Anyone who pays more than a passing interest in the world of craft brewing will know that Scottish craft brewer BrewDog narrowly missed out on winning an industry award earlier this week, due to the interference of a representative the event’s sponsors, drinks behemoth Diageo.
As wounded as they may be by what’s happened, BrewDog’s glass is half-full, not half-empty.
Had BrewDog won the award, as originally intended by the judging panel, then it would have most likely made just the industry and local press. However, this story has now made mainstream news (such as the Daily Telegraph article, The Times, the Sun, and morning freebie Metro, as well as on BBC Scotland), because no journalist can resist covering a David vs. Goliath struggle such as this.
Tactics such as those alledged to have been used by Diageo have backfired spectacularly. Not only have they revealed that they do consider BrewDog as a serious threat to their beer portfolio, but it’s got BrewDog the sort of mainstream publicity that money can’t buy.
I’ll raise a (half-full) glass to that… Mine’s a 5AM Saint.
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