Well, not really — I’m too much of a curmudgeonly contrarian to ever hew to a corporate line for very long — but if you somehow missed the big announcement over at Jeffrey Morgenthaler today, there’s a new Spirits and Cocktails Advertising Co-op out there, and The Cocktail Chronicles is proud to be onboard.
Why? Well, while booze blogging starts as a labor of love, the costs start to add up, and every dollar I spend on server fees and other expenses is a dollar I’m taking out of Murray and Jamie‘s pockets. So, in the interest of supporting my local bartenders even more, I’m taking the burden off of myself and putting it onto you.
Not you, the average reader, but you, the reps from liquor companies, distributors, PR firms and related industries. Together, the sites that make up the the co-op attract thousands of sets of eyes each day, all perusing our coverage of some of the newest (or, in my case, oldest) and most interesting things to do with a range of different spirits and mixers. And in case you haven’t noticed, we’re also all pretty sociable with one another — having an interest in good drinks has a tendency to do that — so when there’s an event like a Repeal Day or a Mixology Monday, these cool surges of viewers wend their way through our sites, everybody looking to see what kinds of drinks they should check out.
So why wouldn’t you want to advertise? Head on over to the BlogAds site, and see what we have to offer.
(And mondo thanks to Darcy for putting this whole thing together)
—- Press Release —-
Industry: Food & Beverage
Release Date: June 27, 2007
Bloggers Launch Spirit and Cocktail Advertising Co-op
In the past few years the revival of the cocktail has resonated around the world. This new popularity has been helped along by shows like Sex and the City, and by events like the annual Tales of the Cocktail conference in New Orleans. This growth has coincided with the development of a great number of websites that celebrate great cocktails and use a chef-like approach to their drink creations. A significant part of today’s cocktail renaissance is being driven by a group of dedicated cocktail and spirits bloggers who have made intelligent cocktail discussions a reality, and have created a community of like-minded individuals wanting to learn more about this intriguing culinary art form.
Because of the rapid growth and increased competition in the beverage industry, many companies are looking for better ways to connect with customers. Participation in Internet communities has been demonstrated to be a great way of staying connected to customers.
To facilitate the inclusion of food and beverage companies into this growing online community, a group of bloggers has created the Spirits and Cocktail advertising “Hiveâ€, through BlogAds, that allows companies to purchase premium ad space on the participating sites. The initial group of sites includes The Art of Drink, Jeffrey Morgenthaler, The Liquid Muse, The Cocktail Chronicles, A Dash of Bitters, Cocktailnerd and Kaiser Penguin. These blogs are written by bartenders, cocktail enthusiasts, restaurant / bar owners and industry experts, and together they represent the best the web has to offer in modern cocktail creation and spirits reviews. Additional sites will be added in coming months.
This advertising co-op offers participating companies approximately 50,000 highly target ad impressions per week, from people who are keenly interested in their products. The readers of these blogs are people who are looking for quality products for use in cocktail creation. They have an interest in learning about new liquors, bar tools, techniques, books and related beverages.
Industry participation helps to support the bloggers who provide a valuable service to the industry. Not only do these websites provide opinion and discussion for a wide variety of products, they also promote responsible consumption of alcoholic drinks by focusing on quality instead of quantity, these bloggers believe and promote the idea of “Drink Better, Not More.â€
For more information please visit the Spirits and Cocktails Hive on the BlogAds site.
