We’re accustomed to seeing Sonoma County breweries getting glowing write ups in the beer press, topping lists of favorite beers, and attracting the swooning attention of travel writers, but this item stood out.
From a Japanese language magazine, known as U.S. Front Line, focused on immigrant communities in the United States, particularly in metro New York and Los Angeles, comes a write-up on the success of our local brewers at the 2013 Great American Beer Fest (to recap: A gold and a bronze medal for Third Street Aleworks, silver for Russian River, bronze for Bear Republic, and a bronze for our out-of-county friends at Moylan’s). The interesting part is that we hardly understand a word of it because our Japanese is a little rusty. Presumably the writers are saying nice things.
Turns out this was the handiwork of the Santa Rosa Convention & Visitors Bureau, which sent out a press release in November touting the success of the Sonoma County breweries. “The ever growing craft-brewing community in Sonoma County is keeping right-up with the much-loved wine industry,” they wrote in English.
Executive Director Brad Calkins tells me he wasn’t aiming for the Japanese market in particular, so this item comes as a pleasant surprise. He said the pickup appears to be the doing of TravMedia, an agency that distributes press releases to travel-oriented media outlets and claims a following of around 25,000 journalists worldwide.
“The press release was not directed to the Japanese or foreign market, the goal is to share what is unique about Santa Rosa including many of our different niche markets,” Brad said. “I have done press release on food, beer and wine awards along with cycling, The Amgen Tour, Schulz Museum and Safari West as example of what we have to offer.”
Here’s the full page from this edition:
Anyone read Japanese? We’d be curious to know exactly what this piece does say.
- Sean Scully
