Here’s the latest from one of my longest standing clients, Wold Top Brewery – we’re into our sixth year – cheers!

Three in a row as Yorkshire’s Wold Top Brewery takes top industry award

Glasses are being raised today at an East Yorkshire micro brewery, following its triumph in the Society of Independent Brewers (SIBA) Business Awards this week (14^th November).

Just weeks after its success in the Yorkshire Post Taste Awards and the SIBA Great Northern Beer Competition, Wold Newton based Wold Top Brewery has also won the Best Design Concept Award for its contemporary new look labels, pumpclips, gift packs and marketing materials.

Gill Mellor, who is responsible for marketing at the brewery, said:  “This is a great result for us. With our creative partner, Carrot Juice, we worked hard on the rebranding and on the nomination for Best Design Concept and it’s fantastic to win public recognition from our peers and industry experts. The past year has been a challenging one for everyone involved in brewing and selling beer, but our new contemporary look  has great on and off trade presence and has gone a long way to introducing new beer drinkers to the real ale category.  This is the first stage of a rebranding exercise that we plan to roll out to our core beers early next year – so keep an eye on the website for details of the exciting new designs! ”

Julian Grocock, SIBA chief executive, said: “To succeed, small brewers have to do so much more than just brew great beer: marketing, customer service, pack design and community support are all areas in which they have to become experts, and the winners and runners up today have more than risen to this challenge.”

The SIBA Brewing Business Awards, now in their sixth year, celebrate the business development skills and entrepreneurial flair of SIBA’s 500+ members.  At the Awards presentation, brewers from across the country were recognised for their achievements in number of categories including customer service, sustainability, e-business and design of bottle labels and pumpclips. For more details, visit http://siba.co.uk/businessawards/

Established in 2003, Wold Top Brewery brews traditional real ale from home and Wolds grown malting barley, the finest hops and pure, chalk-filtered Wolds water.  Its range of award winning ales is available through the website www.woldtopbrewery.co.uk, independent, family owned retailers, farm shops, delis, hotels, pubs and off licences throughout Yorkshire and Lincolnshire.

1. Appreciate the difference between pr and advertising and write your press release accordingly.  The role of PR is to educate, inform and be impartial whereas the role of advertising is to persuade, sell and be partial.
2. Find the angle to make sure that your release is newsworthy.  The Shiptonthorpe panto only made it onto prime time tv because the angle of the release was that it was 50 years since the last show, not because a group of villagers were putting on a panto, excellent though it was.
3. Study the papers that you want to submit your story to and identify the tone and style used by the editors.  Try and emulate that style as much as possible to maximise your opportunities to be published.  Always write in the third person.
4. When writing the release, start with a short, attention grabbing headline and include the story’s 5 w’s and h (what, where, when, who, why and how) in the introduction.
5.  Elaborate on your story in paras 2 & 3 with short sentences and simple language. Avoid self praise and superlatives.
6.  Include a relevant quotation and accompany with a good,  high res photo (300dpi)
7.  Use the right layout with 1.5 line spacing, headline, embargo date (if you want to withold the story until a specific date), your contact details and photo caption.  You may like to elaborate on key elements of the story in the editor’s notes.
8. Be aware of the copy deadlines of weekly papers and increase your chances of publication by sending to the correct person.  I wouldn’t send a Wold Top Brewery release to the motorsports editor and likewise wouldn’t send a Jonny Milner press release to the drinks editor.  You can often find lists of editors on papers’ websites or a call to the switchboard should help you out.
9. In addition to press releases, consider replying to letters or comment on topical issues that you see in the papers.  This will position you as an expert in your field to the editors (hopefully they will regard you as a quotable source when that subject comes up again) and raise your awareness with readers.
10. Use the power of social media like LinkedIn, Twitter and blogging to extend your marketing and pr reach. 

Hum, on the last point, I’d better close with a ‘do as I say not as I do’ caveat.

So next week I will spend 3 hours with members of meet Yorkshire Businesswomen’s networking group and my aim is that they will leave the workshop with a firm belief in the value of online and offline pr and the confidence to try their hand at their own press releases.  Pop back soon and I’ll share some of my hints and tips with you, but I’ll leave it to the delegates to tell you whether I achieve the workshop aims or not!