The StateWays Magazine Control State Best Practices Awards launched in 2015 to as an annual way to recognize control state agencies that lead the industry in innovation, education and enforcement. These are the best of the best on the control state industry:

Best Consumer Education Program

North Carolina ABC Commission

By Krystina Skibo

Underage drinking prevention is a hot topic that many state organizations touch on to spread awareness and education in their local communities. The North Carolina ABC Commission’s Talk it Out NC program does just this, while also keeping attendees entertained and engaged.

Being mindful about the different backgrounds and settings that everyone comes from, Talk it Out NC places extra emphasis on educating young people and their parents about the dangers of alcohol misuse through athletic-related opportunities. What started as simple fact sheets developed into an NIL (name, image and likeness) partnership with role model student athletes from across North Carolina, the organization states.

Due to this approach, these efforts have been well received, causing the NC ABC Commission to build on and expand this program over the coming year. Below are some of the different components of this athletics-focused education project:

Educational materials and resources. One infographic in particular highlights How Alcohol Affects Athletic Performance. These negative effects include dehydration, muscle loss, increased risk of injury and more.

Coach and student-athlete pledge. This is an expansion of Talk it Out NC’s pledge program between parents and their children. It asks both coaches and their teams to commit to not drinking alcohol underage and setting a good example for each other. The pledge helps initiate that conversation and to encourage the coaches to keep them going and help their student-athletes make healthy decisions.

Talk it Out games of the week. NC ABC Commission partnered with the NC High School Athletic Association (NCHSAA) to feature high school sports teams across the state, both boys and girls and in a variety of sports, as they gear up for big games against important rivals. Talk it Out ambassadors visit the teams and share important health information and tips, and the teams collectively pledge not to drink alcohol underage.

In-person presentations. The NC ABC Commission staff speak directly to young people during presentations and community events using their own athletic experiences and perspectives.

“The NC ABC Commission emphasizes underage drinking prevention through our Talk it Out campaign, which is committed to meeting the public where they are in the ways that are most impactful for them,” says NC ABC Commission chairman Hank Bauer. “Some of our recent efforts include sharing information about how alcohol negatively impacts athletes, inspiring teams to pledge not to engage in underage drinking, celebrating collegiate athletes in North Carolina who choose to stay sober and sharing messages directly from star players about making smart and healthy decisions.”

“Talk it Out is continuing to expand and build on projects across North Carolina involving a variety of sports, spotlighting both men’s and women’s athletics,” notes education community outreach director Burna Mattocks. “One example is Talk it Out’s partnership with the North Carolina High School Athletic Association to host “Games of the Week” at high schools across NC: Talk it Out NC Spreads Awareness of Underage Drinking Dangers to Teen Athletes with “Game of the Week” | AP News.”

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Best Stakeholder Outreach Program

Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board

By Krystina Skibo

For 26 years, the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board’s (PLCB) Bureau of Alcohol Education (BAE) has been hosting its annual Alcohol Education Conference to inform attendees on the different strategies and best practices that are relevant to the prevention of underage and dangerous drinking in communities, schools and on campuses.

This free event offers a forum for law enforcement officials, educators and alcohol education professionals to come together in one location to receive updates on alcohol-related trends. It also allows attendees to learn about successful programs that are used to lower underage and dangerous alcohol consumption.

The next conference is slated for November 14, 2024, and will take place at the Penn Harris Hotel in Camp Hill, PA. According to the website, attendees can partake in workshops and presentations that will feature the latest beverage alcohol information, statistics, trends and prevention methods.

“Each year, we try to incorporate different sessions and topics,” says Corinne Dinoski, director of alcohol education for (PLCB). “This year, we are in the process of getting the registration open to the public so attendees can see the list of presentations and keynote speakers. We try to get presenters that have a lot to offer.”

Comprised of three educational tracks – community prevention and education, collegiate education and law enforcement – the event enables participants to:

Learn about successful public-private sector partnerships to reduce underage access to alcohol.

Explore the important role of families in preventing alcohol use and positive strategies to communicate the risks of underage drinking from early childhood through young adulthood.

Discover innovative program initiatives for college students designed to shape on-campus facilitators to educate fellow students on alcohol safety.

Hear about successful partnerships between colleges, law enforcement and communities to promote responsible social hosting practices and target underage events with alcohol.

Listen to effective engagement strategies for expanded on-campus prevention services for colleges and universities.

Develop social media strategies for reframing the culture and misperceptions about alcohol use among college students.

Receive an overview of the Pennsylvania State Police Bureau of Liquor Control Enforcement’s Nuisance Bar Program and speakeasy investigations and the penalties for licensees and bartenders that are non-compliant.

Network with like professionals to discuss prevention and program-related challenges.

Explaining the process of choosing the presenters and speakers, Dinoski says, “We send out a notice to everyone on our distribution list, post it on our website and sometimes publish a press release asking for presenters. Typically, we get more submissions than we can accept, but we end up with 13 sessions and two keynotes.”

Exhibitors, which consist of alcohol prevention/education agencies and drug and alcohol treatment centers, are also on site throughout the event to share information on program offerings and services that may be of interest to attendees.

Financed through education and supplemental awards grants from the National Alcohol Beverage Control Association, this annual education conference provides a perfect environment for professionals across the state to engage and learn in one place.

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Best Technology Innovation

Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board

By Krystina Skibo

In July 2023, the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board (PLCB) launched a new and improved version of its e-commerce retail platform, FWGS.com (Fine Wine & Good Spirits). Through this new platform, PLCB has been able to elevate the user experience through the implementation of enhanced design, navigation and functionality.

“It was a long time in the making, but I think that this really fulfills the brand promise,” says Stacy Kriedeman, marketing communications, branding & design director for FWGS. “It’s not just an e-commerce site. It also has a plethora of information on it to help educate consumers about wine and spirits as well as give them inspiration. We certainly hope that they enjoy it.”

Some of the features that come with the new FWGS platform include:

Enhanced ease of use and ordering. The mobile-optimized site features easy to read navigation and page content and offers customers more ways to shop through the addition of the option to buy online and pick up in store (BOPIS).

Streamlined account management. An upgraded dashboard allows users to easily navigate, filter and view previously placed orders, reference favorited products and recipes and access user taste profiles.

Expanded content and customer engagement. The ability to better engage FWGS.com customers via videos, GIFs and lifestyle imagery allows for higher clicks, longer page views and more website visits. Increased SEO makes it easy for customers to locate information via web search and tap/click address links as well as the ability to search by zip code, city and state or store ID to get directions to stores and store events.

Optimized site search. Predictive search capability allows customers to enter keywords and choose from a dropdown populated with the top three search results or view all returned search results for the keywords entered.

Simplified lottery registration for limited-availability, high-demand products. An improved registration process enables entrants of PLCB Limited-Release Lotteries to easily navigate, understand and complete lottery registration and supplies entrants with registration confirmation via an auto-generated email.

Maximized purchasing and selling for e-commerce exclusives. Due to improved BOT mitigation efforts to prevent fraudulent ordering of highly in-demand, limited inventory items and the new website’s ability to handle more traffic and eliminate timeout errors, more consumers can purchase these highly desired products. The new site also has functionality to better restrict orders to in-state residents and impose bottle limits on certain products.

Improved tracking and analytics. Greater breadth and flexibility in terms of SEO, paid advertising and search tactics allow for the generation of increased site traffic and sales, while improved analytics and the incorporation of pixels across product pages sitewide enables better, more reliable tracking of consumer behavior and the attribution of e-commerce sales to marketing efforts. 

“Whenever you have projects of this size and scope, there will always be unexpected challenges,” Kriedeman notes on the development of the platform. “When we were developing the initial wire frames and digital strategy behind the site, we were not anticipating a rollout of BOPIS at the time. That’s a pretty sizable change, but it wasn’t something that we couldn’t overcome, and I think we did it well.”

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Best Enforcement Program

Montgomery County Alcohol Beverage Services

By Kyle Swartz

Now in its second year, the Montgomery County Alcohol Beverage Services (ABS) Inventory Control and Loss Prevention Unit (ICLPU) has already paid dividends: maximizing profits while minimizing risk and loss.

The ICLPU was a collaborative effort among the ABS retail and wholesale teams, along with external business partners, led by the inventory control manager and the newly hired loss prevention manager. Combining a people-first approach with enhanced technical tools, the program has increased controls, standardized procedures, improved operating efficiency and implemented investigatory oversight.

Understanding that an effective inventory control and loss prevention program depends on collaboration with front-line employees, ICLPU focused on creating an environment of trust and communication. To achieve this, ICLPU started meeting monthly with retail store leadership about the routine audit, and meeting monthly with district managers to analyze metrics. The program also developed an online dashboard showing key metrics by location and district, shared monthly with all leadership.

These priorities helped to move the organization from an initial attitude of suspicion and skepticism to a culture of transparency and cooperation.

“Although there may have been some apprehensiveness initially, staff have fully embraced this program,” says Pete Schomburg, ABS loss prevention manager. “Employees have come to understand that this program keeps them safer and contributes to a culture of accountability.”

The incident reporting dashboard, called LP Monthly Metrics, has been particularly helpful in creating data-driven change by harnessing and analyzing the employee experience. Employees have reported more than 1,800 incidents since October 2022, ranging from petty shoplifting to organized crime to policies and procedures to internal controls. Field officers investigated each of these reports and made referrals or recommendations as warranted.

Using LP Monthly Metrics, ICLPU identified and addressed trends in shoplifting, such as top locations, items and days of the week. It used this data to raise awareness and preparedness among retail employees.

ICLPU’s programs also contributed to more timely arrests and prosecutions for repeat shoplifting and large-scale thefts. The team has recovered approximately $15,000 through court-ordered restitution and has an additional $26,000 in restitution pending. These successes act as a deterrent for would-be thieves. The department saw a decrease in verified shoplifting events by 29% from its peak of 154 incidents in a 30-day period.

“This type of program supports ABS’s business functions by identifying vulnerabilities in real time and creating informed responses to them,” says Schomburg. “It empowers employees to make improvements to the workplace and the bottom line, giving them meaningful tools for success. These successes get passed to the community through a more pleasant shopping experience, preserved revenue that gets returned to the general fund, and better safety and security in the community as a result of the multi-agency collaborations.

Ongoing employee training has proven effective. This includes quarterly virtual question and answer sessions, in-person site visits from the field officers and on-site bulletin boards with written notices and instructions for using the incident reporting portal.

At only two years old, ICLPU is still developing. In the coming year, the program and its leaders expect to expand into wholesale functions, add more metrics and continue to formalize partnerships and policies.

“ICLPU is exploring ways to integrate its expertise more deeply into the organization,” Schomburg says. “While many of ILCPU’s efforts have been focused on the ABS retail stores, the unit sees opportunities to reduce shrink at other levels and is examining processes departmentwide.”

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Best Trade/Licensee Education Program

New Hampshire Liquor Commission

By Kyle Swartz

To improve the ordering experience for its licensees, brokers and suppliers, the New Hampshire Liquor Commission (NHLC) has undergone a significant transition to a new ordering process and system.

With 65 NH Liquor & Wine Outlet locations across the state, this years-long transition was a complete overhaul for NHLC, as the commission had utilized its legacy system, Mapper, for nearly 40 years. Now, NHLC uses a new system called NextGen, which unifies processes previously split between multiple customer relationship management and ordering services.

The new system features advanced ordering and inventory tools, and allows partners to easily submit and handle product allocations, acting as a one-stop solution for NHLC and its business partners.

Because NHLC had used the same system for decades, communication with its licensees, brokers and suppliers was of the utmost importance before launching NextGen in April 2024. Leading up to the launch, NHLC sent out more than 45 email campaigns, and made nearly 2,000 outbound phone calls from its call center to commission partners to inform and train them on NextGen.

The teams behind this program designed and implemented the outreach specific to this new ordering process with five steps – define the objective, identify the audience, develop key messaging, choose communication channels and measure progress and adjust.

Define The Objective: The primary objective was to enhance communication with licensees to foster better relationships, improve compliance and keep them informed about relevant updates, policies and events.

Identify the Audience: The teams conducted an analysis to understand the different types of licensees they needed to communicate with, categorizing them based on on-premise, off-premise and enforcement.

Develop Key Messaging: The teams tailored messaging to each of these audiences, including developing a timeline of communications and cutoff deadlines.

Choose Communication Channels: The teams identified opportunities to interact with licensees, including email communications, invoice stuffers, mailers and phone calls.

Measure Progress and Adjust: The teams developed a dashboard allowing for metrics that could be used to understand progress and pivot where necessary.

Additionally, NHLC staff conducted more than 40 webinars to educate partners on the system and to give them opportunities to ask NHLC questions.

“Because we utilized our legacy system, Mapper, for nearly 40 years, communication with licensees, brokers and suppliers was paramount,” says NHLC chairman Joseph Mollica. “We wanted our business partners to really engage in all education and training programs prior to the NextGen launch to ensure they would be ahead of the learning curve and comfortable with the new system. With nearly 50 email campaigns sent, thousands of calls made and more than 40 webinars hosted, our partners had extensive opportunities to ask questions and learn more about NextGen.”

“We also developed a dashboard that allowed team members to input critical information in real-time and also seamlessly work on the project at the same time as others,” adds Mollica. “This also allowed us to create progress reports and effectively troubleshoot when partners would contact us for support.”

NHLC also created a landing page specifically for licensees, brokers and suppliers, which hosted user guides, several trainings on the system’s new features, customer service contact information and a chat feature for partners to directly interact with NHLC staff. The landing page generated more than 28,500 engagements and 1,000 chats from nearly 5,900 licensees.

The results were positive.

“Licensees, brokers and suppliers were all impressed with the quantity and detail of communication sent prior to system launch,” says Mollica. “Partners also shared they thought the call center was well-staffed and equipped with the information needed to quickly troubleshoot issues and answer questions.”

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Best Retail Innovation

New Hampshire Liquor Commission

By Kyle Swartz

As the New Hampshire Liquor Commission’s (NHLC) second-busiest sales period, the holiday season is an ideal time to engage customers and drive sales. NHLC launched its 2023 holiday bonus card program this past November, utilizing a robust multi-channel strategy to captivate customers with bonus card offerings and prize giveaways while also reinforcing the sponsor brands: Tito’s Vodka and Josh Cellars.

From Nov. 1 to Dec. 31, customers received a $10 bonus card for every $50 spent on NH Liquor & Wine Outlet gift cards. In addition to the gift card promotion, NHLC’s holiday campaign utilized an “Enter to Win” activation, giving customers an opportunity to receive two Loon Mountain four-season access passes and a $2,000 lodging gift card, two electric bike packages and 10 $100 NH Liquor & Wine Outlet gift card prizes.

To boost awareness for the campaign, NHLC leveraged radio, social media (Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat), email blasts, out-of-home ads on CBS Pre-Roll, Hulu and Simon Mall, and Google Display ads, driving customers to NH Liquor & Wine Outlets across the state. NHLC also created a landing page, as well as YouTube videos, specifically for the campaign, allowing customers to enter the giveaway and to learn more about the program.

NHLC sent two email campaigns to its customers promoting the bonus card, driving foot traffic to NH Liquor & Wine Outlets, and one email blast promoting the giveaway, which drove visitors to the holiday landing page. NHLC sent all three emails to half a million customers combined, and each email had a more-than 40% open rate, with thousands of clicks to the landing page. 

The campaign was a resounding success. It generated more than 31,630,000 brand impressions and a 545% increase in gift card quantity. NHLC’s social media posts promoting the program reached nearly 34,000 accounts, resulting in more than 15,000 clicks to the campaign landing page. The Google Display ads garnered more than 8.2 million impressions and 22,140 clicks, while the video campaign yielded nearly 828,000 impressions.

Furthermore, the radio and display ads produced more than 20 million impressions and the out-of-home ads generated nearly 335,000 impressions.

“Not only did customer engagement across our social media platforms skyrocket, but the program grew our customer count and encouraged bulk purchasing as customers would return to buy more products and to redeem any gift cards as well as bonus cards,” says NHLC chairman Joseph Mollica. “Revenue and overall sales significantly increased through this program, generating an additional $34 million in revenue compared to the previous year and growing gift card sales dollars by 50 times the previous amount. Overall, the campaign generated more than 31,630,000 brand impressions and increased gift card quantity by 545%.”

Will they run the program again?

“Yes, we are planning to run the Holiday Bonus Card program again later this year during the holidays,” says Mollica. “We also ran a similar program, the Bonus Card Gold Rush, in August, which gave customers the opportunity to earn a $25 bonus card for every $150 spent in stores.”

The post Announcing the 2024 Best Practices Winners appeared first on StateWays.

The StateWays Magazine Control State Best Practices Awards launched in 2015 to as an annual way to recognize control state agencies that lead the industry in innovation, education and enforcement. These are the best of the best on the control state industry: Best Consumer Education Program North Carolina ABC Commission By Krystina Skibo Underage drinking prevention is
The post Announcing the 2024 Best Practices Winners appeared first on StateWays. Read More