Sending beers all across Belgium, a throwback to how we named Oh Dear Published on October 2, 2025 by Mattias Geniar @mattiasgeniar Mattias Geniar October 2, 2025 We're obviously a little biased, but we believe we have one of the best website monitoring tools on the market today, leading in features compared to our competitors. We've already tried a variety of marketing techniques to promote our service, but none really had the impact we were looking for. Maybe we're better at actually building good software than we are at marketing it? Or are we trying what everyone else is also doing, thus making it all harder? After all, you can only outbid your competitors in Google Ads for so long. So we're trying something new: an analog marketing campaign for the digital world. 🍺 The origin of Oh Dear # Back in 2017 we were brainstorming the idea of a better uptime monitor. We did this out of a local bar called Paters Vaetje, a small but cozy bar in Antwerp, near the Cathedral. Belgium has many good beers, so it's no surprise that the bar we were sitting in was covered in beer advertisements. One of them was this one for a fine one called "Moeder Overste", which translates to "Mother Superior". We were thinking: "What would Mother Superior Superior say if her website was down". Immediately "Oh Dear" came to mind. We thought we would only keep it as a work-in-progress name, but over time we liked it so much that we used it as the final product name. Sharing is caring # So with the origin of our name clarified, we figured: why not let others experience the same taste while promoting Oh Dear at the same time? So as an experiment, we're sending a specially branded beer gift to some select companies in Belgium. Obviously, with some Moeder Overste inside of it. The outside of the beer packages have our branding, with the backside a small text explaining what Oh Dear does. Inside the packaging, there's a personal and handwritten note for the recipients. With so many word-puns available, we couldn't resist the "cold emails" angle. 😁 Will this work and actually convert to Oh Dear users? We have no idea yet, but we're about to find out. 😎 Not just for new clients # We're trying this as an experiment, but we've already heard from some of you that you'd love a package like this to be delivered. And you're right, why should we only try to convince new users and not treat loyal customers just the same? We're looking into extending our beer-delivery-operation to some of our existing clients as well, as a token of gratitude for the trust placed in Oh Dear to keep watch over all your sites. Realistically though, these packages aren't cheap to make ... so ... the bigger your Oh Dear subscription, the more chance you'll have of receiving a package. It's marketing after all. 😇 (Ps; we can only do Belgium for now, turns out, shipping alcohol across the border comes with its own challenges)
We're obviously a little biased, but we believe we have one of the best website monitoring tools on the market today, leading in features compared to our competitors. We've already tried a variety of marketing techniques to promote our service, but none really had the impact we were looking for. Maybe we're better at actually building good software than we are at marketing it? Or are we trying what everyone else is also doing, thus making it all harder? After all, you can only outbid your competitors in Google Ads for so long. So we're trying something new: an analog marketing campaign for the digital world. 🍺 The origin of Oh Dear # Back in 2017 we were brainstorming the idea of a better uptime monitor. We did this out of a local bar called Paters Vaetje, a small but cozy bar in Antwerp, near the Cathedral. Belgium has many good beers, so it's no surprise that the bar we were sitting in was covered in beer advertisements. One of them was this one for a fine one called "Moeder Overste", which translates to "Mother Superior". We were thinking: "What would Mother Superior Superior say if her website was down". Immediately "Oh Dear" came to mind. We thought we would only keep it as a work-in-progress name, but over time we liked it so much that we used it as the final product name. Sharing is caring # So with the origin of our name clarified, we figured: why not let others experience the same taste while promoting Oh Dear at the same time? So as an experiment, we're sending a specially branded beer gift to some select companies in Belgium. Obviously, with some Moeder Overste inside of it. The outside of the beer packages have our branding, with the backside a small text explaining what Oh Dear does. Inside the packaging, there's a personal and handwritten note for the recipients. With so many word-puns available, we couldn't resist the "cold emails" angle. 😁 Will this work and actually convert to Oh Dear users? We have no idea yet, but we're about to find out. 😎 Not just for new clients # We're trying this as an experiment, but we've already heard from some of you that you'd love a package like this to be delivered. And you're right, why should we only try to convince new users and not treat loyal customers just the same? We're looking into extending our beer-delivery-operation to some of our existing clients as well, as a token of gratitude for the trust placed in Oh Dear to keep watch over all your sites. Realistically though, these packages aren't cheap to make ... so ... the bigger your Oh Dear subscription, the more chance you'll have of receiving a package. It's marketing after all. 😇 (Ps; we can only do Belgium for now, turns out, shipping alcohol across the border comes with its own challenges)