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The Beam Global Cultural Switch Interviews: Meet Rory Finlay

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A SERIES in the quest to know more about the offline world

An Interview with Beam Global’s Rory Finlay

After SOBCon08, I asked Jason Falls, Social Media Explorer, to check in with with Beam Global. The question was whether we might share their social media relationship with their customers. Could we show how it started and tell the story as it grows? I’m delighted to say that the idea got an immediate approval — this is one of those interviews.

Meet Rory Finlay. He is the senior vice president and global chief marketing officer of Beam Global Wine & Sprits, Inc. Rory is leading the charge in this cultural shift.

Hi Rory! The first question probably won’t surprise you. Corporations turn as slowly as aircraft carriers. Why did Beam Global invest in a Social Media Initiative?

Beam Global is committed to its Vision of “Building brands people want to talk about.” We pride ourselves in developing bold, innovative, creative and unique campaigns that engage our consumers in meaningful ways. With the evolution of social media, we’re finding that people are talking less around the water coolers at work and more through blogs and social media outlets such as Facebook.

As our consumers engage in conversations in the social media world, it seemed only natural that we should as well. Through social media tools, we are able to move beyond merely talking about our brands, but actually showing consumers what our brands stand for and how our consumers connect with those brands.

What worries, concerns, and hurdles did you have? How did you make them dissolve?

One issue we focused on solving was how to accurately measure “talkablity” and the tone of the conversations generated in the social media world. We worked with Jason Falls, social media explorer, who helped us implement metrics and tools to do just that. We are able to capture our consumers’ comments (good and bad) and use the feedback to improve our work in the social media arena and our brands’ place within those conversations.

We have also tasked our marketers with the goal of creating new and innovative ways to utilize social media. For example, Jim Beam® has turned conventional marketing on its head by linking the quality of what’s inside the bottle to the positive qualities and attributes of selected individuals and organizations that personify “The Stuff Inside.” As Jason mentioned to you earlier this month, Jim Beam is using 100% of its advertising budget to support individuals and organizations with “The Stuff Inside,” and help them reach the next level of success by amplifying the story of their true character to a broader audience. We have issued a social media release on this movement and developed a micro site (www.thestuffinside.com) that invites consumers to talk with each other about what “The Stuff Inside” means to them and provide real-life examples. The implementation of ideas and commitment to concepts like this is will continue to set Beam Global and its brands apart.

Rory, what did it take for your team to see what Jason meant when he says you have to “live social media”?

In order to understand social media, we truly had to engage in it. Merely talking about things like webcasts, Twittering and blogging really do not mean much until you actually connect with the medium. Marketing to consumers through social media allows us to experiment and test different ideas and concepts, which eventually helps us to evolve and adapt the presence of our brands in this arena. “Living” social media ultimately helps us “live” our Vision; getting people talking about our brands in social media is one of the key ways we strive to achieve “Building brands people want to talk about.”

What surprises did you hear of from JJ Betts (Jim Beam brand manager) and Scott Kolbe (relationship marketing manager) when they immersed themselves with social media bloggers at SOBcon?

JJ and Scott were able to speak with veteran bloggers about “The Stuff Inside” and showcase the movement for critique and feedback. My main takeaway from SOBcon was that the “The Stuff Inside” effort is among the first major social media efforts for the spirits industry. It validates Beam Global’s goal of executing bold ideas and actions that inspire conversations about our brands.

What are your hopes for “The Stuff Inside” (http:/www.thestuffinside.com/) and how can the bloggers who love you help?

Through “The Stuff Inside” we want to celebrate and support integrity and character. Superficial images inundate us all the time and when we came across individuals and organizations that personified quality and integrity, we want to do whatever we can to champion these anchors of genuineness. By supporting real-life subjects in non-traditional ways, Jim Beam is putting the brand’s timeless values into a context that makes them contemporary and relevant to today’s consumer. We ask not only bloggers, but all legal drinking age consumers to join in the conversation with us.

Thanks, Rory, and thanks, Beam!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!
Get your best voice in the conversation!

You can read the other Beam Global Cultural Shift Interviews here:
The Beam Global Cultural Switch to Social Media: How It Began
The Beam Global Interview with Jason Falls Continues

The Beam Global Interview with Jason Falls Continues

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A SERIES in the quest to know more about the offline world

Part 2 in A 2-Part Interview with Jason Falls

Recently, I asked Jason Falls, Social Media Explorer. if he’d check in with with Beam Global. to see whether we might share the story of their cultural switch to a social media relationship with their customers — as it started and as it goes through it’s life cycle. I’m delighted to say that everyone thought the idea was great way to let folks see how things are working — this is part two of the first of those interviews.

Hi Jason! Can you share some of the growth of the social media ideas from conception to final version, you’re calling “The Stuff Inside”?

The great thing about “The Stuff Inside” is that the concept about who we are and what we stand for was already in place before we fully developed the social media strategy. And, as you can tell, the concept is tailor made for the social media audience. Our research told us that the adult, male consumer of legal drinking age is tired of a fake world – he is looking for something genuine and authentic to hold on to. This parallels the same quest many social media users are on and why they’ve flocked to the web to get away from the mainstream media experience. So drafting some tactical compliments to “The Stuff Inside,” which allows people to be authentic, genuine and engage with one another and the brand, was almost easy.

I can’t say how impressed I am that you offered to have your work critiqued in an focus group of social media pros at SOBCon. Were you anxious to hear what they had to say? Did they say what you thought they would?

I was not only anxious, but nervous. The folks in that focus group are my peers. They do many of the same things I do and even one in particular (Chris Brogan) is a friend and professional hero of mine. To have them look at the campaign with constructive criticism was nerve racking. To make it worse, I couldn’t be there to hear the feedback first hand since my daughter was born the week before. Needless to say, I was a wreck that weekend down in Kentucky wondering what they had to say.

The good thing is that they said what I thought they would. They had positive feedback, a few minor criticisms here and there, but generally embraced it as well thought out. Perhaps an even better result of the weekend was that, by not being able to attend, J.J. Betts and Scott Kolbe from the Beam Team went in my stead and got to hear that feedback about our social media efforts from third party folks and not just me. It allowed them to verify that my ideas weren’t crazy and know that we were on the right track from a strategic standpoint. Shashi Bellamkonda’s video with J.J. bounced around the web a few days later and literally helped the Beam Team see that just participating in the conversation is a powerful act.

Is there more that you think we should know about the story of this social media endeavor and the Beam Global sponsorship at SOBCon?

We don’t think of “The Stuff Inside” as a campaign. This really is a change in how we behave as a brand and how we market our product. Instead of pushing bourbon, we’re helping people identify the qualities of our brand in themselves and others. Instigating and facilitating a greater conversation about character, integrity is our ultimate goal. This is a journey, not so much a destination. The community that participates at www.theTheStuffInside.com will have a lot of say in where we go next.

That, and we think Liz is fabulous. Thanks for welcoming us both at SOBCon and here.

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More to come as we report what happened when we shared the Beam Global social media plans with a few select folks at SOBCon08.

Thanks, Jason and Thanks, Beam!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!
Get your voice into the conversation!

You can read the first Beam Global Cultural Shift Interview here:
The Beam Global Cultural Switch to Social Media: How It Began

The Beam Global Cultural Switch to Social Media: How It Began

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A SERIES in the quest to know more about the offline world

A 2-Part Interview with Jason Falls

It was at SxSW that I finally metJason Falls, Social Media Explorer. It wasn’t hard to see that our ideas about business and relationships were of the same vintage. Not a surprise, I suppose that a saloonkeeper’s daughter would get along well with the guy who manages social media for the most prestigious international spirits distiller — Beam Global.

Beam Global Logo

Conversation turned to video — a video about SOBCon08, Biz School for Bloggers. Soon enough we were talking the places that SOBCon and Beam Global had mutual interests and goals — our conference on social media and business; their business and their new social media campaign. Jason proposed the idea to his clients, JJ Betts and Scott Kolbe. Beam Global became a SOBCon a fully participating sponsor/partner, just weeks before the soft launch of their first social media campaign.

I asked Jason Falls to check in with Beam last week to see whether we might tell the story of the campaign, both as it started and as it goes through it’s launch and life cycle. I’m delighted to say that Jason and JJ Betts both thought the idea was great way to open the curtain a bit and let folks see how things are working — with that I begin this series of interviews.

Hi Jason! How did your relationship with Beam Global begin? What sort of advertising and promotion were they doing? Why did they come to you and Doe Anderson?

I was a public relations account manager at Doe-Anderson for a while, but one who was constantly jumping up and down, yelling that more needed to be done in terms of social media strategy for our clients – blogging included. We offered social media programming from a PR perspective, but like a lot of agencies at the time, we didn’t have a great deal of takers.

Beam Global, which is the parent company for two of Doe’s signature clients — Maker’s Mark and Knob Creek (& Small Batch) bourbons — came to Todd Spencer, our CEO, and asked him to help them find what they were calling at the time an, “Internet Trends Analyst.” After a couple months of not really knowing who they were looking for, Todd finally put two and two together and realized that what I was yelling about was what Beam Global was asking for. After a quick meeting with Sam Seiller, the director of whiskeys for Beam, I had a new role.

Prior to my counsel on a number of the brands in the Beam Global portfolio, there were some small steps Beam needed to take in order to dive into the social media space. The brands were all playing in traditional advertising, both above and below the line, fostering a sense of community around their customer relationship management programs. My job was, and still is, to see to it that each brand gathers a group of brand enthusiasts through their social media efforts as well as open the lines of communications between the brands and their consumers.

I’ve always said that spirits companies are the most social, which would make the move into the social media space seem relatively easy. However, there are the always important legal restrictions for alcohol, wine and spirits advertising that make social media more of a challenge than one would expect. The good news is that the company is completely committed to new ways of thinking, particularly with this new Jim Beam effort.

How long had you worked together before you started to talk about the opportunities of social media? What was Beam Global’s initial reaction?

Since they came looking for them, right away. The folks at Beam knew they needed to play in the social media space in order to continue their 200-plus year heritage of being leaders in the spirits industry. “The Stuff Inside” effort is one of the first major social media efforts for the spirits industry

Were there long lists of ROI questions? What was the tipping point that made social media a positive direction?

ROI was, is and will forever be a huge question for brands in everything they do. However, Tom Flocco (Beam Global’s CEO) and Rory Finlay (Beam Global’s CMO) changed the way of thinking within Beam Global a little over a year ago when they launched the Beam Global Vision – To build brands people want to talk about. That opened the door for what we’re doing now with social media. While Beam Global is a big company and is used to many of the traditional measures and reporting that determine success, this new way of acting is from the top down. We want people talking about our brands, we want to listen to what they’re saying and respond and we want that activity to positively effect sales.

Jason, can you share some of the growth of the social media campaign from conception to final version?

The great thing about “The Stuff Inside” is that the concept about who we are and what we stand for was already in place before we fully developed the social media strategy. And, as you can tell, the concept is tailor made for the social media audience. Our research told us that the adult, male consumer of legal drinking age is tired of a fake world – he is looking for something genuine and authentic to hold on to. This parallels the same quest many social media users are on and why they’ve flocked to the web to get away from the mainstream media experience. So drafting some tactical compliments to “The Stuff Inside,” which allows people to be authentic, genuine and engage with one another and the brand, was almost easy.

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More from Jason on Wednesday, as we report what happened when we shared the Beam Global social media plans with a few select folks at SOBCon08.

Thanks, Jason and Thanks, Beam!

–ME “Liz”Strauss