479 - Public Relations: The Not So Hidden Side of Bourbon with Dave Karraker of Raptor PR

Bourbon Pursuit

Hobbies, Food, Arts, Leisure

4.9 • 866 Ratings

🗓️ 12 September 2024

⏱️ 67 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

One thing I love about what we do in this show is that we continue to explore new and interesting angles of the bourbon world. And one that always gets overlooked is the role of public relations. All major corporations have contracts with PR firms where it's their responsibility to get eyeballs on every new release, get butts in seats at events, and make some kind of commotion about their whiskey. To explore this topic, I've invited Dave Karrakur on the show. He's an industry veteran who has done PR his entire career at places like Sega and Campari but has now ventured off on his own with Raptor Communications. We talk about the stress that PR feels when it comes time to put out a new release, how to get it in front of the right audience and get words in articles like Forbes, and how do you response to a client when something just completely flops. Show Notes: 00:00-Introduction and the Role of PR in the Bourbon Industry 06:28-Exploring a New Angle: Public Relations in the Bourbon World 10:26-Guest's Background in PR and the Drinks Business 18:55-The Need for PR and Creating a Compelling Narrative 25:25-Navigating the Changing Media Landscape 31:39-Rising Above the Clutter: Detail and Engagement 32:35-Building Whiskey Brands through PR 34:02-Measuring the Impact of PR 35:00-The Value of Third-Party Endorsements 37:16-Building Relationships with Journalists and Influencers 39:32-Navigating Social Media Platforms for Whiskey Marketing 44:11-Distribution Challenges and On-Shelf Presence 46:04-Strategies for Sending Samples to Reviewers 48:55-Maintaining a Cadence of PR Activities 50:17-Dealing with Negative Reviews 55:03-The Complex and Stressful Nature of Whiskey PR Support this podcast on Patreon

Transcript

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0:00.0	Forbes does a list every year of the most stressful jobs in America, and PR is always in the top five
0:06.9	with like firefighter, ambulance driver, policemen. Because you've got a client who's paying
0:13.8	money, and then if it doesn't hit, they're like, well, what happened?
0:38.3	This is Burbin Pursuit, the official podcast of Bourbon, bringing to you the best in news, reviews, and interviews with people making the bourbon whiskey industry happen.
0:39.7	And I'm one of your hosts, Kenny Coleman.
0:41.8	One thing that I love about what we get to do in the show is that we continue to explore
0:46.3	new and interesting angles of the bourbon world.
0:49.4	And one of those that always gets overlooked is the role of public relations.
0:54.5	All major corporations have contracts with PR for them, where it's their job and their
0:59.1	responsibility to get eyeballs on every new release, get butts and seats at events, and make
1:04.7	some kind of commotion about their whiskey.
1:07.6	To explore this topic, I've invited Dave Kerker on the show.
1:11.7	He's an industry veteran who has done PR his entire career at places like Sega and Kampari, but has now
1:17.0	ventured off on his own with Raptor communications. We talk about the stress that PR feels
1:21.9	when it comes time to put out a new press release, how to get in front of the right audience,
1:26.1	and you can get words and articles like
1:28.0	Forbes and how do you respond to a client when something completely just flops. With that,
1:34.7	enjoy this week's episode. And now here's Fred Minnick with Above for the Char. I'm Fred Minnick
1:40.3	and this is above the char.
1:52.1	This week's idea comes from our friend Don Knott, who writes me on Twitter.
1:58.0	By the way, Don is one of our more prolific listeners on this podcast, and he always asked great questions.
1:59.1	This is a really good one, too.
	...

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