Marketing idea of the week: Royal Docks drops secret prizes around town to hype beer release

People love summer, beer, games and prizes, and Canton, Ohio’s Royal Docks Brewing Co. has the best gimmick to tie it all together. The idea is the brewery “lost all of its patio chairs,” and it’s up to all of us to find them. Royal Docks places these chairs (that look like the one on the Backyard Crusher label) in locations around several Northeast Ohio counties and then drops clues via email and social media as to where they are. Each chair has a prize attached to it — from concert tickets to gift cards to the brewery.

It’s a ton of fun, a boon for social media engagement, email list building and, of course, a great promotion for the “official beer of summer,” the Backyard Crusher. The concept even made the local news:

Here’s more from Brewmaster Dave Sutula:

“The idea here is to take a classic folding lawn chair like the one on the can and just leave it someplace — a city park, a suburban sidewalk, at an outdoor venue — for a casual passerby or seasoned treasure hunter to find. We have some really great stuff to give away as part of our effort to make this Northeast Ohio summer legendary. We could collect emails and do a drawing or whatever, but we think it’s a lot more fun to jumpstart summer with unexpected and substantial summery scavenger hunt.”

“If the last few years have taught us anything, it’s that you have to decompress once in a while, get outside and enjoy much-needed time with family and friends,” says Royal Docks co-founder John Bikis. “The lost chairs are a really fun ways to re-invigorated those gatherings. Our utmost goal is making this summer legendary.”