal box, be shallow, and just choose a Dundee for its good looks.

Old? Or classic?

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It’s 1982 and about 15 degrees below zero.

Like we did every Saturday night, we were standing on a road that came to a dead end in the St. Lawrence River, with a raging bonfire and stacks of Genny Cream Ale we stole from our dads.

That was life growing up in Massena, New York…north of everything that mattered. My buddies and I would sit around and joke about how cool it would be to work at the Genesee Brewery. Think of all the free beer.

Our dads. We were always so much smarter than them.

It’s 2008 and about 15 minutes before our pitch to High Falls Brewing Company.

Like we did at every pitch, we were standing in a conference room with stacks of black boards, this time containing every good idea we could think of to help sell Genny Cream Ale.

It wouldn’t be easy. How do you sell a beer that’s universally thought of as an old man beer to younger guys? Guys who likely had their first taste of beer sitting in Dad’s lap, taking little sips of his Genny Cream. Guys who routinely liberated some Genny Cream from Dad’s garage without necessarily asking. Guys who realize with every passing day that Dad was right about more and more things.

Hey. Wait a minute.

Our dads. They were always so much smarter than us.

******

With the recent change in ownership at High Falls Brewing Company, it brought to mind that there are classics right in our backyard…whether it’s a classic brand from the old Genesee Brewery or a man in black socks and sandals mowing the lawn.