Good George

Over the coming weeks The Chamber of Commerce is sitting down with each of the major award winners from the recent Westpac Waikato Business Awards to find out what they did to stand out from the crowd. This weeks “Winners Insights” is with Dan McGregor, Creative & Community Manager for Good George, winner of the 2020 ChowHill Marketing & Social Media award.

Since launching in 2011, hometown hero Good George Brewing has consistently been in the news for all the right reasons. The reasons are many, whether it be a daring and delicious new flavour combination, the opening of a new waterfront bar or the altruistic Operation Helping Hands, which saw the brewery produce thousands of bottles of hand sanitiser during lockdown earlier this year. The one constant throughout is Good George’s commitment to staying humble, having fun and producing social media and marketing content that hits home with their many fans. 

It is for this reason that Good George took home the ChowHill Marketing & Social Media award at this year's Westpac Waikato Business Awards. Creative & Community Manager Dan McGregor has been responsible for building a brand that is clear, consistent and authentic and speaks to the heart of the target audience.

“Authentic content has been the most important contributor to building our social media presence. Knowing our audience and what they want from us is key. We keep our content conversational and try to engage with our audience without being false so they know it’s a person at our end sharing what we’re up to.

“We’re fortunate in that we’ve got so much happening with new products, events and bars we always something to share, and our audience love hearing about it and being part of it.”

With 6 locations spread about the North Island, it can be a challenge keeping each venue’s content on brand, yet relevant to their market. To combat this, each brew bar puts their own, unique spin on what is put out on social media. 

“The brewery brand and tone of voice is the main one but we want each of our restaurants to have their own local flavour that resonates with their local customers. This way we keep the name recognition of the Good George brand and all that entails without losing out on the ‘your local’ feel that each of our restaurants has.”

Locally owned and operated, Good George has always had a knack for producing content that connects with Kiwis. Keeping the brand fun, optimistic and light-hearted helps keep engagement levels high and is a great conversation starter with customers online. Good George has never shied away from having a joke at their expense, with many tongue-in-cheek product launch videos featuring directors and upper management from the company. 

“We sell a product that is for fun and sharing and enjoyment which gives us a lot of opportunity for cool content. We do balance host responsibility in there, follow legislation and only encourage the responsible consumption of alcohol. The great thing about social media is that it’s a two-way conversation with our customers so we know when content has landed and when it maybe hasn’t and we learn from that.”

Staunch supporters of #SupportLocal since before it was a necessity, Good George has always tried to work with local products and services come from local suppliers. In the height of Covid the brewery saw it as an opportunity to live up to their tagline, “Do Good, Be Good, Drink Good” and converted a portion of the on-site distillery to produce WHO-grade hand sanitiser. Dubbed Operation Helping Hands, the entire first batch was given out freely to the public. Since then Good George has continued to supply local schools in the Waikato with free hand sanitiser.

“What’s really stuck with us is the community gathering around us and getting in behind us, and choosing to #SupportLocal, especially with the hand sanitiser project. Local businesses like Deosan, Elite Polymers and the Perry Foundation all reached out to help when they heard what we were doing, and the extra support from the Waikato reminds us why we love being based here.”

Good George has set the standard for how Waikato businesses should conduct themselves with their marketing efforts on social media. The formula is simple - post interesting content, keep a personality throughout, and show your audience you’re not just a part of the online community, you are actively out there doing good things for those that support you.