SourceLinkDallas’ Premier Battle of the Brands Winner

Deep Ellum Brewing Company is SourceLinkDallas’ 2013

Premier Battle of the Brands Winner!

Deep Ellum Brewing Company (DEBC) mashed up its competition and like a beautiful head on a balanced brew, rose to the top to be SourceLinkDallas’ first ever Battle of the Brands winner.

I was lucky enough to take a trip over to DEBC during a weekly public tour of the brewery and visited with two of the DEBC, “Big Chiefs,” as they are called on the their website, John Reardon, Founder and Chief Evangelist and Tait Lifto, Sales and Brand Ninja, along with other members of the DEBC team.

John and Tait were both extremely welcoming and even though they had a brewery full of people took time out to talk with me and give me the scoop on Dallas’ note-worthy brewery.  I had to ask them, DEBC faced some stiff competition, with the likes of Jimmy’s Food Store, Twisted Root Burger Co., Bolsa, and CHOOZE Shoes, “how did you guys rally the troops in such a strong fashion to get the overwhelming amount of votes that you did to win the Battle of the Brands Competition?” 

John and Tait both echoed, “It’s all because of our fans, we have some pretty fanatical fans.”  Tait told me that one of DEBC’s fans got a tattoo of DEBC’s tap handle.

In the Battle of the Brands Competition we here at SourceLinkDallas observed that even companies new to social media were doing relatively well.

So I wondered if voter participation in Battle of the Brands was about more than just a company’s social media presence.  DEBC only has a few years out of the social media gate, but it has a strong following on Facebook and Twitter.  Tait said, “He delivered word of the competition to DEBC’s fans and they pushed it!”  And boy did the fans show up for DEBC!  I inquired further and asked John and Tait, “Your fans seem to go beyond simply supporting DEBC through social media, but rep DEBC like they’re telling others about their best friend who makes beer.  How did you guys develop that closeness with your customers that so many large corporations chase after?”  They both smiled and John said, “We are connected to our neighborhood [Deep Ellum] and Dallas.”  The three of us talked about the history of Deep Ellum and the history of Dallas breweries or lack thereof.  Tait informed me that DEBC utilizes another Deep Ellum business, Caliber Creative for most of its advertising work, such as, signage, bottle wrappers, merchandise, website design, and even DEBC’s logo.

We discussed for a bit how SourceLinkDallas is working to help facilitate networking among businesses by directing businesses to events that can provide opportunities for collaboration with the hopes that such action, along with other things we are doing at SourceLinkDallas, can assist entrepreneurs and the start-up community here in Dallas.  Both John and Tait nodded in agreement with the notion and told me how they were helping another small brewery in Denton, Armadillo Ale, allowing Armadillo Ale to brew in DEBC’s facilities to get going.  I felt like I was seeing the glowing ambers of business collaboration here in Dallas, and SourceLinkDallas is just trying to fan the fire; to connect businesses with resources whether that’s capital, training, or in this case industry peers who come together for the betterment of not only economic growth, but our communities as a whole.

After talking with John and Tait, it became clear to me, taking home the title of Dallas’ Favorite Brand and winning Battle of the Brands is about more than just a social media push, but it’s about developing a community around your business.  DEBC is on the right track and they work to develop relationships with not only their customers but also with the businesses around them.  Kudos to Deep Ellum Brewing Company, join me in congratulating them on winning SourceLinkDallas’ premier Battle of the Brands Competition!