Christian Krogstad, Co-owner, House Spirits Distillery
"When we first started talking to Watershed we had the idea that we wanted to be regionally or even nationally distributed but we didn't know how to go about approaching, packaging a story, conveying what was a pretty interesting story to the people who write about these things and help us get our name out in the press. I think a lot of what's come about has just been Watershed knowing what writers were talking about, what they were researching and what they were working on and working on ways to include House Spirits.

We've basically gone from having some quirky local press in Corvallis to getting some great recognition."

House Spirits
Micro-Distillery located in Portland, OR
Product Launch
Challenge: No advertising budget, no name recognition, minor growth, competitive industry, no national attention on micro-distilling
Solution: Target A-list writer friends, hand deliver bottles to NY media, position Oregon and House Spirits at the forefront of a craft distillery movement
Result: Feature story on NPR, six-page feature in GQ, opened distillery in Portland, four products in line, booming micro-distilling industry in Oregon