Marketing idea of the week: Saint Arnold’s Beard Growing Competition

Craft beer is synonymous with beards. I am not sure when, or why, but it’s true, and the team at Saint Arnold Brewing celebrates this connection each year with its Donegal Beard Growing Competition. Top prize for the competition winner is a membership to the Saint Arnold Society (a $1,000), which means one free beer each time you visit as well as a mug engraved with your name.

Regardless of who takes first place this year, the competition itself is winning CBB‘s first Craft Beer Marketing Idea of the Week for 2025. Here’s the promo from Saint Arnold (a bearded fellow himself) with the competition’s rules:

Patron Saint of Brewers? More like Patron Saint of Beards! Yes, Saint Arnold himself rocked some killer facial hair, and that’s all the reason we need to once again host our Donegal Beard Growing Competition. The champion will be crowed in-person at our St. Patrick’s Day Party on the evening of Monday, March 17.

If you’ve got what it takes to grow an award-winning Donegal beard, we encourage you to enter and compete for the top prize: a membership to the Saint Arnold Society – a $1,000 value!

Here are the rules:

Step one: Between now and Sunday, January 13, shave any current facial hair you may have. Everyone must start clean-shaven.

Step two: Email [email protected] an official “before” photo of your clean-shaven self holding up the day’s newspaper, the Houston Chronicle’s website, or something else to prove the date. Email your photo no later than Sunday, January 13 to be eligible to compete.

Step three: Start growing a beard.

Step four: Keep growing a beard.

Fine print: Clean-shaven means no facial hair. Sideburns must be cut at least halfway up the ear. Previous winners are ineligible for two years. We will be seeking qualified, independent judges for the competition.