“Two shots of vodka,” a man in his early 30s screamed, trying to get his voice over the music. He glanced back at what appeared to be his girlfriend just two feet behind him.
I countered just as loud: “We don’t have vodka. How about a beer?”
He shrugged, a little let down, but said, “Okay.”
He took the beers, listened to some off-key Blink 182 karaoke, hung out for a bit, and left. Despite the chalkboard, posters, and tin tackers everywhere, I’m pretty sure he had no idea he was drinking NA.
And honestly? I smiled inside. Took a little edge off his future hangover.
This happened more than once throughout the night. Some folks who swore they’d never drink a non-alcoholic beer kept coming back, sometimes with an alcoholic drink in one hand and ours in the other.
We were the main NA sponsor of Riot Fest, a Chicagoland music festival that’s as wild as it gets. Sixty thousand people per day. Blink 182, Green Day, Weezer, and yes, the Beach Boys with John Stamos. The whole event thrives on surprises, and in its 20th year, we decided to add one more.
We built a dive bar. But not just any dive bar. A non-alcoholic dive bar. Karaoke that sounded exactly how it should, darts, and airbrush tattoos of John Stamos that had a line 15 deep every single day.
Last year, our activation was simple: a taste test. Could people tell the difference between NA beer and alcoholic beer? It worked on paper. But it didn’t feel like anything.
This year, we wanted different. We wanted emotion.
I grew up on the Southeast Side of Chicago, spending more nights than I can count in dive bars. Places that weren’t polished, weren’t perfect, but were real.
So instead of a sleek brand booth, we recreated that. An NA dive bar. Something familiar, messy, and alive.
And it worked. Not because of the lack of alcohol per se, but because people could feel the energy. And if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that people remember how you make them feel more than anything else.
Whether or not you had an NA in your hand, you felt it was the place to be. That’s how I’ve seen things thrive, not as a binary decision or a label, but as an experience people want to be part of.
The result?
We sold 2X more than the year prior.
Sure, maybe 15% had no clue they were drinking NA. But the next time they’re in the store, I bet some of them will remember Go and grab a six-pack to take them back to the night they partied in the world’s first NA dive bar, whether they knew it or not.
