On the verge of Night Shift Brewing Company’s ninth anniversary, the Everett, Massachusetts-based craft brewery is investing in its first “real advertising campaign.”
“It’s certainly not the $100 million Constellation, Bud Light budgets,” Night Shift co-founder Rob Burns said, trying to temper expectations. “But for us, it’s the largest budget we’ve ever had.”
The budget isn’t insignificant either at $500,000, which will include what Burns called a “commercial quality video” for its Whirlpool New England Pale Ale brand. The investment will include digital and out of home advertising, as well as micro-influencers, Night Shift co-founder Michael Oxton added. Night Shift is working with South Boston-based Colossus on the campaign.
The investment in advertising follows a 2020 in which Night Shift finished the year up 10% in top-line revenue, Burns said.
“We’re pretty excited about eking out some growth,” he said. “We were a little bit short on the bottom line, but that’s really a result of lack of draft.”
Nevertheless, Night Shift produced 41,000 barrels of product last year. Around 5,000 barrels of that volume came from the addition of Night Shift’s hard seltzer line, Hoot. Burns believes Night Shift could double its hard seltzer production in 2021 with the addition of several Hoot spinoffs.
In fact, Night Shift’s transformation into a total beverage alcohol company will be even more apparent in 2021, as four of the company’s six major releases are in the hard seltzer space. They include:
A Hoot Tropical variety 12-pack, featuring four flavor combinations — Guava Dragon Fruit, Passion Fruit Yuzu, Lychee Papaya, and Pineapple Coconut — each checking in at 4% ABV and 90 calories per 12 oz. serving. The variety pack will begin hitting retailers in early April;
Hoot Louder Berry Blast, an 8% ABV hard seltzer sold in 6-packs that will reach retail later this month;
Hoot Limeade, a 5% ABV hard seltzer sold in 6-packs that is currently available at Night Shift’s Everett taproom and will reach retail this summer;
Hoot Rosé, a 5% ABV hard seltzer made with red wine grapes that will be sold in 6-packs in Massachusetts by early summer.
A fifth innovation is Tea Party, 4% ABV hard tea (90 calories, gluten-free) sold in 6-packs of three flavors — Mango Hard Tea with Lemon Peel, Ginger Peach Hard Tea, and Golden Green Hard Tea with Orange Peel — that will reach Massachusetts retailers by mid-summer and then spread to the rest of Night Shift’s footprint.
As for beer, Night Shift will begin selling its Whirlpool New England pale ale in 12-packs, beginning May 3.
With the various new Hoot products, Night Shift leadership believes they have found elusive white space within the increasingly crowded $4 billion hard seltzer segment. Among the areas the company is willing to play is in the higher ABV seltzer space with Hoot Louder.
“Everyone got so focused on 100 calories, 4% to 5%, same kind of nutrition facts,” Burns said. “I think there’s a lot of runway and a lot of opportunity to innovate around that and outside of that tiny box.”
The evolution of Night Shift as a beverage business is increasingly apparent, as the company also boasts a growing coffee roasting business and has dabbled in wine, with more to come later this year. Oxton told Brewbound that a scenario exists this year in which hard seltzer and hard tea account for about 20% of Night Shift’s overall volume.
“It’s very much dependent on how the summer shakes out, but we could go from 5% to 20%, which is pretty, pretty big in terms of portfolio growth,” he said.
Even with the addition of beyond beer offerings, Night Shift’s beer portfolio remains a top priority, with a growing focus on 12-packs.
“Last year, our No. 1 selling SKU was Santili [IPA], really driven by the launch of the 12-packs,” Burns said. “And that leapfrogged both the Night Lite and Hoot as our No. 1 brand. And that’s without the help of draft, which was usually a significant part of our Santili brand.”
In addition to Santili 12-packs, Night Shift will add the package for Whirlpool this year, which Burns said was among the most requested items by Night Shift’s customers and retailers. The addition of Whirlpool 12-packs will give Night Shift six total 12-packs, including Night Lite, Lime Lite, and two Hoot variety packs.
To keep up with all of that new product, the company has invested around $2 million in a new canning line at its Everett facility, where the company is capable of producing around 26,000 barrels of product. The company has also added contract brewing at Jack’s Abby in Framingham, Massachusetts, to go along with existing supplemental production at Isle Brewers Guild and Harpoon Brewery.
Burns said there’s potential to “double the Night Shift brand over the next few years” in its home state of Massachusetts.
“Even with our current account base, I think there’s a lot of room to go deeper and get more of the portfolio on the shelf,” he said. “And so that’s a key focus as we branch out into these other beverage segments. … There’s more opportunity to get into other parts of the store and that’s a key focus.”
Helping push toward that goal this year will be Night Shift’s first national accounts manager, Kevin Mack, who joined the company earlier this month and previously spent about 13 years with Molson Coors, last serving as national sales manager for the company in CVS drug stores.
As for Night Shift’s own-premise outlets, Burns said taproom traffic in Everett has begun to pick up over the last few weekends. It’s not quite at pre-pandemic levels, but it’s “getting close and closer,” he said. “We’re getting waitlists Thursday, Friday and Saturday at the taproom in Everett. I think those are signs that we hadn’t seen in a long time.”
Night Shift is also preparing for a May reopening of its outdoor beer gardens in Boston, as well as its Lovejoy Wharf brewpub, which Burns admitted the company initially thought wouldn’t be open until 2022.
“We always thought we wouldn’t reopen until the TD Garden had people inside of it, and while it’s not full capacity, that’s right around the corner,” he said.
Burns said Night Shift has been consulting with members of the restaurant group that ran the now-closed but beloved Eastern Standard restaurant on reopening the Lovejoy location.
“We’re hoping to elevate what we’re doing there to the next level,” Burns said. “We’re excited about bringing in a stronger restaurant management team to elevate the guest experience.”
The group will help Night Shift with the hiring of a general manager and chef for the location.
“We felt really confident in our beverage program and our brand strength and our fan base, but did not feel confident in our ability to be successful restaurant operators,” Burns said.
Meanwhile, Night Shift is preparing to celebrate its ninth anniversary with a virtual tasting on Saturday, March 27, led by Oxton, Burns and co-founder Mike O’Mara, as well as a virtual concert. Tickets are available now.
In Year Nine, Oxton said he sees an opportunity for “huge growth.”
“We exceeded our business plan two to three years into being in business,” he said. “So nine years in, we’re well beyond what our original business plan had written out. And so we’re just trying to figure out what the new roadmap is, and the pandemic really had us wondering what that would be. We’re pumped to be confident about more growth than ever.”