Featuring Kristin Sutter, Director of Events & Engagement, Visit Aurora (DMO)
Aurora, Colorado is known for its diversity, creativity, and evolving culinary culture. With more than 150 languages spoken across its public school system, the city’s global influences extend beyond food into its growing craft beverage scene. Visitors can find everything from traditional IPAs to blueberry muffin ales, pickle beers, banana bread brews, and small-batch ciders.
Destination Marketing Organizations face a common challenge: encouraging residents and visitors to explore more of a destination — beyond the most well-known stops.
For Visit Aurora, that meant driving discovery across the city’s growing craft beverage scene while supporting smaller, independent breweries.
For years, Visit Aurora experimented with traditional paper passport programs. While popular, they had limitations: visitors often forgot them, and breweries had to manage stamps and staff training.
After researching digital options for years, the team landed on a more accessible, modern solution. That solution became Cheers Aurora.
We recently spoke with Kristin Sutter, Director of Events & Engagement, Visit Aurora, about her experience launching Cheers Aurora — a STQRY-powered digital experience designed to boost exploration, engagement, and repeat visitation.
The Solution: A Gamified Brewery Trail
The Cheers Aurora experience transforms brewery visits into a fun, city-wide challenge.
How Cheers Aurora Works:
Visitors simply:
- Visit a participating brewery
- Find the keyword on the Cheers Aurora poster
- Enter the keyword to unlock a digital badge
- Collect all badges to win prizes and enter grand prize drawings
With 15 participating breweries and cideries, the experience encourages visitors to explore beyond just one stop — turning brewery hopping into a city-wide challenge visitors want to complete.
“Gamification was what was so important to us.”
A Gamified Trail That Rewards Completing All 15 Stops and Returning Each Quarter
The program has quickly become popular with locals, regional visitors, and tourists of all ages — even becoming a favorite date night activity.
Kristin jokes that some couples even debate their favorite stop:
“Couples will argue over which brewery was the best.”
She also recalls meeting a couple determined to complete the challenge every quarter:
“They told me, ‘You mean we can do this next quarter too? By the end of the year, we’ll have eight pint glasses.’”
This repeat engagement is exactly what Visit Aurora hoped to achieve.
How the reward system works:
- Visitors collect 15 digital badges
- On the last Wednesday of each month, those who complete the tour fill out a form
- Participants receive a Cheers Aurora pint glass
- They are entered into a quarterly grand prize drawing
Grand prizes rotate each quarter and may include:
- Gift cards
- Brewery swag
- Weekend stays from hotel partners
Visitors don’t just stop at one brewery — they’re motivated to explore them all.
This is the first year Visit Aurora is running the program year-round — something both visitors and breweries requested. With STQRY, it’s simple to refresh the experience each quarter.
Quarterly updates are simple:
- Change the keyword
- Reprint 15 posters
- Launch the next round instantly
No rebuilding. No redesign. No new development.
Why STQRY: Simple, Flexible, and Built for Real-World Use
After years of researching digital passport options, Kristin admits she approached implementation cautiously.
“I remember thinking, the second I sign this agreement, it’s going to be hard… there’s always a learning curve.”
Instead, the opposite happened:
“It was simple for me and my colleagues to figure out.”
Using STQRY’s no-code builder, Visit Aurora was able to:
- Launch quickly using existing website content
- Build and manage the experience internally
- Avoid complex development or external dependencies
Within less than three months, the program was live, promoted, and already receiving positive feedback from participants and breweries. They even hosted a press event shortly after launch.
Kristin adds with humor:
“I’m not a coder. The only thing I ever coded was MySpace in 2004… and even I could figure this out.”
Easy to Build, Easy to Use, Easy to Manage
Easy to Use (No App Download Required)
The web-based experience removes friction for participants:
- No downloads
- No storage issues
- No barriers
“People don’t want to download another thing… and this remembers your IP.”
Kristin even jokes:
“I have an iPhone 12 mini — I don’t have room for anything new to download.”
Because it runs in a browser, visitors of all ages and tech comfort levels have embraced the experience.
“People of all ages have been thrilled with the digital passport experience.”
Easy to Manage and Update
STQRY makes it simple to keep the experience current — especially important in a fast-changing brewery landscape.
“When a new brewery opens, it’s very simple to set up their participation in the badge program.”
Instead of submitting tickets or waiting for developers, updates happen instantly.
“Changes are instant and super easy for my colleagues and me.”
This flexibility also eliminates staff burden at breweries:
- No stamps
- No training
- No tracking
- No extra workload
Everything is handled digitally.
Supporting Local Breweries Across Aurora
Photo by Visit Aurora
Cheers Aurora helps visitors explore neighborhoods across the city — something especially valuable in a spread-out destination.
The program has attracted:
- Local residents discovering new favorites
- Regional visitors from Boulder, Longmont, and Arvada
- Travelers stopping after landing at Denver International Airport
The experience has also sparked collaboration between businesses, including:
- E-bike tours connecting multiple locations
- Cross-promotions between cideries and breweries
Photo by Visit Aurora
Lessons Learned: Start Simple, Think Bigger
For Kristin, one of the biggest takeaways was how easy it is to expand beyond a single experience.
“I wanted to test this out… and see how the audience experiences it.”
After the success of Cheers Aurora, Visit Aurora is already planning additional STQRY-powered experiences.
The goal is simple: get people exploring beyond their neighborhoods and discovering more of Aurora.
Photo by Visit Aurora
Final Thoughts
In just a few months, Visit Aurora transformed a traditional brewery passport into a modern, gamified, highly anticipated experience for local residents and visitors alike.
With STQRY, they’ve created something that is:
- Easy to use
- Easy to manage
- Engaging for visitors
- Valuable for local businesses
Key Takeaways
- Gamification drives repeat visitation and deeper exploration
- Web-based experiences remove friction and increase adoption
- No-code tools empower small teams to launch quickly
- Real-time updates keep content fresh in fast-changing environments
- Digital tours can strengthen entire local ecosystems — not just individual stops