4X ROI with Brewery Finder and Rewards App "Crackem"

Episode Overview

When I hear "app," I usually cringe a little bit. There are seemingly a million of them out there and it's hard to find anything that actually works... But I tell you what, a new-ish app called Crackem has actually proven some success.

Founded by Aubrey Perry on the heels of the pandemic, Crackem is helping breweries 4X their return on investment into their program that gamifies user visits and rewards. Plus, they have over 4,000 active venues in all 50 states. So there is at least something working and worth asking a few questions about, right?

Check out the full interview and learn more about Crackem at crackem.us

Episode Transcript

(AI-Generated, please forgive any typos)

[00:00:00] Chris: Hello, hello, hello. Welcome to the get optimized podcast. This is Chris overlay, your host, and this is a show all about marketing and growth in the craft beer industry. Today's interview is with a man named Aubrey Perry. Really really cool guy. He's, he's founded a company and really an app. Now, when I hear app, usually I cringe a little bit, cause I'm like, I don't know apps.

There's a million of them out there. Someone's always trying to start something new. Is it really worth it? You know, I, I significantly discount any news I hear about new, the new app that's going to change the way we do everything right. But I tell you what, Crackem and Aubrey and his company have actually proven success.

And that's the hallmark of any kind of app or system. It's like, okay, do you have success out there? Who's using it? And do you have some data to back up what you're doing? And I tell you what he does when I heard about crack them. And when I actually conducted the interview and talked to Aubrey, uh, you know, I learned that, you know, breweries that are involved with his system have like four X, four times their ROI, their return on investment into the program.

He's got something like over 4, 000 active venues on Krakum in all 50 states throughout the United States, if you needed a clarification on that. Um, yeah, so I think there is some proof in the concept here. And aside from that, Aubrey's got a great tech. background. He comes from an area of a lot of experience, a lot of expertise.

So it was awesome to pick his brain a little bit about how this system works, how all these apps in the industry works from a technology perspective. And I think you're going to get a ton of value from listening to the conversation. So if you do get value, from it. Please share with somebody that you know that's also gonna get some value from it, too.

But without further delay, let's get you into the interview. I appreciate your time. We'll catch you at the end. See ya. All right. Aubrey, thank you so much for being here, dude. How's it going? 

[00:02:21] Aubrey: Uh, going well, going very well. Thanks for having me. I appreciate the opportunity. 

[00:02:25] Chris: Of course. I tell you what, dude, I am always pumped to talk about tech.

I'm kind of a nerdy dude myself. Um, and, uh, I always like, I'm like checking out new stuff and I want to try it out and all these things. So when, um, you know, your people talk to my people to have, and I was like, absolutely, let's, let's talk about this stuff. Cause this is a really cool thing you have, uh, going on in the, in the beer space and the tech space.

And I'm excited to get. Into all of that. But before we do, let's figure out who we're talking to here. Tell us a little bit about yourself, your background and let's let's learn a little bit about you first. 

[00:03:01] Aubrey: Yeah, man. Uh, Aubrey Perry. I'm in the Orlando area. Uh, my, my journey in craft beer just kind of started, uh, you know, a while ago, you know, I was thinking back actually this morning about, uh, the first time I had it and I don't think it was even called a craft beer back then or I didn't know what it was.

The heck it was I was drinking, but I remember back in college, there was a Heineken Dark and St. Polly Girl Dark. Now we're talking mid 80s here, so I still have no idea, you know, if it was a Order if it was stout or what the heck it was. I probably need to look that up to figure out what the heck it was drinking.

But, uh, yeah, that, that was kind of my start to drinking something other than, uh, you know, it was still big beer, but it was still something other than what you, you really get started with. Um, and, and it, it wasn't until probably about 2017, 2018 that I really started to get into. Craft beer. Nice. I remember, I remember going with, with some friends to, uh, to World of Beer and, uh, looking at that, the menu and, uh, you know, I had no earthly idea what the hell all of that stuff meant.

I saw something about a heifer. I saw something about a goose. So, you know, what the hell is a goose? You know, I'm. You know, I'm, I'm used to big beer. So I, I take a sip of, you know, somebody say, Hey, you got to try this double dry hopped IPA. Do you know, it's got such and such type of yeast in it. And, and I, it was, it was all, I was, I had no fucking idea what they were talking about.

So I take a sip. Yeah. Yeah. It was. Not what I was expecting, but it took me a while to get educated and learn what, uh, what I was doing. 

[00:05:09] Chris: Well, uh, yeah, welcome to, welcome to all of it, you know, 2017, 2018 is a good time to get involved. It was a big, uh, ramp up in the industry. Uh, it still is, is, you know, I think you could probably attribute those dates to where almost the doubling started to happen and the amount of breweries in the country.

And, um. You know, it's just blown up ever since. So glad you're here, uh, and a part of it, what, what do you gravitate towards now? So it's been a few years since you started there. Do you have a, do you have certain beers that you just go to? Are you a hazy IPA guy? Do you like stouts and dark stuff? Or what's your, what's your beer of choice, your craft of choice?

[00:05:50] Aubrey: You know, I'm, it, it really just kind of depends for me. I went through a, uh, when I, when I first started with the craft beers, I went through, I fell in love with sours. Oh, really? Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I love the, the tartness of a sour. I liked a little funk that you would get sometime from it. Uh, but then I, I started to see, and I still see You know, now, when, when you're looking at a Berliner Weiss, they kind of, they can be all over the place, you know, some of them are, are extremely sweet, uh, some of them are, are tart.

So, you know, when you, when you crack that can, you, you, you really don't know what you're going to get. So I kind of had to move away from that and I've started to go back. Lately to, you know, mostly, uh, loggers and beer flavored beer. 

[00:06:41] Chris: Got it. I'm a huge fan of the craft logger thing, you know, uh, all my friends know, because everywhere we go, I'm like, I'm super into Pilsner's right now.

Um, and maybe that's because it's hot outside. Maybe that's because I'm, you know. Uh, you know, older now than I was, you know, when I first started drinking beer and stuff. So I don't want to have as many of these huge, big boozy beers. And I'm a fan of the, of the beer flavored beer. I like it. Uh, right on.

Okay. So you're into craft beer now, but you have a background in, in like tech and process management. Project management, that whole world, right? 

[00:07:23] Aubrey: Yeah, yeah. My background is in, you know, uh, degrees in computer science, uh, but, you know, like I said, that was, that was in the 80s, in the mid 80s. So, none of what I learned in college is in use anymore.

But, uh, I've, I've worked in the tech industry and, and marketing and sales and database management and development for my entire life. Uh, I, I, I love it. Uh, I always kind of try to stay connected with it. Uh, I love learning new things. So, uh, it's something that, that I've always, uh, dabbled in. And when I saw a way to connect craft beer with tech, uh, I said, Hey.

Let's, let's try something here. 

[00:08:09] Chris: Excellent. Well, let's talk about that for a second. So, uh, you have a, an app, a program, a company called Crack'Em, uh, that is relatively new, it's getting out there in the space and, uh, you're doing a bunch of really cool, fun stuff with it. So I'll let you tell us, so tell us about Crack'Em and what that is and what you're trying to accomplish there.

Yeah, um, 

[00:08:35] Aubrey: crackling started because I was I was going through Orlando's when I when I started to really enjoy craft beer. I really enjoyed going to breweries and experience in the brewery itself and the atmosphere, the vibe and the fresh beer and seeing the different things that they're right ahead of tap.

So I was going through my local and. Ale trail, which was, uh, you know, a map where you get the stamps and you get the reward at the end. And I literally got to the last step that I needed to get, and I lost the map. Uh, so that was, I wasn't too happy about that. 

[00:09:14] Chris: That sucks. Yeah. So that's the risk of the paper version, right?

All of a sudden it's left in the drawer. You left in the, in the cab or the Uber or something. And then all that work you did is. Kaput. 

[00:09:26] Aubrey: Yeah. So, you know, that, that was the impetus to, to get Krakum started. You know, uh, I said, you know, what if we can replace this with a phone? You know, people are not going to, you're always going to have your phone with you.

You're not going to lose it. Hopefully. Um, and, uh, it, it, it'd be an easy way to get things done. So just kind of started working as a little side project, uh, on the weekends. Using a QR code that you could scan to see if you could replicate that check in process. And then I started showing it to a couple of brewery owners that I knew, and they were like, damn, Aubrey, this is kind of cool.

I like this. Uh, and it kind of took off from there. We were, uh, we were planning to launch this in April of 2020. And of course, 

[00:10:15] Chris: great time to launch it. Oh yeah. 

[00:10:17] Aubrey: Yeah. Yeah. So of course, March was, uh, when, when, uh, So she had hit the fan with COVID and everything got shut down, the breweries got shut down. So we, we decided we had a couple of things we could do, just shut down and wait for.

Things to, to, to reopen, but we wanted to do something to try to help the industry during this time. So, we came up with a to go only ale trail, you know, and we said, okay, well, let's, let's try this. So, we, we found a few breweries. I think we had 10 breweries here in the Orlando area that said, yep, we can, we can try it.

And, uh, we, we launched a to go only ale trail that, um, You know, you we each brewery had a QR code. So you went when you went to pick up your beer, you know, you have to scan your code at all 10 of these breweries. And then when you did, we had a T shirt that you got that said, I conquered the, we called it the COVID sucks ale trail.

[00:11:21] Chris: Perfect timing. 

[00:11:22] Aubrey: That's the way to do. Yeah, it was. It was a way for us to test out the concept. Uh, it was way for us to drive some traffic to the breweries. Uh, it was a way to support the industries and the friends that we had made that, you know, that that own these breweries. So, uh, it was a win win all around.

Um, and, you know, during the pandemic time, it also gave us time to. Sit back and we actually went through a couple of accelerator programs and learned how to run a business, not just how to launch an idea, but how to take it to the next level. So the pandemic actually turned out being a blessing for us.

[00:12:07] Chris: Excellent. I mean, it's a good time to huddle up and figure things out, you know, and it's, it's good that you looked at it that way, you know, uh, as an opportunity to, to figure this stuff out, because I think, you know, I'm, I'm familiar with the startup world of pitched on startup competitions and, you know, I see the shows and all these things.

And, you know, I think there's a lot of. You know, folks that just create ideas, but then, you know, I always say it's the execution of those ideas that really matters. And I think that's kind of what you're getting at here is that it's the execution of it, learning how to run the business side of it that really is going to make it valuable for everybody.

Because if you don't have that, then, you know, the who's going to use it, you know, and all these things. So, um, I'm glad you said that. I think that's, that's ultimately what you're. What you're saying, right? 

[00:12:56] Aubrey: Yeah. You know, the, the, the first part of the, the, the ideation step is, is, and, you know, in most lean startup methodology, when you're, when you're talking about starting a company, the first thing you need to do is validate your idea.

So, uh, I was a little past that because we had already developed the, the app. Uh, but we started going into tap rooms and talking to customers saying, Hey, what do you think about this idea? You know, do you like it? And, um, as we started to talk to customers, we learned a lot more about, uh, things that were going on in the industry about other types of competitive.

Uh, programs that were out there, and it caused us to take a more holistic look at what we're doing. And then also being involved with the Brewer's Association. You know, I joined the National Brewer's Association, you know, years ago because the first thing I needed to do was learn. a lot. Uh, and I remember having a Bart Watson, the economist for the Brewers Association, came in and he was doing a presentation at the Florida Brewers Guild Conference.

And, uh, one of the slides that he put up talked about, uh, consumers and consumer habits and talked about, uh, how many breweries they'd asked. It was a survey that asked how many breweries people had visited where you visited the tap room. And then when I looked at that graph and saw that data, when we got down to the five or more category, uh, that number was somewhere in the 13, 14% rate.

And I was like, wow, that's relatively low. I thought it would be higher than that. 

[00:14:48] Chris: Um, so you're saying that only about 13 to 14% of people visit Five or more breweries is understanding the data correctly what you're saying. Yeah, that's 

[00:14:59] Aubrey: that's correct So so these are your these are your ale trail participants.

So how do we increase that number? You know, we can't make people go to two breweries But one of the things we saw which was each brewery was region, you know, Florida at that time I think we counted nine different ale trails that were here in in, Florida So instead of trying to convince people and to go and visit the breweries in the region, how about we expand the region, you know, now that we've got a digital product, we can do it statewide.

We could do it, you know, eventually nationwide. So it becomes a reward. Based system just for going and visiting breweries wherever you are. So as we started to go through and learn more and talk to more customers about, uh, the things that they wanted to see, we have evolved crack them into much, much more than what it started to be as an as a replacement for an entry, a paper based entry.

[00:16:12] Chris: Got it. Got it. Okay. So, I mean, it sounds like what you're saying is that this started as. Hey, we just want to do this, this Ailtrail thing. That's this, that's the problem we want to solve. But when looking at the industry and looking at, I mean, talking to customers and, and experiencing that stuff firsthand, you're saying this has evolved into something bigger than that.

And now it's part reward system, part discovery platform, and still part. Bail trail system. Um, or challenge system, right? Where people go out and they got to visit so many places, they get points. Um, and then there's some kind of reward baked into that. Is there rewards? Like, is it the brewery that's offering the reward?

Or is that a reward that comes from the app? Is it a combination of things? I mean, what is. What's really the carrot that you're you're dangling there for on a consumer side or for the consumer? Okay. 

[00:17:04] Aubrey: Well what we are our most recent we've made a couple of different we made a couple of significant changes this year first thing that we did it's tough to scale a System when you're you have to go to each brewery and and train them on, you know Uh, on how to use the system and get them a QR code, create a QR code for, get it to them, explain to them how it's used.

Uh, they have to let their staff know what's going on and where to put the QR code and what it's all about. Yeah, yeah, exactly. And, and, you know, that was the way we started. But, you know, you, you live and you learn, you know, we, we had a lot of people that were going to visit these breweries and they couldn't find the QR code or didn't know what the heck cracking was because they had, you know, some new people.

So, uh, earlier this year, we, we switched to a, a geolocation based system. So now the app recognizes when you're at a brewery, and, uh, it can check you in and there's no staff interaction that's necessary at all. Wow. And what, what that has allowed us to do is now, in order to add a brewery, all we need is an address.

Uh, and, and there's... There's, you know, every brewery wants to be found, so we were able to scale from, you know, the 60 breweries that we were working with in Florida to now I think we have over 4, 000 breweries that are on the app and we're adding more. A lot of them don't even know they're on there. But, uh, we needed to get to this point before we started to, um, to let people know and get the word out about who we are and what we can do.

Because now we can actually say that you can literally open the app anywhere in the country and it's going to show you some breweries that are 

[00:19:01] Chris: near you. You know, that's so dope that you did it that way because... I've seen other apps, not just in the brewery space, restaurant space, you know, and kind of the brick and anywhere you have like a brick and mortar thing that requires somebody to come in and check in somehow to get a reward to get a point, something like that.

It requires all this training. That you have to do. And, and, and honestly, the hardest part is the buy in of the manager, of the owner, whatever, to, to set all that stuff up and to continuously reinforce it. The solution is the geolocation. And you guys have done that and that makes it so much easier. Now it's like, it just does it automatically for you.

There is no, there is no, all you need is the user to sign up and then they're automatically getting, you know, checked in at these locations, just based on an address. So much easier that way than. The other way of having a scan code or something like that, or something built into the P. O. S. system, which is a nightmare to try to piggyback onto those systems because they're all usually closed and they have their own apps and that kind of stuff.

So, um, really brilliant. That's fantastic. Yeah. 

[00:20:08] Aubrey: Thank you. It works out for us. Uh, it's It seems to be working out for the industry. We have people that are checking in at breweries all over the country, you know, that, uh, and, and the breweries don't, don't even know, you know, they, they'll get an email. We'll, we'll have somebody that may come to Vegas and check in at a brewery in Vegas.

And, uh, All of a sudden, you know, whoever is monitoring their general email, their info at brewery dot com email address gets an email. Hey, a crack them user just checked in at your brewery. Wow. Like, okay, well, who the heck is crack them? And what does that mean? Uh, but, you know, we were you. You know, it's a digital platform, so we're able to capture that information, and now we're able to reach out to them and say, hey, this is who we are, this is what we do, and this is how we can help you, and this is how we can help the industry.

[00:21:03] Chris: Yeah, I mean, it flows so much easier. The opportunity for the business side, and this is something I wanted to ask you about, was like, what are the opportunities for the business? But it seems like it's easier to showcase that by saying, hey, look, there's all these folks that have checked in. You know, there's an opportunity here to have another conversation or deep in the conversation with these folks to push them information about what you have going on and all the things that an app can do here's you're like literally serving up the volume of opportunity right on a plate and say, Hey, do you want to.

Jump in on this or not. Right. My understanding that correctly. Yeah, 

[00:21:42] Aubrey: that's that's true. We've got, uh, and it's not just the check in functionality as we started to look at what other breweries talking to brewery owners asking them what was. what other programs they were using, what was working, what types of things that they like, what did they not like?

We started to add other things like incentives. Uh, if a brewery, uh, you know, here in florida, we can, you can incentivize with beer so we can, a brewery can offer a buy one, get one free or something like that. Uh, but we know you can't do that in, in Texas. So, or, or some other 

[00:22:23] Chris: states. Yeah, free beer.

Depending on what state you're in, you're, you're in trouble if you offer free beer. Right, right, right. 

[00:22:31] Aubrey: So, you know, we, we looked at some, some other options that were out there and said, you know, okay, well, these, these options are out here that are, that are incentive based, but they can't operate in these other states, and we didn't want to leave those states out.

We wanted to make sure that our platform was flexible enough that if you can offer those types of things that you can, uh, and you get to crab, the breweries get to craft their own offer, and they can turn it on. They can turn it off. They can change it. They can do whatever they want to write in the app.

And anytime 

[00:23:09] Chris: it's a no brainer to do it, right? Um, because I mean, everybody loves these things, you know, from the consumer perspective perspective, you want to feel surprised and, and, uh, valued. And if it's all kind of just flows automatic. Then, um, then that's the way you want it, you know, it's, you don't want it to be forced or, or manually done, uh, you know, manually pulling levers on the back end of some app or system or something like that is, is just a recipe for it.

Not going to work long term. Ultimately. Um, something else I think is really cool that you're doing is the. Is the, uh, the challenge stuff. So kind of like I, this probably spurred from the, the Ale Trail mentality, but, um, what I'm referring to is the hot hops thing you have going on right now in Orlando with these multiple breweries involved.

Tell us about that, how that's going, how that works, um, and, and what gets you, what gets you excited about that? 

[00:24:05] Aubrey: Yeah. The, the hot pop program is a. A very new program. We launched it in in June of this year in Orlando, and basically, it's it's a way to showcase breweries. It's, um, it's 90 days, uh, 12 venues.

You check in it. You've got you've got 90 days to check in at 12 venues and you get a reward. So it does a couple of things. We we Use the number 12 because we want it to be easy to complete. Uh, that's when a week, you know, we, when we started talking to people, you know, people were like, Oh, hell I can do 12 in a weekend.

You know, we don't, we don't 

[00:24:47] Chris: want that. We don't, we don't drive. At least you're going to do. Yeah. Yeah. You 

[00:24:50] Aubrey: know, come on now, let's, let's be a little responsible here. Yeah. Uh, so, but 12 is 12 over 90 days. It's easy to do. That's going to increase your participation rates. Um, 90 days to get it done gives you a sense of urgency to get it done.

So now the breweries that are participating, they can see immediate return on their investment. The app shows in the app real time stats. As far as people that are checking in at your brewery and things like that. So you, you, you've got measurable return on investment there. Um, and then all of your other costs are shared.

We, we support this with paid advertising. You know, you're you're in the marketing business. I know you understand the value of paid advertising organic. Uh, so we, what we do is, is we take a portion of the fees that the breweries paid to participate and we pull that and use that to promote the entire trade and using paid ads in that targeted area.

Uh, and then we also, Um, Uh, ask the breweries. We, we do some social media posts. We do a post for each venue that's participating to talk a little bit about who they are and what they do when we ask them to share this. So what happens is instead of the one brewery just sharing their information out to their followers, now you've got 10, 12 breweries that are all promoting this to all of their followers.

So now you're getting thousands of, uh, of organic. as well as the, uh, thousands or tens of thousands of paid as, and that's going to increase your participation rates. And, uh, over the first two months, uh, we have seen some, some tremendous growth here, every brewery that is participating, uh, in the, in the first two months has seen, uh, a positive ROI, including.

One brewery that had a plumbing problem and had to shut down and for maintenance for three weeks, so, um, you know, we've, we've got, uh, breweries that are already at four times their investment. So it's, uh, it's, it's, it's a very good program. Customers love it. Uh, we're getting, uh, quotes from customers about, Hey, it's, it's, it's getting me out of my comfort zone.

I love it. Uh, somebody had a Facebook post where they were, uh, they discovered this new band this weekend because they were going through the hops challenge and went to a brewery and now that's going to turn them into a repeat customer at that brewery. So it's, uh, it's, it's, it's, it's actually doing much better than we thought.

[00:27:43] Chris: It's amazing on so many levels, uh, and I want to unpack some of it because I'm like seeing all of the, all of the opportunity here. And it's, it's, uh, again, it's, it's, it's quite, quite amazing, uh, to use that word again, because the marketing piece of it's huge. You're taking funds and saying, Hey, this is a pooled resource that alone, just the awareness building from that is, is when you said there is a seeing a positive ROI.

I was like, of course they are in my mind because The just the boosted advertising from that stuff is helpful. I have a client that does. Um, a, like a bike loop thing for like four months, there's four participating breweries. They all participate. They all share posts. They all kind of collaborate on the advertising things.

And the reason they do it is because of the shared marketing piece of it is, is uber effective for craft beer drinkers in their region. And you know, that's why they do that stuff. And this is why you're doing it here is because all these people that are going to visit these spots are craft beer drinkers nearby.

And that trickles down into if you're doing distribution sales, like, you know, now, now you got beers that you recognize on the shelf and you're like, Oh yeah, I visited that spot. Or like you said, with your anecdote about the person that, that saw some band, it's like, now they have this beautiful, positive experience they had at that brewery that, and that's what you want.

If you're marketing beers, you want to associate positive experiences with your product. And, uh, that's, that's beautiful that that's happened. So, um, Quite cool. What an evolution from the passport. My main beef with the passport here in Nevada, um, where we're at is that it's like the challenge that they did for it was like the entire state.

And like, I live in Las Vegas, Reno is, is nine hours away. So unless I, and they did it like, Oh yeah, over the course of a month or something, I've been, I'm like, I can't get up to Reno and visit 12 breweries or something like that. And I'm definitely not going to do it first. Cause it was like the first three people got the reward.

So the reward was so unattainable. And I'm too, so it's like, okay, I don't even care. It's cool to have a little thing, but like what you're doing is a regional focused approach to it. The reward is attainable. Everybody can take part in it and. The breweries ultimately see the benefits. So again, dude, what a cool thing.

Um, yeah, 

[00:30:05] Aubrey: you know, yeah, you know, it, it took us a while to get there because, you know, if you go out there and look on the app right now, we've got a statewide Florida ale trail because, you know, one of the first things I said was, Hey, let's expand that, that process. But, you know, it, it was not getting much traction.

You know, we had a few people that are going out and doing it, but nowhere near that. 14% that we were looking for. So how do we do this and continue with continuing to talk to customers about ideas and analyze data and understand that people's attention spans are getting shorter. Um, So it's, it was a natural evolution to, to kind of get to this point.

And, uh, you know, I, I love what you say about, uh, going to experience the breweries. That's, that's one of the things that we heard from customers, you know, people really love going to experience breweries. Uh, and, and it's not just about the beer. You know, a, a, a customer from what we've heard and the customers that we've talked to, a customer will go to a brewery that has less than stellar beer if the experience is good.

Yeah, but what they will not do is go to a brewery that has great beer if the experience is bad. 

[00:31:29] Chris: Yeah. It sucks to be there. You don't want to go. Yeah. Even if it's good beer, I mean, and that's, that's, I think the, you know, something that is interesting about the way the industry is going nowadays, you know, five, 10 years ago, you know, there was less really great beer out there.

So if you made good beer. You know, you would attract customers. I like if you build it, they will come because there just wasn't as much as there is, but now there's like, I think we're approaching like 10, 000 breweries in the country. And you know, if you're in a place like New York, California, Florida, there's tons of beer around you.

So it has to be about more than just the beer. Cause there's, there's good beer in a lot of places. Uh, And yeah, so the experience plays into that. The interconnectivity plays into it. I mean, what do you see, you know, from your perspective, you've built this this tech focused company, you're kind of breaking down barriers between breweries and and that on that front, what do you kind of see in the industry right now?

And what does the future really hold for beer and tech from from your perspective? 

[00:32:39] Aubrey: I think we're, I think, you know, we, we see advancements in, in tech in the, in the brewing arena, um, there, and, and I think we'd have to go back to. You know, when, when a person gets ready to open a brewery, you know, most of these people are homebrewers or were homebrewers and they come up with a recipe and they say, okay, I like this.

I really like it. And they say, okay, let's, let's do what we need to do. And let's open this brewery. So when these breweries open, they're, they're concerned about equipment, um, Equipment breaking down, uh, making sure you have your ingredients, making sure your temperatures are correct. Is your cooler big enough?

Are your tap lines clean? And all of this. The last thing that's on people's mind is, is marketing. So what most, what, what we see here, here in Florida is what most people do is. You know, they find that the youngest person on their staff that has the most Instagram followers and they give them a couple of passwords and say, congratulations, you're now a social media manager.

Uh, and, and that's, that's just kind of what happens. So it, and it's, I think we're, we're going to get to a point where innovation is going to start happening in every aspect from, from. Brewing to tap room management, to inventory management, to marketing, to everything, to loyalty, uh, you know, it's, it's bound to have, it's happened in every other industry is coming to the brewery industry too.

[00:34:25] Chris: Yeah, man, I, I think the evolution of, of MarTech marketing tech in this space is going to be, is really the, the next frontier. And maybe I'm biased because I'm in the marketing world too, but you know, I've had the, the experience of working with the systems that do exist and they're all kind of like this shoe horned.

Option out of like a POS system. A lot of them are that way, or it's, it's just so reliant on social media and social media is great. And we can talk all day about that separately. But what I'm kind of thinking of is related here is, is like, you know, you have square, you have toast and, and they have their built in systems for loyalty or emails or whatever.

And like. Honestly, they're all just mediocre. I played with a bunch of them. There's always something missing. They don't work as well as you want. They're clunky. You know, there's a couple of cool features, but then there's six features that you don't have. And if one brewery is on toast and somebody else is on square, then you, as a consumer, you don't really get a benefit from going to multiple places because.

You know, it's two different systems and it's all jacked up and annoying and kind of symptom of, you know, they're just not being options out there and a lack of, of knowledge about other options that are out there. But folks like you are saying, Hey, it doesn't have to be that way. Uh, there's actually some really cool things we can do and, you know, you don't have to all be on the same technology, right?

You can have iPhones, you can have Androids, you can have different POS systems and we can make it. Uh, a collaborative environment. We can do fun stuff. And, uh, I think that's the future that I'm pumped about is, is, is that kind of thing? Because man, does the industry need it as it ages? Cause so many other industries have it, you know, uh, there's tons of them that are just blowing down borders, uh, or miles ahead, years ahead.

So it's exciting to see this kind of stuff come to 

[00:36:13] Aubrey: craft beer. Yeah, yeah, it is. Uh, it's it's coming. Uh, chris, I know, I know you see it. Uh, I remember just just having a conversation with a brewery owner and talking about what we were doing. And actually it was a combat. I have some, uh, some advisors.

brewery owners that are advisors to what I'm doing. So we had a meeting and we were sitting down talking and one of the brewery owners is a tech guy and he understands paid targeted marketing and things like that. So we started having a conversation about, you know, how do we target this specific demographic?

And then after the meeting was over, uh, A couple of the other brewery owners came up and was like, damn, Aubrey, I had no idea that you could even do anything like that. Yep. I said, yeah, you know, it's, it's out there and it's, it's available. It's, it's just, you know, we, we know that these brewery owners are doing what they need to do to keep these breweries open to, uh, make sure that, that their employees are taken care of and things like that.

So, so things just kind of moved to the bottom of the ladder and, you know, eventually. It'll, it'll bubble up, but, uh, we're going to do what we can to, to try to move them there a little bit faster. 

[00:37:34] Chris: I hope so. I'm, I'm gunning for it. I'm rooting for you. Um, so if somebody is listening to this and they're interested in taking a look at Krakum, the things you got going on, uh, or getting in touch with you, I mean, what's the, what's the way to do that?

Where do they go? Uh, our 

[00:37:53] Aubrey: website is is crack. Um, dot U. S. C. R. A. C. K. E. M. dot U. S. Uh, you can you could go there. It's got my phone number on their contact form that you can you can reach out. Also, if you're interested in hot hops, hot hops is H. O. T. H. O. P. Z dot com. Take a look at that. We're looking to expand into another 10 cities this fall.

Uh, and we're looking for breweries that want to participate with us. They want to try us out. So, uh, feel free to, to reach out there 

[00:38:35] Chris: and don't forget, you said that some of these breweries that are doing this stuff, like four X, uh, return on their investment into that program. So I would say that's at least enough to, to drop a line into either of those buckets on crack them or, or the hot hops.

Program. 

[00:38:50] Aubrey: Yeah. And that's the thing about it. It's not a long term commitment. It's three months. Try it out. If it doesn't work for you, then, you know, it's, it's, it's not the, but we're, I can, I can almost guarantee you, you, you're going to be happy with the results. 

[00:39:08] Chris: I think so. Um, and like you said, I think it's a sign of confidence is in a look, you know, try it.

If you don't like it, leave and it's probably because you don't have any people leaving. Uh, so that's, that's, um, so right on. Uh, well, you know, I want to be respectful of your time too. I'm so grateful that you've decided to join us. Is there anything else you want to let our audience know? Uh, before we, before we wrap things up here, 

[00:39:32] Aubrey: No, I, I think we covered it all.

I'm, I'm, uh, I'm, I'm proud to, to be in this business. Uh, I, I, when I go and I visit these breweries, I, I understand. And when I talk to people, I, I, I want them to see these breweries at as small businesses that are supporting the community with, with jobs and, and resources, you know, so, um, let's, let's do what we can to, and, and, and the last few years have been tough.

You know, very, very tough. Uh, so let's do what we can to to support anywhere we go. 

[00:40:10] Chris: Love it. Well said, sir. Cheers to that. And, uh, thanks again, Aubrey. It's been a pleasure talking to you. 

[00:40:17] Aubrey: Hey, nice to talk to you, Chris. Thanks for having me. I appreciate it.