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UPDATE: Looks like someone over at The Toronto Star happened to be at a Red Stripe party.

Doesn’t this sound like fun? Saturday night, a house party and 30 of your closest friends. Oh, and 100 bottles of free beer.

The free-beer part is a new twist on the most effective marketing — word of mouth, where a friend tells a friend about a new product.

The latest incarnation takes this a step further. A friend invites a friend to test or taste the product together, a kind of experiential marketing to create a buzz or happy associations. As in: Party at my house, free beer.

Well kinda. It was friday. It wasn’t my house. And we only got 48 beers, 6 of which are still in my fridge as of the following Thursday.

And as a follow up, Red Stripe had an event at The Social for everyone who hosted these parties (they think that was me and not Liz). The food was good (empanadas among other things), but there was a limit of 2 beers per person. LAME.

This might have something to do with Matchstick’s licence:

Commission guidelines allow the marketer to provide consumers with six free bottles of beer per person per year.

Did I mention still I have a sixpack in my fridge?