A state-backed tourism brand and a Michigan craft brewer have turned a seasonal collaboration into a live marketing channel. Pure Michigan and Short's Brewing Company are again co-producing the Pure Michigan Fall IPA — brewed entirely from Michigan-sourced ingredients — currently on tap in select bars and restaurants statewide and available at craft beer retailers across Michigan. The partnership is the consumable anchor of a broader fall campaign that spans connected TV, streaming audio, print, OOH, social, and search, and targets 19 regional markets from Chicago to Minneapolis to Toledo.
For food and beverage operators, the co-branded beer is the part of this story worth dissecting. It converts destination marketing spend into a physical product that sits in a tap handle or on a retail shelf — delivering impressions at the point of consumption rather than just the point of inspiration. Breweries, cider producers, and regional food brands with tourism adjacency should note the structure: a state DMO provides media reach, a craft producer provides distribution, and the resulting SKU travels further than any single ad placement.
The Media Stack
The campaign launched in August and runs across print, OOH, streaming audio, digital, CTV, social, and search — funded through a mix of brand and partner dollars. Premium CTV placements include Amazon Prime and Netflix, where the In Vivid Color video spot is running. A partnership with National Geographic produced a paid-content feature on Michigan's Sunset Coast, and a full-page spread in Midwest Living's fall "The Color Issue" adds print reach. Geographic targeting covers 12 out-of-state metro markets plus 7 in-state markets, a two-tier model that balances visitor acquisition with in-state visitation lift. For operators evaluating regional tourism campaigns or co-op advertising opportunities, this tiered geo-targeting approach — national content platform plus local market activation — is increasingly the template state-level DMOs are deploying.
What This Signals for Operators
Pure Michigan is marking its 20th year as a destination brand, and the campaign structure reflects how mature DMOs are evolving: beverage partnerships that generate earned media and on-premise presence, multi-platform video built for streaming environments, and interactive digital tools (a live Fall Color Map, an email subscription for peak-color alerts) that extend the campaign's useful life beyond a single ad flight. For Michigan-based restaurant and bar operators, the IPA provides a ready-made seasonal menu story with built-in marketing support. For beverage suppliers and regional food brands evaluating co-marketing structures with tourism bodies, this collaboration demonstrates that ingredient sourcing provenance — all-Michigan inputs — is a viable editorial hook that earns placement in consumer-facing brand storytelling.
Operators sourcing local and regional craft beverages for fall menu rotations should also note the distribution signal here: the Pure Michigan Fall IPA is moving through both on-premise (bars and restaurants) and off-premise (craft retail) channels simultaneously, which is a useful proof point for any craft beverage brand making the case for dual-channel distribution to buyers.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
