We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Maura Hardman a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Maura , thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear the story of how you went from this being just an idea to making it into something real.

This year for Pride, Seattle Cider Company is releasing a limited edition run of our Light Cider in special packaging. Beyond simply adding rainbows to our packaging, our team is partnering with a number of nonprofit partners in the LGBTQIA community to donate funds and raise awareness for their programs. We are also focusing a marketing campaign around the product and our partnerships. Our campaign is called “Love & Light” which feels particularly poignant right now.

The plan for the release began with a pitch from our marketing and sales teams to our GM. His response was overwhelmingly positive. After getting the green light for the programming, we got to work with the design and outreach to existing partners.

Our pitch was approved early in the year, but due to lead times with packaging, we had to move quickly. The design for the can lent itself easily to incorporating an intersectional rainbow. For the box design, we opted to make a big impact and included a list of inclusive words on the side of the carton. Additionally, we added a QR code to the bottom of the box to direct folks to our website where we can share additional information about our partnerships and our company connections in the community.

Our in-house team is very small. It’s me, designer and social media coordinator, Christina Dean, and lead designer, Justina Burns. Dean handles the packaging concepts while Justina built a web page. Everyone has been very hands on with every element. It’s quite incredible to see the sheer volume of work that my team has been able to create for this campaign while also handling their day-to-day requests.

As we build content for our upcoming campaigns, it was important that we work with a diverse group of folks to represent our diverse customer base, so we have scheduled photo shoots with folks from the Queer Mountaineers, tasting room customers, and even a group of local drag performers. The campaign will launch early May with the a kickoff party in our tasting room and a drag show featuring the performers that were kind enough to be part of our photo and video shoot.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I got into marketing in 2008 while running events for a Seattle nonprofit, Lifelong (formerly Lifelong AIDS Alliance). I coordinated the Seattle AIDS Walk, Gay Bingo, Dining Out for Life, Black Tie Bingo, and our contingent for the Seattle Pride Parade. I was involved in the rebrand for Gay Bingo and Seattle AIDS Walk, and later moved onto helping with ad buys for the events as well as helping build content and strategy for the organizations social channels.

In 2011, I began working Whole Foods Market and learned about retail marketing. I also had the opportunity to develop community partnerships and handle donations. I campaigned for our local stores to participate in the Seattle Pride Parade and was able to organize our parade presence. Some years, over 100 Whole Foods Market team members marched together in the parade.

I’ve now been at Seattle Cider Co (and sibling company Two Beers Brewing) since 2017. I was initially drawn to Seattle Cider Co because of their partnership with City Fruit, a local nonprofit that harvests and stewards urban fruit trees to support sustainable and equitable access to fruit. That partnership is still going strong, and we continue to build partnerships with a myriad of nonprofits including the GSBA, Pride Foundation, Center on Halsted, Food Lifeline, Trail Mixed Collective, the Special Olympics, FareStart, Washington Trails Association, and many more.

I’m proud to have always worked in spaces that embrace the beauty and diversity of our community- companies and organizations that see the importance of giving back and amplifying visibility for community partners. While our primary focus at Seattle Cider Co is making the highest quality cider we can make, it’s also deeply important that we support the work of partners that work tirelessly to make our community better and more accessible to all.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

Seattle Cider Co launched in 2013 and carved out space in the cider market by showing that cider did not have to be overly sweet, and that it could be made from the highest quality ingredients. That’s where our tagline “Not Your Standard Cider” came from. The ciders in the market at the time were overly sweet and largely made from concentrate, Our flagship, Dry cider, is made from fresh-pressed Washington apples and has no residual sugar. Dry has long been our top selling cider, so we were able to prove that there was a place in the market for something different. We’ve since continued to innovate the in the market, most recently with our release of Light Cider as we create a sub category that didn’t exist in cider, but has long existed in the beer space. It’s lower ABV, only 98 calories, and has an incredible flavor that showcased the beauty of pomme fruit while being accessible and approachable.

We also continue to build on our reputation of making high quality, craft cider by winning some of the most coveted awards in the cider community. Last year, we took home Best Large Cidery awards from both the Great Lakes International Cider and Perry Competition (GLINTCAP) and the Portland International Cider Cup (now rebranded as the Northwest Cider Awards) along with numerous medals from both competitions and medals from CiderCraft Awards and Sip Northwest Best of Cider Awards.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

The goal driving my personal creative journey is to do good in the world while also continuing to support the growth of our business. I think that ultimately more businesses can do both. At the end of the day, I want to believe that we made the best products possible while making our customers happy. I want to show that ciders can be creative, complex, nuanced and can be enjoyed with everything. But I want to show that we can do that while showing up for our community and giving back to organizations that do important work supporting the people in the communities we sell our products in.

Thankfully, I think that goal aligns well with what we continue to do as a company. I’m proud to work in the cider industry, and proud to do so as the Marketing & PR Manager for Seattle Cider Co.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.seattlecidercompany.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seattleciderco/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SeattleCiderCo
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/seattle-cider-company-llc/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/SeattleCiderCo
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/seattle-cider-company-seattle
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@seattleciderco

Image Credits
Award image credit to Northwest Cider Cup. All other images taken by Seattle Cider Co staff