Written by Claire Sigler, professional development director at Allen Hall Public Relations. 

At our Oct. 31 meeting, we heard from Ali AAsum, Communications Director at Ninkasi Brewing in Eugene, Oregon. She was thrilled to tell us about her experience working at both an agency and in-house setting for several food and beverage, entertainment and consumer clients.

In-house PR professionals wear many hats.
When Ali worked in an agency setting, she focused primarily on the public relations strategy of 8-10 clients at a time. When she started to work at Ninkasi, she became responsible for several different aspects of their communication strategy including copywriting, social media, content marketing and strategy oversight. She has done everything from product naming to creating editorial content in order to establish the Ninkasi brand and get the word out about its products.

Dynamic storytelling is essential for successful media relations.
One of Ali’s favorite things about working at Ninkasi is the unique stories she gets to tell. Its beer Ground Control is made from yeast that was physically launched into space. She called this story “PR gold” because it gave her the opportunity to reach out to several new communities, such as influencers in the space world in order to start the “beer and space” conversation.

Be an advocate for your client.
Whether it is creating cooking videos that use beer as an ingredient or reaching out to local Eugene artists to draw the design on their next beer can, Ali remains busy finding new and innovative ways to show people what unique beer Ninkasi brews. She explained that you don’t have to be a beer connoisseur to be successful in the beverage industry, you just have to be passionate about the product and motivated to share it with your audience. In addition to being a beer advocate for her consumer audience, she enjoys being a PR advocate in her own office and educating her non-PR co-workers about its importance.

To learn more about Ninkasi Brewing visit: click here.

Follow Ali on Twitter: click here.