In early 2000, Upper Canada Brewing Company was in a slump. Founded in Toronto in 1984, the microbrewery had been a leader in Ontario's craft brewing movement until its
acquisition by regional brewer Sleemans in 1996. Sleemans moved the operation to Guelph, a community northwest of Toronto, and the Upper Canada brand was restructured as part of
the Sleemans portfolio. The microbrewery immediately began to see a decline in sales.
Upper Canada turned to Cohn & Wolfe's Toronto office to reestablish its mindshare among Ontario consumers and generate positive media coverage for the microbrewed
brand.
Honing The Craft
The craft brewing movement and Upper Canada had seen particularly strong support from the literary community in Ontario during the '80s and early '90s. The brand had been
heavily involved with PEN Canada, a worldwide writers' organization, and with local artist groups. Cohn & Wolfe saw the Ontario literary community as the perfect target for a
campaign that would revitalize Upper Canada's image.
C&W conducted extensive research in literary circles to determine an appropriate vehicle for the campaign. "We were trying to find a niche that hadn't been filled before,"
says Janet Harron, counsellor for Cohn & Wolfe Canada's corporate and consumer practice. Plus, Harron realized "[the literary community] was an intelligent community. The
campaign was not something they'd buy into if they had the slightest suspicion it was self-serving."
The team discovered that although short stories are eligible for prestigious Canadian literary awards like the Giller Prize and the Governor General's award, there was no award
given specifically for short story collections. The short story angle clicked with the microbrewery's "small is beautiful" motto, and so the Upper Canada Brewing Company Writer's
Craft Award was born.
The PR team recommended to Upper Canada that only writers from Ontario be eligible for entry, reinforcing the small, regional nature of the brewery. A prize of $10,000 was
enough to not only make the awards program newsworthy, but also qualify it as the largest genre-specific prize in Canada.
Because the brewery hoped to launch the campaign at the beginning of the summer "beer season," C&W had to scramble to finalize criteria for submission and to procure judges
and partners. Despite the short timeframe, the team was selective - only small organizations were accepted as partners, to emphasize again the "small is beautiful" theme. The
Nicholas Hoare Bookstore, an independent store in Toronto, was secured as the location for the launch press conference, and the Eden Mills Writer's Festival, a one-day event in a
small Ontario town, agreed to partner on the announcement of semi-finalists.
Beer Nuts & Bolts
Letters announcing the award and the submission criteria were faxed to 60 Canadian fiction publishers in advance of the launch event. An official launch event was held in July
announcing the award and the judges. C&W supported the event with a media alert and a media kit.
By July 21, Upper Canada had received 21 eligible entries. The judges narrowed the field, and semi-finalists were announced at the Eden Mills Festival on September 10, which
was attended by more than 5,000 people. Authors who were on the list received a congratulatory letter - accompanied, of course, by a case of Upper Canada beer.
For the award announcement, the C&W team created - naturally - a small, exclusive event at the Mockingbird, a club with a reputation as a literary "salon." Each semi-
finalist was allowed to do a reading of his or her work for an invitation-only audience of the literary community, media, judges and Upper Canada representatives. The judges
announced the winner, Steven Hayward, following the readings.
Results
The campaign generated 55 media hits in Ontario from July to October - small potatoes compared to massive media campaigns, but just right for a campaign designed to target a
small, regional niche audience, says Harron. Audience reach was close to 7 million.
The literary community has welcomed Upper Canada back with open arms. "The biggest challenge was trying to make this into a real book award as opposed to a PR exercise," Harron
says. The team has accomplished just that, with the Writer's Craft Award becoming an annual program. It has even garnered an affectionate nickname among the writers it honors:
"The Swiller," a direct comparison to Canada's largest and most prestigious literary award, the Giller Prize.
(Contact: Janet Harron: 416/924-5700)
Small But Newsy
C&W used the diminutive size of the brewery and the unique nature of the awards program to distinguish the Upper Canada awards program. Getting coverage for a small
literary prize during the fall of 2000 when new books were released for the holiday season and the Nobel Prize for Literature was announced, was no easy task. In addition, "the
largest author festival in the world takes place in Toronto in October, and it would have been easier to get coverage if we didn't have that going on," Cohn & Wolfe's Harron
notes.
The team focused on the fact that the award is the only one given specifically for short stories, and repeatedly played up the "small is beautiful" theme by leveraging the
happy coincidence that many of the semifinalists were published by small, independent literary houses.
Campaign Stats:
Budget: The C&W team conducted the microbrewery's campaign on a
micro-budget of $65,000, including the $10,000 award, $2,000 honoraria for three
judges, and $49,000 for out-of-pocket expenses, supplier costs, etc.
Timeframe: June through October, 2000
"Small is Beautiful" Partners: The Nicholas Hoare Bookstore, Eden Mills
Writer's Festival
The Agency Team: David Gordon, director of corporate practice; Janet
Harron, counsellor, corporate & consumer practice; Greg Jones, counsellor.