Is Your Beer Tent Sending the Right Message?
Follow us into the theater of the mind for a moment: It’s a Saturday, and your brewery has a booth at an outdoor music festival. You’ve got your street team out in the wild, dressed in their coolest swag and pulling people in for a sample of your star product.
Meanwhile, people wander around, seeing what’s happening. They check out the vibe; maybe they peek at the merch tent next to yours. Next, they’re staring at their phones to check the schedule. Then they lift their heads — and wham. There’s your big, beautiful logo on a beer tent.
“Oh, I’ve heard of this brewery,” they think. “I think I’ll grab a beer before the next show.”
Or maybe a version of this scene plays out at a farmer’s market, craft fair, or trade show. It doesn’t matter. The point is — successful marketing doesn’t need to be all that complicated. In a world of algorithms and influencers, sometimes the best thing you can do is display your beautiful logo in the right place and at the right time. You’ll tap new customers along with people who already know your brand.
Folks, that is what we call a “win-win.”
Here, we’ll discuss what breweries should consider when designing beer tents.
The Importance of Brewery Tent Design
A beer tent is just like any other place where you display your logo. In the most basic sense, it tells people what your brand is while helping you stand out.
A beer tent is more than a flag or sign. It’s an experience. Potential customers decide to engage with your brewery not just because they want a beer but because you are offering them fun branding or giveaways or information, or anything else meant to offer a secondary interaction. A well-designed beer tent will not only help you stand out from the crowd, but it will demonstrate your values, your business, and the types of customers you want. It’s a personality on display.
- Showcase Your Brewery’s Personality and Values
- Attract New and Existing Customers
- Provide a Fun and Welcoming Environment
3 Factors to Consider When Designing Your Beer Tent
Nailing the right brewery tent design fosters the ideal environment for your business. You attract the types of customers you want while supporting your current clientele.
Don’t just throw the tent up without thought. A bland or unprepared booth won’t draw customers in. Like anything, the details matter. A great setup can be the difference between selling out and hardly selling anything at all.
How Do You Want People to Feel?
Design matters. Think about it: An empty room with blank walls is kind of depressing, right? But then you fill that room with furniture and art, and you might never want to leave.
These are the types of things you need to be considering when you design your brewery tent. Don’t just throw something together. Remember that specific colors evoke specific feelings, and certain fonts dictate certain messages.
Do you want to encourage a fun atmosphere? Keep things light. Are you looking to attract more serious connoisseurs? Broadcast something more sophisticated. Determine the type of customer you want to attract, and build your beer tent design around attracting them.
This isn’t just your written materials, either. Notice how in the image above, Backyard Brewing decorates their booth with wood furnishings and chalkboards? It enhances the brand’s rustic feel and helps them tell their story through the atmosphere rather than more direct branding.
What is Your Brand Known For?
The best beer marketing happens when a brewery has self-awareness of what they offer and what they’re known for. In other words, don’t overthink it — success breeds more success.
If the beer your brewery is known for has something people recognize (maybe it’s a mascot or a tagline) — it’s much more likely to get a response. If you have any of those elements at your physical location or on your products, you should include those in your booth as well.
Remember, your beer tent is a pop-up physical representation of your product in the wild. It’s not a taproom or a storefront, but it’s still you. Don’t shy away from representing yourself.
What Do You Want to Promote?
Often, breweries don’t think beyond the beer tent itself. Yes, as we’ve stated, the tent's design is vital to consider. But what else is your brewery tent offering? Are you selling t-shirts? Giving out free samples? Maybe some free stickers?
If not, well, we don’t want to tell you what to do, but you should probably reconsider that…
And if you are, don’t forget to create signage highlighting everything you offer, whether a banner, chalkboard or something else. Don’t assume people know what you’re offering. Show them and engage with them.
3 Tips for Creating an Amazing Beer Tent
The most important thing to consider when designing your canopy tent is yourself. Your patrons aren’t buying your beers from a random bar or store. They’re buying directly from you. This is a huge opportunity to make a memorable imprint. Don’t waste it.
Make It Fun and Show Off Your Personality
A beer tent is an outpost for your brewery. Have some fun with it! Imagine it like when you dress up for a party or a wedding. You gotta abide by a dress code, sure. But you’re still you. That’s why you picked out those specific shoes or that funky tie.
And people love you!
Make Your Beer the Star (It’s Why People Are There!)
At the end of the day, people stop by your booth because they want a beer. Yeah, maybe they like your logo and will buy a t-shirt. Or perhaps you’ve got a really cool frisbee you’re giving away.
But, c’mon. They want that smooth new IPA or blonde you’ve cooked up. It might seem obvious, but sometimes breweries get so caught up in marketing ideas that they forget that their beer is the number one marketing tool.
Make the beer easily accessible for your bartenders. Train your team to know answers to common questions, and put the beer front and center. You should have things set up to move as much product as possible, ensuring people have a seamless experience and want to come back for more.
Give Out Freebies
This is a no-brainer, but we’ll note it anyway. Freebies are the best, and everyone loves swag. Load your beer tent up with plenty of stickers, or whatever else you want to create — and make sure your team is handing them out and encouraging folks to take swag with ‘em.
That said, make sure you cater your swag to the event. For example, people at a music festival don’t mind using branded coasters or tossing a couple of stickers in their pockets to later place on their laptops. But they’d probably get annoyed if you gave them something bulky.
In other words, know your audience.
Create the Best Beer Tent Experience and Messaging
Look, it’s not rocket science. As a brewery, you’re in the market of creating fun for your customers, and the beer tent is just another extension of that ethos. Think about the details, but don’t overthink them. Provide the best experience you possibly can, and show off why you not only make the best beer in town but you understand your customers and the type of vibe they want to experience. Get started on your next event and design your beer tent today.
- Nashira Edmiston
