porch pours & party parcels
building and growing a concept during quarantine

The problem & the solution

When COVID-19 forced us, like many, to work full time from home, my team at AGAR immediately went to work to figure out how we could still be social without being in groups, or, more importantly, on Zoom. Porch Pours was the solution: a socially distanced alternative for that jovial drink at the end of the week. As we explained when introducing the concept to audiences, “This isn’t a city-wide virtual call in. It’s more than that. Though we’re still distant, there’s comfort in knowing that at the same time, we are all beckoning to our porch windows or decks, listening to the same playlist set as the city soundtrack, and together toasting from afar the same menu of cocktails.”

To replicate a physical communal experience, we created multiple shared elements that were accessible to many. When participants RSVP’ed on the website, they were emailed a free digital kit that included:

• Party information: shared time, individual places, and how to share on social media

• A shareable digital invitation meant to encourage neighbors to join in as well

• A unique menu of drinks including a feature from Molly Wellman, a nationally renowned Cincinnati bartender and owner.

• A playlist that anyone could access on YouTube or Spotify

Porch Pours was a straightforward idea that evolved throughout quarantine and beyond. It was rewarding to continue to bring people together and to bring solutions to the table when being together physically can create problems for our health.

The First Porch Pours
Porch Pours 2, Brew Buddies
The Party Parcel & Memorial Day Porch Pours
Associated Events: Flying Pig & PRIDE

Promoting an event with hundreds of locations

We wanted to move quickly, so we set the date and gave ourselves four days to promote. We set up an event page that could hold information about the event and act as a portal for collecting RSVPs using the platform, SplashThat. We got the word out by creating a Facebook Event page and promoting on AGAR channels. Luckily, local news also picked up on our event and it was shared on WCPO. RSVPs were rolling in and we began communicating with attendees via email to share digital kits and share details for the event.

the results

On Friday, April 3, we discovered, unsurprisingly, that there were a lot of people, not only in our zip code but all over the country, that also felt in need of a shared activity. We saw the following results:

• Over 2,500 people RSVP’ed, with an additional 1,000 responses on the Facebook event

• Over 180 photos shared publicly by participants

• An estimated 5,000 people participated if we assume each RSVP represents a two-person household

• Though the event ended at 7PM, we saw steady participation until 9PM

• The playlist was viewed on YouTube 4,955 times and on Spotify, it was “liked” 156 times

We were excited to discover that our hypothesis was correct and we could be successful in creating shared experiences while following the strictest social distancing recommendations. We knew we had to do more.

building the base

After seeing so much excitement around the first event, we quickly dove into a more robust second event. I created a website on SquareSpace so that we could have more flexibility and we set up a more robust email distribution system to distribute all of the participant communications more effectively. We collected all of the music and song requests from the first round to begin created a playlist by the people, for the people. We took heed of requests and created new drinks, including alcohol options.

To create an additional experience for our region, we teamed up with local breweries as Beer Buddies. We also wanted to make an impact in other cities after we were contacted by the mayor’s office in another state. They requested the materials to replicate the event in their city, so we created a packet to help cities across the country participate.

CityBeat covered it

Over 20 cities participated, including Pittsburgh, New Orleans, and Chicago.

Covered by CityBeat and