What have we done?
Effervescense Unleashed Campaign
Unveil the magic of sparkling wine, cider, and other beverages with Effervescence Unleashed, a year-long celebration of bubbly brilliance. The program launched on October 25th, 2024 with a Kickoff event featuring author Rebecca Rosenberg (Champagne Widows and Madame Pommery) and Breathless Sparkling Wine. This event was followed by a series of monthly cocktail recipes and fifty+ posts from 20 ‘bev-fluencers’ across various platforms over the next two months. The campaign focused on sparkling wine and cider from Breathless Sparkling Wines, Horton Vineyards, Valley Road Vineyards, Veritas Vineyard & Winery, and Snow Capped Cider.
The BevFluence® team is reigniting the campaign in 2025 and invites enthusiasts to explore the elegance, charm, and joy of all things sparkling. From intimate tastings and exclusive releases to grand events and holiday pairings, Effervescence Unleashed is your gateway to the art of celebration. Whether raising a toast at a wedding holiday gathering, creating sparkling cocktails, or simply enjoying a quiet evening with friends, every sip invites you to embrace life’s most sparkling moments.
Attention Sparkling Brands: Effervescence Unleashed
View coverage of Effervescence Unleashed.
Chicago Speakeasy and Bartender Lab
Overview: From February 5th-12th, 2025, the BevFluence Chicago Speakeasy took over the Windy City and particularly Eris Brewery and Cider House, bringing together an exceptional mix of sommeliers, bartenders, brand representatives, and influencers. This multi-day experience featured blind tastings, hands-on bartender labs, educational seminars, and curated dinners, highlighting tequila, gin, Norton wine, and innovative cider cocktails.
On Saturday the team toured Wolf Point Distilling and on Sunday we barricaded ourselves in the Content House sampling over 100 wines, ciders, and spirits. And on Monday and Tuesday the sessions were held at Eris Brewery and Cider House.
The individual posts of each session are available at Chicago Speakeasy.
Complete summary available at the 2025 Chicago Speakeasy & Bartender Lab Report.
Key Metrics for Speakeasy:
- Dates: 2-5-2025 to 3-13-2025
- Reach:
- Social Media: 20.7 Million
- Web Media: 305.1K
- Engagement: 708 total social interactions (likes, shares, comments).
Chicago CiderCon 2025 Cocktail Booth
BevFluence played a pivotal role at CiderCon 2025, where we activated a cider cocktail booth, hosted an educational session titled “A Chef’s Guide to Cider Cocktails,” and co-hosted the Cider Canada event at CHAOS Brew Club. These events showcased the versatility of cider in mixology and engaged industry professionals in meaningful tastings, discussions, and collaborations.
Increased Visibility: The sponsorship and participation in the cocktail booth allowed Bold Rock Cider and Virginia Distilling Company to introduce their brands to a highly targeted audience of cider producers, beverage influencers, and industry experts.
Collaborative Exposure: By working together at the booth, all brands demonstrated how cider and spirits can be successfully integrated into the cocktail space, raising awareness for both Nelson County and their partners.
Reinforced Industry Leadership: The booth helped position these brands as leaders in both the cider and spirits sectors, offering hands-on interaction with key influencers in the beverage world.
Special thanks to Nelson county Virginia Maureen killed it!
Bold cider and Virginia Distilling company and Misguided spirits for providing a last minute much needed triple sec.Cocktails created: 69
Smiling attendees: 52
Videos created: 75Number of people who did not know you can make cider cocktails… None thanks to us!
Baltimore Speakeasy and Bartender Lab
From Sunday August 25th through Wednesday August August 28th, BevFluence hosted a series of events in Baltimore designed to provide education to bartenders, sommeliers, media, craft beverage professionals, and even distillers. The sessions were a combination of seminars, forums, hands on training, and distillery tours presented by well known local and national craft beverage experts. Sunday to Tuesday the sessions were held at the Baltimore Spirits Company and Wednesday featured a tour of Sagamore Spirit.
The Speakeasy commenced with a session presented by spirits judge and personality Tracie Franklin on Spirited Whisk(e)y’s of the World and featured whiskies from Japan (Takamine Whiskey), Taiwan (Kavalan Whisky), Australia (Morris Single Malt Whisky), Denmark (Stauning Whisky), England (Cotswolds Single Malt Whisky), and France (Brenne Whisky). This was a highly educational experience introducing attendees to regions and distilleries that are not usually immediate thoughts when referring to whisky. Tracie delved into the history of each distillery, their production processes, and what make them unique in the world of whisky.
Complete summary available at Scenes from the 2024 Baltimore Speakeasy & Bartender Lab.
Pomme and Perry Showcase & Dry Cider July
“The American Cider Association is pleased to share a new partnership with the BevFluence® Team. BevFluence® is offering a unique opportunity to our members – a comprehensive cider media campaign spanning the remainder of 2024. The Pomme and Perry Showcase will operate during the summer and early fall and feature apple and pear cider for Dry Cider July, late summer ciders, and fall ciders.” American Cider Association
The BevFluence® team comprises cider enthusiasts (BevFluence® founders Justin and Todd are both Certified Cider Guides) as well as cider aficionados among the team of influencers. The Pomme and Perry Showcase operated during the summer and early fall of 2024, featuring apple and pear cider for Dry Cider July (DCJ), late summer, and fall ciders.
View coverage of the Pomme and Perry Showcase.
Campaign Goal: Increase brand awareness and drive trial and purchase of cider, perry, and brandy through engaging content, recipe inspiration, and seasonal promotions.
Target Audience: Media, bartenders, influencers, and consumers interested in exploring new and exciting beverage options beyond traditional beer and wine.
Value Proposition for Brands:
- Increased Brand Awareness: Reach a targeted audience of potential new customers interested in cider, perry, and brandy.
- Enhanced Brand Storytelling: Showcase the versatility and deliciousness of these beverages through engaging content.
- Drive Trial and Purchase: Weekly promotions and cocktail recipe inspiration encourage consumers to experiment with cider, perry, and brandy.
- Valuable Consumer Insights: Gain insights into audience preferences through social media engagement and campaign analytics.
What is included in this cost:
- Create brand evangelists (media, buyers, & bartenders) through education and creativity in consumption.
- Evergreen content for your brand to share and use for Dry Cider July & throughout the Autumn and holiday season.
- Product featured in
- Social media posts
- Podcast episodes
- Blogs and articles
- Cider-based cocktail experiences
New Perspectives on Cider, Perry, and Brandy Campaign
Rendezvous: An In-depth Look at RTD Cocktails Campaign
BevFluence partnered with multiple brands where their ready-to-drink products were presented to a combination of industry experts, mixologists, bartenders, creators, bloggers, writers, and other media. Twenty-eight BevFluence community members participated in this campaign, sharing their thoughts on 33 RTDs from eight producers. The posts were a combination of photos, videos, and interviews with the brands and highlighted the RTDs’ portability and the various recipes. These posts were amplified across multiple platforms through BevFluence’s proprietary methodology. The participants utilized this methodology throughout the campaign which included two Zoom sessions, sharing agreements, and overlapping comments.
Within four months between May and August 2022, the campaign’s hashtags (#rtdbevfluence, #underthebevfluence, #bevfluence) reached over 4.6 million impressions from just under 100 influencer posts. There were 1.1 thousand mentions within this period in addition to 9.4 thousand interactions.
“It was great working with the Bevfluence team and group of influencers. As a small company, we didn’t have the time or resources to search for the right influencers who are passionate about food & bev and have an engaged following. Bevfluence made this very easy, and the group of influencers we worked with were engaged and responsive. Would definitely consider doing another campaign with the Bevfluence team in the future!” — CC DesRosiers, Proprietor Troop Beverage Company
Livermore BevFluence Experience
In May 2022, the BevFluence team travelled to the Livermore area for another BevFluence Experience, a regional event which enriched the local community by networking and collaboration with local influencers and wineries. Specifically, we visited with Dane Stark, founder of Page Mill Winery and Mark Clarin, winemaker at McGrail Vineyards and Winery. During these visits the influencers recorded multiple podcasts and blog posts while sampling through each winery’s portfolio. During the other days, the team and visiting content creators tasted through nearly 100 bottles of wine, the same amount of spirits, and approximately 40 Ready to Drink Cocktails. Each content creator recorded 60 second tasting videos, drafted tasting notes, or participating in podcast recordings.
Michigan Wine Collaborative
Seven BevFluence community members participated in the campaign, sharing their thoughts on these wines through various social media and provider platforms. Through several years of participating in online tastings and media excursions, the BevFluence team has developed a methodology to share and amplify content across multiple platforms. The participants utilized this methodology throughout the campaign which was kicked off with a video interview of Emily Dockery on the BevFluence YouTube Channel. In this interview, she described the unique characteristics of the Michigan wine industry and the challenges brought about by the COVID lockdowns.
The Michigan Wine Collaborative – BevFluence campaign unofficially concluded with a Twitter Wine Blogger Workshop where BevFluence, the Michigan Wine Collaborative, and winemakers discussed the campaign’s implementation. This discussion included the benefits of the BevFluence methodology, as well as suggestions on how wineries can better enable and support future influencer campaigns.
On social media, Instagram was the most popular platform, receiving widespread engagement from all influencers. In total, this campaign’s Instagram reach extended to 25,000 accounts with 7,000 unique views. The BevFluence members also posted frequently on Facebook in some instances replicating the content from Instagram. These posts reached 8,000 views. Several other platforms were also utilized, such as YouTube, blogs, and Twitter where this campaign unofficially concluded with a Wine Blogger Workshop where BevFluence, the Michigan Wine Collaborative, and winemakers discussed the campaign’s implementation, engagement, and reach. And one influencer was invited to a local news program to promote the campaign.
“Hi Justin! I wanted to reach out to thank you for involving Michigan wine in your latest campaign. I really enjoyed the variety of social media and digital marketing approaches and seeing the interactions with those posts grow. It is valuable that you guys have people of varying media backgrounds to tackle projects, and keep things fresh! Thank you for running a Collaborative and successful program featuring Michigan wines! Hope to work together again soon. Cheers!” – Emily Dockery Executive Director Michigan Wine Collaborative
Denver BevFluence Experience
In September 2019, the BevFluence team traveled to Denver to kick off the BevFluence Experience, a regional event which enriched the local community by networking and collaboration with local influencers. The goal of the event was to introduce the local influencers to both local beverage producers and to regions and states outside of Denver. In this latter case, we introduced the influencers to wines from Colorado, Michigan, and Virginia through each state’s Governor’s Cup Case Club. And to invigorate these tastings, we sampled these wines on their own and paired them with various candies. The BevFluence team also scheduled tasting events at several establishments where the team introduced the local influencers to the establishments. Together, we discussed with the establishment’s strategies for engaging with the local community – both consumers and influencers. There have been several promising results from this experience. The influencers published multiple blog posts and videos describing their experience which were all shared through social media platforms. Even more important were the relationships created between the local influencers, beverage establishments, and the Colorado Wine Board (CWB). The influencers have scheduled outings and events at these establishments. And reciprocally, the establishments and CWB have reached out to the influencers to help organize and implement events on their behalf.
Negroni
To kick off the launch of the BevFluence Collaborations platform, BevFluence partnered with the Ryland Peters & Small publishing house to promote several cocktail books. However, the campaign focused on one book: Negroni: More than 30 Classic and Modern Recipes for Italy’s Iconic Cocktail. We are in the process of completing the campaign for the other books.
Ten BevFluence community members participated in the campaign, sharing their thoughts on the books through various social media and provider platforms. Through several years of participating in online tastings and media excursions, the BevFluence team has developed a methodology to share and amplify content across multiple platforms. The participants utilized this methodology throughout the campaign, which included two Zoom sessions with Negroni authors David T. Smith and Keli Rivers. In these sessions, campaign participants interacted with the authors and shared their favorite cocktails from the book, along with any enhancements they made.
