Bayside Rum
Total Raised:
$100,790
Number of pledges
130
Country:
New Zealand
Bayside Rum is an Auckland based rum business.
Background
During Covid lockdown while he was working in Dubai, bartender Egor Petrov decided he wanted to return home to New Zealand and create a rum that would stand out on the world stage. He’d tasted hundreds of rums over the years, and he wanted to develop something unique that was distinct to New Zealand.
Their first rum release was Three Moons Rum. It’s made from 100% black strap molasses using their kumara fermentation starter, distilled in a New Zealand-made 100% copper pot still, and rested in New Zealand ex-pinot noir casks for three months. Three Moons soon picked up a silver medal at the New Zealand Spirits Awards and the Bayside team established a strong retail presence with their bottles stocked in bars and stores across Aotearoa.
Early in 2023 Egor and his wife found themselves in a supply chain corner.
Despite their initial success, their little family business was facing some challenges. Their stock had sold out, and sourcing their ingredients proved to be difficult due to pandemic-related supply chain issues.
They had developed their successful recipe and wanted it to be available in New Zealand and beyond. But first, they needed a bit of help to establish supply-chain continuity. So they decided to launch a PledgeMe campaign.
“You have to get over your ego, put yourself out there and really make sure that you represent the brand in a way that, there’s no plan B. This is it. People start really believing in you.
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Timeline
“Looking forward to trying the Rum, with the current pledge level looks like you’ll be busy for a while making some rum for us all :-)”
What worked well?
Large rewards - Bayside took a risk and tried selling barrels of rum as rewards. They were able to sell them for their usual price as they’d cut out the cost of their distributor. A 10-litre oak barrel of Bayside rum was available for $1800, while their large barrel of rum cost $8000. It was these higher-priced rewards that enabled them to shoot much higher than they expected.
Conversations - Egor had a series of conversations with potential customers that allowed him to get them over the line from being interested, to being on board and actually pledging. He looked forward to the questions they asked as they helped him make improvements. One barrel pledger sent Bayside’s T&Cs to a lawyer, who said everything was fine, which was also validating.
Lower minimum target - On advice they reduced the minimum target which made it more achievable and created a buzz around success.
Great media coverage - Egor and his business partner Eugene managed to get coverage from Stuff, which in turn sent an article around New Zealand to 11 more regional papers. They also featured on TVNZ Channel One, on TVNZ, plus other media. This led to the bulk of their pledges.
Email marketing - People had been signing up to an email list via their Shopify page for sometime. They were also able to email people via the PledgeMe updates, each lead to spikes in pledges..
Socials - Egor individually asked everyone who was following his business and personal social media accounts if they’d like to pledge or share the campaign. This helped him reach more people.
Conclusion
Bayside Rum raised $100,790 from 130 pledgers. The funds enabled them to buy much-needed ingredients, in bulk. They’re now able to maintain their presence in bars and shops around the country.
Egor feels incredibly excited about the future of Bayside Rum. They’re releasing their Sugar and Spice Rum in July and are working with a professional on a campaign.
“Now we’re going to have our own facility and hopefully soon enough we’ll be overseas and it will be a really big deal for New Zealand.”
From working in hospitality as a bartender to creating his own brand. Egor says he’s “kept curious and kept growing,” over the years.
“Honestly, if I can do it, the majority of other people can do it too because I failed school, I failed university. And I don’t think it’s because I’m challenged in any way, it’s because tertiary study just doesn’t suit me.
Egor says the project campaign was life-changing for he and his team.
“You realise that people actually believe in you and what you’re doing, which is really cool because before, we’d only released two batches of the rum and it … was almost on a hobby level, but … this has really propelled us to the point where quite a few people know about us and are actually backing us now.”
Your action plan
Putting it into practice
Gauge the interest of your crowd
Your crowd is the most important part of a successful crowdfunding campaign and talking to them beforehand is key. If they don’t show a strong enough interest in pledging to your project, it’s better to wait and work on those relationships.
Have a clear action and comms plan beforehand
Having an almost-daily calendar of actions each core team member will take is key to success too. You need to appreciate that running a project campaign successfully will be almost like having another job (in terms of the time and effort involved) during the campaign period.
Prepare to have your story seen and heard
You have a story. Make sure it’s seen and heard by arranging plenty of attractive visuals, media features, an honest, authentically ‘you’ project-description, and a good comms plan.
How can PledgeMe help?
If you’re considering a project crowdfunding campaign, we’re ready to help. Contact us for a chat.
If you’d like to learn the foundations of running a successful project crowdfunding campaign, register your interest for our new online course Project Lite.
You can also learn more about creating a project crowdfunding campaign in New Zealand on our website.
