Bear Flag Social Media
How a rule-breaking winemaker broke new ground online
Background
Bear Flag, an E & J Gallo brand, is an up-and-coming wine producer in Modesto, California. Distinguished by its innovative winemaking techniques and distinctive gold-emblazoned bottles, the company prides itself on bold and rebellious red wines.
Challenge
As a fresh face amongst established wine brands, Bear Flag struggled to pinpoint where they fit within a competitive market. They needed to identify their core audiences and make a strong connection with them online to increase engagement in both the digital and real world.
SERVICES
Social Strategy, Copywriting, Design, Photography & Video Production, Analytics, Content Strategy
INDUSTRY
Food & Beverage
Solution
Rhythm created a social strategy that enabled Bear Flag to share its unique story with potential enthusiasts. By offering authentic and informative content, we helped this rule-breaking winemaker break new ground online and beyond.
Getting Social
Social media is one of the most popular tools new audiences use to familiarize themselves with a brand. By scrolling through their social feeds, individuals can quickly discover new brands to admire and products to try.
As an upstart brand without a large following, Bear Flag naturally wanted to reach new audiences via social. But how could they do so without coming across as salesy or inauthentic?
Staying True
Before making a single social post, Bear Flag needed a compelling creative strategy to guide its content development into the future.
With Rhythm’s assistance, “Wine Our Way” was developed. This key mantra spoke to both the brand and consumers—highlighting Bear Flag’s unique winemaking techniques while emphasizing the individual’s choice to drink wine his or her own way.
Creating a Campaign
Once a creative strategy was solidified, we turned our attention to the social media campaign. We wanted consumers to experience authenticity, connection and passion in relation to the brand, but could also sense that Bear Flag was still navigating its identity.
So we explored three different campaign ideas that captured Bear Flag’s spirit of rebellion.
Finding Reasons to Believe
To root our campaign ideas in data, we ran A/B tests on different “reasons to believe” to confirm which campaign would resonate the strongest.
During this time, COVID-19 inconveniently upended the world (and our soon-to-launch social campaign). The altered political and socio-economic atmosphere led us to craft a campaign strategy that departed from outright rebellion but still embodied the authentic and inspiring essence of the brand. “Uncork the Unconventional” emerged.
Social Strategy & Content Pillars
Once our campaign idea was solidified, we turned to the social strategy. As a new brand struggling to make a name for itself, creating awareness and relevance was key. With that in mind, we developed three content pillars that guided the copy development and design of Bear Flag's social posts. These included:
Custom Photoshoot
Stock photos have their place but nothing beats the real thing. To authentically showcase Bear Flag in the best possible light, Rhythm conducted a series of custom photo shoots. Our creative teams directed the sessions, suggested the settings and props, and selected the most compelling images to share with Bear Flag’s fans and followers.
Enabling Brand Consistency Via a Layered Design System
Guiding Content
Monthly content calendars were also developed to give Rhythm’s copywriters and designers the direction they needed to create Bear Flag’s social posts. These strategically incorporated the three content pillars.
Distilling Data
Finally, we determined the social metrics and KPIs we’d use to measure success. These helped us identify high-performing posts and offer strategic recommendations, further propelling social success and driving on and offline sales of wine.
