This past week, South Made Marketing content went viral. Local campaigns made national news when the creatives came up with ideas to entice University of Tennessee baseball coach Tony Vitello to choose being a Vol for Life over leaving Knoxville to coach the professional baseball team, the San Francisco Giants. Coach Vitello has had massive success as the head coach, winning the state championship in the spring of 2025, so it was no surprise when East Tennesseans were desperate to keep him in Knoxville. The team at South Made took Knoxville’s love for all things orange and white and turned it into a marketing opportunity that landed two of their clients in multiple national news outlets.
Balter Beerworks, a local brewery and craft kitchen, is owned and operated by Blaine Wedekin, a UTK alum and avid TN Baseball fan, and has long supported the Vols. When Blaine reached out to us about offering the coach of the (2024 National champs) free beer to stay in Knoxville, the social media team was quick to plan, shoot, and post a reel.
That garnered attention not only from local news outlets like KnoxNews but also national press outlets like MSN and Sports Illustrated online. The reel has over 2660 likes and 70k views. But the real win was when Tony V himself reached out to Balter about taking them up on the free beer offer. From a social media standpoint, the idea was a home run!
The social media team at South Made in downtown Knoxville is proud to represent the amazing Balter brand, and to hopefully raise a glass of their award-winning beer with Coach V.
The second win was with a post for Chivo Taqueria, arguably one of Knoxville’s most popular restaurants and home to the best margarita in Knoxville (3-time winner of the local margarita competition).
Chivo takes a slightly cheekier approach with their branding and brand voice, after all, they are the (self-proclaimed) GOAT (greatest of all time), so South Made’s content for this post needed to play into that tone. Coach Tony’s TN ball cap was swapped for a photoshopped version that boasted the Chivo Goat, and his quarter zip donned the Chivo logo.
The caption was extremely playful, offering free tacos for life if he stayed in Knoxville and citing, “We hear California sucks,” which got a full quote in an MSN online article about the post.
As of the writing of this post, Chivo is waiting to offer Coach a plate of their delicious (and free) tacos. South Made has represented Chivo and the rest of the BBN brands (Stock and Barrel, Brass Pearl, and The Black Dog) since 2019 and is proud to be their marketing arm, taking care of everything from content creation and web design to social media and strategy.
The collab between BBN and South Made has paid off, with the brand getting ready to reopen its soon-to-be-famous brewery and restaurant on Central in North Knox, just down the street from the Happy Holler and South Made HQ. The Black Dog is set to open later this winter.
South Made is proud to be one of the largest and best-rated social media and marketing agencies in Knoxville. South Made specializes in hospitality marketing and works with over 50 restaurants, bars, and hotels.
See more of South Made’s content creation in Knoxville and Marco Island by following @southmademarketing on Instagram and Facebook.
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