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IPCPR 2013 Social Media Rankings: Drew Estate, Rocky Patel, Alec Bradley Take Top Three

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Everyone knows IPCPR is one of the largest cigar events of the year in the United States. Thousands of cigar brands, retailers, bloggers, and other enthusiasts descend to smoke and purchase the newest blends from the hottest brands. Any high-energy, well-publicized event like IPCPR presents a great opportunity for companies willing to leverage social media to get exposure to tens of thousands of cigar smokers on social media.

So who were the top performers at IPCPR this year? The results are below. But first a note: these results are not comprehensive. They do not cover all cigar brands at IPCPR (that would be impossible), nor do they cover all social media platforms. I limited my statistical analysis to the previous 7 days of tweeting activity on Twitter because its open environment  allows me to get the most detailed information. Yes, it is one platform among many, but the stats sill tell a solid story. Nonetheless, I have also included a some anecdotal analysis because there were some brands who made some spectacular plays on other networks like Facebook (i.g. Alec Bradley sends first cigars into space). If you’re wondering why I didn’t include more brands (even big ones), it is because this kind of research takes a lot of work and I was looking for representative samples.

Rankings are based on total number of company mentions during the week of IPCPR.

The results

Screen Shot 2013-07-19 at 12.31.36 PMDrew Estate dominated social media this year, with Rocky Patel and Alec Bradley coming in second and third. We’ll go into the how and why’s of it in a minute. But quickly I should explain that the “Total company mentions” column on the right is not the sum of “hashtag mentions” and “ipcpr mentions” – it includes more tweets, like those that @ mention the company, use slang terms for the company, etc. Thus it is the most comprehensive metric, and the one which judged rankings.

How did Drew Estate do it?

Drew Estate crushed it this year for a few reasons:

  1. Drew Estate made a concerted effort to draw their customers into the IPCPR experience using an IPCPR hashtag.
  2. Drew Estate motivated  their customers to participate in the hashtag by featuring posts on a company webpage designed specifically for IPCPR.
  3. Drew Estate posted across multiple platforms – Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, achieving a maximum reach across platform audiences. They were also smart in posting content across platforms (i.e. their Facebook page is full of their YouTube interviews).
  4. Company employees were active on social and responded/thanked users who submitted posts with #DEipcpr.

Screen Shot 2013-07-19 at 12.44.28 PMDrew Estate did a fantastic job and all cigar companies could learn a thing or two on how to engage customers and increase brand loyalty.

Honorable mention: Alec Bradley

Alec Bradley didn’t have nearly as much social momentum during IPCPR 2013, but they deserve an honorable mention here for the sheer creativity of their marketing approach. While in Vegas, they made history by launching the first cigars into space. Yeah. The post had 11 shares, over a hundred likes, and a lot of comments. I estimate this post had a viral reach in the tens of thousands, and will be posted around the internet for a long time to come.

Way to go Alec Bradley!

Screen Shot 2013-07-19 at 12.50.52 PMWhat about Rocky Patel?

I’m a big fan of Rocky Patel cigars – great flavor, incredibly consistent construction, awesome pricing too. Their performance on social this year, however, wasn’t so much the result of the company having a solid social media strategy. A cursory glance around their networks revealed that they didn’t put a lot of effort into getting people involved this year, indicating they were riding on existing brand excitement.

Rocky Patel vs Alec Bradley

If you want to see what a bad approach to social media looks like, just take a look at the Rocky Patel Facebook page as compared to a brand like Alec Bradley. Here is the Rocky Patel Facebook page:

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Note that there is no visual content, very little interaction from page fans, and it really ends up just being a feed for events. The page is visually unappealing and doesn’t represent the brand well at all. It is, in short, really boring. Whoever is managing their page needs to correct course if they want to get any value from their Facebook page – right now it is a waste.

Now take a look at Alec Bradley’s stream. They have roughly the same amount of page fans, but look how their rate of interaction is literally 50x that of Rocky Patel’s page:

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The lesson? Be creative, use visual content, and try to act like you care about your Facebook fans enough to give them good content!

Congratulations to Drew Estate and Alec Bradley for putting on a stellar performance with social media at this year’s IPCPR!

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Cigar Wars: Missouri Seeks to Dramatically Hike Tobacco Tax, IPCPR Opposes

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September 27, 2012 (Jefferson, MO) – Proposition B, a proposed 150% tax increase on cigars and pipe tobacco, in addition to a 760% tax increase on cigarettes, is causing quite a stir in Missouri. Politicians claim the tax hike will help fund education and health care, while small business owners are criticizing the open attack on their businesses.

Opponents of the initiative, including the International Premium Cigar & Pipe Retailers Association (IPCPR), point out that none of the tax revenue raised by Prop. B is required to be spent on tobacco-related illnesses, but rather that a board of bureaucrats directs where the money is spent, even going so far as being able to fund their own special-interest groups.

“We elected these men and women to protect our businesses, not tax them into the ground. One group of business shouldn’t be continually attacked simply because some bureaucrats need to fund a project or initiative. All Missourians should pay their fair share in taxes, rather than one group being endlessly attacked,” said Curt Diebel, owner of Diebel’s Sportsmens Gallery in Kansas City, MO.

The IPCPR also fears that this tax increase will result in “border bleed,” the movement of tobacco sales to neighboring states with lower taxes, ultimately harming local businesses and forfeiting the tax revenue that the Missouri state government sought in the first place.

“Most small tobacconists throughout this country are mom-and-pop operations dotting the American Main Street. In an already tumultuous economy, the government should be focused on preserving jobs, not destroying them,” said Bill Spann, CEO of the IPCPR.

The initiative will be up for vote in November.

Cigar Wars: IPCPR Opposes Omaha City Council Tax Plan

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September 25, 2012 (Omaha, NE) — A recently proposed occupation tax in Omaha, Nebraska threatens to levy a 7% tax on sales of all tobacco products. The International Premium Cigar & Pipe Retailers Association (IPCPR) strongly opposes this “specialty tax” as it will be detrimental to area premium cigar and pipe retailers.

The tax is designed to raise funds for a University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) expansion. UNMC has $1.2 billion dollars available, which is more than enough to pay for the project. Taxpayers are wondering why they are being forced to fund the university’s expansion.

The IPCPR fears the tax can lead to “border bleed:” the movement of sales from local businesses to neighboring shops as well as to online and mail-­order retailers in order to avoid onerous taxation. Small businesses, including premium tobacco shops, are extremely sensitive to swings in economy and taxation. Adding on yet another tax only compounds the problem in an abysmal economy and increases stress on businesses by driving sales out of  the city.

“The tobacco industry is not a bottomless well for taxes, fees and the like. We are mom­‐and‐pop, Main Street businesses in an industry struggling to survive under increasing scrutiny ad attacks from our very own elected officials, who we elected to defend us. The people who work in this industry shouldn’t have to go home every night fearing that their jobs are being regulated or taxed out of existence every time the government has a project they want to complete” said Bill Spann, CEO of the IPCPR.

This city-­forced tax will certainly prove challenging as businesses struggle to regain footing  and grow in this economy.

Press Release: 14TH Co-sponsor Signs on to S. 1461

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Senator Dean Heller (R-NV) signed on as a cosponsor of S. 1461, the companion bill of H.R. 1639 yesterday.

The bills, also known as the Traditional Cigar Manufacturing and Small Business Jobs Preservation Act of 2011, seek to exempt premium cigars from FDA regulation.

Senator Heller previously served as Nevada’s Representative to the Second Congressional District, as Nevada’s Secretary of State for three terms, and in the Nevada State Assembly for two terms.

 

He currently serves on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee; the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee; and the Special Committee on Aging. Jobs and the economy continue to be Senator Heller’s top priorities.

If the FDA is allowed to regulate the premium cigar industry, it could include changes such as banning walk-in humidors, altering advertisement and store signage, and regulating the blends of tobacco in cigars. The House bill currently has 219 cosponsors, and is above majority.

The Senate bill has 14 cosponsors.

For more information, visit www.ipcpr.org

Cigar Wars: Letter from IPCPR States Facts, Demands Retraction from Anti-Tobacco Groups

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I’m glad to see someone is doing their homework, because the American Cancer Society and over 40 anti-tobacco groups certainly aren’t. A  letter signed by anti-smoking groups arguing against HR 1639 (exempting cigars from FDA oversight) stated,

“We are particularly concerned about the wide range of products that would likely be exempted from any regulation under the bill, including Swisher Sweets Sweet Chocolate Blunts, Phillies Sugarillos Cigarillos (described on the box as “when sweet isn’t enough!”), White Owl grape Blunts Xtra, and Optimo peach Blunts. These products come in flavors and are among the most popular with youth.”

From the text of the letter, and some commentary posted by other anti-tobacco leaders, this exemption is some sort of sneaky ploy by big tobacco to shift away from marketing cigarettes to children to marketing cigars to children. And if that was the case, it really would be a pretty terrible thing.

Our friends at the American Cancer Society didn’t do their homework. As a letter from the IPCPR points out,  the text of HR 1639 states that the exemption is for cigars that are “wrapped in leaf tobacco, contains no filter, and weighs at least 6 pounds per 1,000 count…” 

If you know anything about Swisher Sweets, you’d know that they are not wrapped in leaf tobacco – a detail that the ACS probably missed, presumably because they don’t know anything about the premium cigar products they are trying to destroy.

Many thanks to the writers of HR 1639, who provided a short, concise exemption that keeps cheap, sweetened cigars highly regulated while trying to save the premium cigar industry.

Read the full IPCPR press release here.