90 Days with Spirit Hound Distillers

On Jan. 19, 2025, the TTB officially recognized American Single Malt Whisky as its own category — a historic milestone and the first new US whisky classification in over 50 years.

Following the designation, Spirit Hound Distillers engaged Turn It Up® to leverage their authentic brand story and 13 year commitment to distilling award-winning American Single Malt Whisky. Turn It Up used a multi-pronged marketing approach to position Spirit Hound and Colorado as leaders of the ASMW narrative on the regional and national stage.  

For Spirit Hound, the new TTB recognition is deeply meaningful. Since 2012, they followed the very standards now required by law: 100% malted barley, mashed, distilled, and aged at a single US distillery in barrels.

Co-founder and Head Distiller Craig Engelhorn, inspired by the rigor of Scotch tradition, has long advocated for clear standards that honor quality and transparency. That’s why, like the Scots, Spirit Hound spells it “whisky” — without the ‘e’. It’s a nod to the heritage and standards that inspired the distillery.

MEDIA RELATIONS STRATEGY: ONBOARDING WITH A FAMILIAR FRIEND

Over the years we have worked with Spirit Hound Distillers on Brand Identity, Content Creation, Go to Market Strategy, Sales & Distribution and Media Relations, so we were able to roll up our sleeves and hit the ground running…QUICKLY.  By leveraging our deep understanding of the Spirit Hound brand, nearly 20 years of hands-on beverage go-to-market experience, strong relationships within National beverage and local Colorado consumer media we quickly developed a media relations strategy in support of Spirit Hound Distillers goals. 

But first, we needed to do a quick bit of content creation and graphic design to support the strategy.

Remember THIS Spirit Hound Distillers Brand Development project?

PRODUCT PHOTOGRAPHY: ELEVATE THE BRAND

To effectively position Spirit Hound as an industry leader and develop messaging that resonates with spirits connoisseurs, we hit the distillery for a quick round of product photography. We developed a library of images to support the Spirit Hound brand story and the initial phases of our media relations strategy.

MEDIA RELATIONS TACTICS: ENGAGING WITH THE MEDIA 

With a clear understanding of the Spirit Hound brand, including their goals and priority narratives, we rolled into a media relations strategy. Starting in February, we leaned into relevant social holidays and cultural moments as opportunities to weave Spirit Hound into local and national editorial coverage. Through a mix of press releases, media alerts, samples, familiarity trips and targeted vertical tasting events, we set out to tell the world about Spirit Hound’s award winning spirits.

GRAPHIC DESIGN: SUPPORT THE STORY

With fresh photography in hand, we created media relations support materials for two of our immediate priority tactics; a local Colorado familiarity trip between Spirit Hound locations and a targeted top tier vertical whisky tasting with co-founder and head distiller Craig Engelhorn.  

National Vertical Whisky Tasting: Craig created a curated list of award winning whiskys to best represent the 13-year award-winning catalog of ASMW and the uniqueness of their single barrel approach. To support the event we created a format of organized samples, storytelling and tasting cards to reveal the tasting notes, year, barrel and accolades associated with each of the samples. The guests were astonished to realize the quality and opportunity that they had sampled barrel #1 among others.  

Colorado Familiarity Trip: We scheduled a familiarity trip starting at Spirit Hound’s Denver tasting room and cocktail lounge and provided transportation for local media to the Lyons distillery and tasting room. By providing a first-hand opportunity to engage Craig’s pallet and vision for the spirits, we gave our media guests a taste of everything Spirit Hound had to offer. We also designed and printed Media Kits for each reporter that outlined the Spirit Hound story, ASMW story, a deep dive into the spirits and provided eight current story topics, ideas and details including photography. Check out our familiarity trip BTS Instagram REEL HERE.

MEDIA RELATIONS RESULTS: TELL THE STORY

With a strong strategy and support materials in hand, it was time to tell the Spirit Hound story. With a priority on  Colorado and National consumer-facing publications and leading industry media outlets, we aligned the Spirit Hound narrative and industry position at all three tiers of the industry.

Colorado Consumer Media - Consistently communicate your story, align with local narratives and drive brand awareness in your home/priority market.

National Consumer - Amplify your brand reach and gain unbiased and real engagement with readers of trusted national publications.  Merchandise earned media placements to drive consumer confidence through owned media channels (social media, website, newsletter) and in-market materials.

Beverage Industry - Win share of mind by securing industry-facing media placements reinforcing your brand investments, successes, and sales strategies to drive distributor engagement and retailer shelf space.

Although we don’t typically see this type of success in 90 days, our familiarity with the Spirit Hound Distillers brand, our deep understanding of the beverage industry, strong relationships and a lot of hustle from the Turn It Up team not only made the jumpstart of the project an immediate success, it also was a ton of fun and we’re we're looking forward to what success lies ahead.