"Once upon a wine...": using a short story contest to promote wine

The Spanish wine website Turismodevino.com is organizing a contest for short stories about wines.

Writers (in Spanish) can submit stories of 600 words or less that complete one of three beginnings: a life changing visit to a winery, an escaped lunatic sneaks into a wine tasting competition, or a crime whose principal clue is missing bottle of wine. Winners will receive 380 euros, a stay in a hotel in Ribera del Duero or wines. The deadline for entries is Octuber 1, 2009. More info at: http://www.turismodevino.com/1er-concurso-de-fotografia-de-turismo-de-vino-enoturismo.php

Beyond promoting the site with the contest itself, it will be interesting to see what use is made of the stories they receive; perhaps to generate ideas about themes writers associate with wines?

What is the value of a D.O. in wine marketing?

On 30 April I gave a presentation at a conference organized by the Catalan Department of Agriculture, Food and Rural Support on the value of Denominations de Origin in wine marketing.

The key points:

The overt importance of a D.O. as such will vary according the consumer target (those with more wine knowledge or familiarity with a specific region will attach more value to the D.O.). For example, a consumer with slight general wine awareness may have heard of Rioja and might possibly value it higher than wines from another region, while a more knowledgeable consumer might attach greater value to a wine from the Rioja Alavesa.

However the covert importance of a D.O. is to:

• Create a link to a specific region, which is of growing importance in a increasingly uniform and generic world,
• Preserve and give value to local traditional knowledge and practices, which often from the basis of viticultural and winemaking regulations enacted by D.O.s.
• Act as a vehicle for collaboration and cooperation among the participants of a specific region.

While some might criticise D.O.s for imposing certain practices that a winery might wish to use, any winery that decides to can opt out of a D.O. However, it is important to note that in countries where the practice of forming D.O.s was not a part of the scene, wineries in certain regions are banding together to form D.O.-like structures, such as the Coonawarra Vignerons Association, or the Napa Valley Vintners.

Above all, D.O.s should be at the service of their member wineries to help them achieve the highest possible quality, singularity and visibility.

ROI for winery blogs: is blogging the future or a distraction?

Blogging can raise visibility and provide a wealth of data on visitor interests and behaviour. It’s measurable. It is the ultimate weapon for the little guts to reach eyeballs while the reach of other media tanks. See Gary Vaynerchuk. In the US, the growth of direct sale and shipping is provides the ultimate measure of ROI: SALES. See Mathew Mann.

Blogging is a distraction and wineries would be better served by focusing on customer service. At best, it is one more channel for brand building, but, in general, wineries should not blog. See Paul Mabrey’s comments. Blogging that successfully promotes the brand requires dedication over time. The personality of the winery and the intended blogger may not be suited to the platform of blogging. See Jason Haas.


I believe that there’s truth in all the above points of view. What is needed is an understanding of the possibilities and requirements of blogging as a channel and clearly defined goals and metrics.

Interestingly one of the key metrics for ROI of a blog is the frequency of posting in that blog, which depends solely on the blogger for success! See Avinash Kaushik.

If done right, blogging is a method to create positive visibility that costs less and is easier to measure than many other media. Having a blog or commenting in other blogs is direct participation in the conversations involving brand, product, region, and industry; on-line conversations that generate visibility. If all the other aspects of supply chain, merchandising and retailing are sufficiently functional, better visibility should lead to more sales. Or looked at another way, without visibility there can be no sale.

On post frequency, Tempranillo had recently been interrupted due to FTP issues. Thank you for your patience.

No repeat for Freixenet's Scorsese ad

Last year Cava giant Freixenet made a big splash by hiring Martin Scorsese to direct an ad that garnered a lot of attention via Internet views (over one million hits according to one Spanish economic newpaper, and a random search via YouTube shows some users-published versions having tens of thousands of views). Freixenet had announced that they would be continuing in 2008 with a new director, bandying about such names as Coppola, de Palma, Lynch and Tarantino, but instead the project has been cancelled. They will return to their standard for-the-Spanish-market TV ad, this time featuring Spain's Olympic silver medalist sychronized swimteam.

So, does this mean that the Scorsese ad was not successful, or was too expensive to make? Or maybe it was so successful that it can continue to be a reference point on its own? Or perhaps the TV ad's importance for the Spanish market (newspaper TV guides in Spain have in the past of listed the ad's showing times, just like a sit-com or police drama) was seen by the company as a better investment.

The Widow Clicquot, story of an amazing entrepreneur

Being released next week is an interesting book about Barbe-Nicole Clicquot Ponsardin, more famously known as Vueve Clicquot, the widow who created by hardwork, dedication and a good deal of risk-taking one of the most famous brands of Champagne at a time before branding really even existed. To do so, she had to overcome the early death of her husband, several wars and establishment favouritism of Moët.

One key aspect of building of the brand was her dedication to selling in export markets in a time before smooth roads or temperature-controlled warehouses and trucks existed. The gambles taken were immense. The export salesmen took trips that lasted months or years with little guarantee that product could reach the market. Ports were often blockaded, which meant leaving product in hot storage rooms where it could go bad or even explode. Payments took sometimes years to come in.

What does a book on a key player in building of a French wine brand have to do with this blog on the Spanish wine industry? Not much directly. But just as for Vueve Clicquot, the importance of export markets for building brands is crucial for Spanish wineries. Perhaps even more so for the creating of brands for the domestic Spanish market. Not until wines from Priorat started receiving awards and high auction prices in the UK and US were these wines taken seriously in Spain. The voice of the outsider can indeed raise up the underapreciated local player.

The Widow Clicquot was written by Tilar Mazzeo, who had to search for years to find the few surviving personal anecdotes about Vueve Clicquot. The book launch campaign is promoted via this blog: http://widowclicquot.blogspot.com/

Debatdevi Analysing the state of the wine industry in Catalunya.

Last Thursday, I attended the latest instalment of the Debatsdevi conferences on the wine sector in Catalunya. This session looked at promotional mechanisms for the sector.

Of interesting note from Trini Bofarull of the regional government promotional agency ACC1Ó was the concentration of the wine sector producers in 3 large companies that have combined sales of over 1 billion euros and 634 small to medium sized producers, one-third of which invoice less than 500,000 € per year.

This means that promotional efforts for the Catalan wine sector will be either company / brand focused, or made by regional government. The fact that Catalunya has 11 D.O.s (plus the majority of Cava D.O. production) results in less focused promotion, as compared with regions that represent a single D.O., such as Ribera del Duero, or even La Rioja (one D.O.C. with three sub-regions).

But clearly regional government has a role to play, most likely in acting as an impartial arbiter in cooperative promotional agreements of smaller wineries that bind together. Just how likely could be to happen, or how effective it would be for the companies involved, is not clear. Because, when it comes down to it, the item on the shelf has a brand, a package and a price, which are more meaningful (generally) than the D.O. from which it comes.

So what can be done: Jaques Thebault of the French promotion company SOPEXA suggested that innovative cross-category promotions can be used to capture attention. He referenced campaigns that promoted French cheeses and Spanish wines. This could be used by a specific wine brand with another recognized brand outside of the drinks area, or even outside of the food sector.

Promotion remains a difficult task. The companies with sufficient budgets prefer to promote their products. The effectiveness of general region or D.O. campaigns is debatable, with a major problem being the lack of connection of consumer perception linking the region with brands. Government subsidy of company brand promotion would inherently run the risk of inciting taxpayer rage (why not build new schools instead of promoting “luxury” goods).

Should there be public promotion of regions?

Or is this a waste of money, time and effort?

D.O. Catalunya blog contest

The Denominació de Origen Catalunya is launching a blog contest for the best Catalan wine blog. The contest is open to all non-corporate wine-focused blogs written in either Spanish or Catalan with a top prize of 3000 euros.

Entries can be made until 12 September and the winner will be announced on 23 September at the 28th Presentation of Catalan Wines and Cavas in Barcelona.

Talking about Debatdevi

At the presentation for the upcoming wine promotion project Debatdevi, I was asked to give some comments on the need for wineries to craft messages that are not cliches and also the importance of listening to the voices of the consumers. Excerpts in Spanish on the Debatdevi YouTube channel.

Debatdevi: support for local wine consumption in Catalunya

Yesterday, the Catalan Institute of Wine and Vine (INCAVI) with the Department of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development of Catalunya launched Debatdevi, an inciative to support Catalan wines in Catalunya.

Debatdevi will be carried out on two levels: the first will be five independent publicly held debates from July through October. The five planned debates will explore the issues of quality, wine and terroir, promotion, changing consumers and commercial strategy. The second level will be the creation of an online exchange among the speakers of the five debates. Once a critical mass of interaction has been created, the on-line forum will be opened up to the general public for their participation. In addition there will be other materials made available via YouTube, Slideshare and Facebook. It should be an interesting experiment that generates more ideas for supporting consumption of local wines.

I will be panelist on the first debate to be held on July 1st, titled: New consumers, New habits.

Indigenous grapes of Catalunya and the quest for individuality

In the continuing quest of winemakers to make wines that are distinctive from all the rest, bodegas here in Catalunya have been making greater efforts to restore indigenous grape varieties to commercial use. The thinking is that if the raw material is unique, the greater chance that the wine produced will have a distinctive originality, too.

Two of the leading local grapes are white grapes and are mainstays of Cava: Parellada and Xarel·lo, with over 8,000 hectares of vines in the region.

The next most plentiful grape is the red grape Trepat, which has been the tradition source for rosado cavas, but is used for red wine production, most notably in the Conca de Barbera D.O.

Also gaining attention is Picapoll, a white grape grown in the Pla de Bages D.O.

Other local varieties include Garnacha peluda (hairy Garnacha, so named for the texture on the underside of its leaves), Garnacha Roja, Samsó, Mandó.

For more than a decade, Bodega Torres has been gathering some 62 varities of local grapes. They have so far been unable to identify eighteen of these varieties, not even using DNA testing. According to Mireia Torres, Technical Director of the winery, four of these unidentified grapes show promise for commercial use, however more testing will be needed before they can be used. However, Torres has been able to recover the Garró variety, which now makes up 5% of the blend for one of their leading wines, the Gran Muralles from Conca de Barbera.

The Catalan Institute for Wine and Vine (INCAVI) is currently working with wineries to further develop clonal stocks of Picapoll, Trapat, Garnacha Roja and Xarel·lo.

Web 2.0 for wineries: enhancing interaction and boosting sales

The interactive web, or the web 2.0, in which the consumers publish their views, questions and opinions for the entire world to see, offer wine marketers more capabilities for communicating on-line with wine drinkers. On-line communication, in itself, is not the end goal, but can improve visibility and build reputation. This can lead potential consumers to first try the wines and, if they like them, buy more, share them with friends, and talk about them on-line, creating a virtuous cycle.

Here are three example of Spanish wineries using the web to expand their brands:

1) Crowdsourcing: Jaumandreu
http://jaumandreu.blogspot.com/

Via their blog this month (June ’08) Jaumandreu has issued a call for proposals for a soon-to-be-released wine. The winery will get a number of design proposals to consider at virtually no cost.

2) Bodega Cauzon: life at a small winery
http://bodegacauzon.blogspot.com/
Blog started in April 2008 and shares the day-to-day work in the vineyards, the winery and on the road in the production and promotion of the wines of this boutique winery.

3) Tintoralba: contacting importers through blogging
http://tintoralba.com/blog/
Export Manager Emilio Saez uses the Tintoralba blog to publicize their exporting activities and efforts. He also used the blog comment section of Irish wine importers Bubble Brothers to start a conversation with them, leading Bubble Brothers to become Tintoralba’s importer.

The common thread of these three examples: talking openly about activities so that people can listen in or comment, enhancing visibility, which is a necessary step to boosting sales.

Jaumandreu's call for label designers: using a blog for crowdsourcing

Jaumandreu winery is using their winery's blog for crowdsourcing in announcing a label design competition for their upcoming release.

On June 8th, the winery will host all interested designers for a visit to the winery, giving information on its history and present projects, and will offer a tasting of their wines. Following this, participants will have from June 16 to 21 in which to present their label proposals. The winning entry will be announced on July 3.

This promotion is a nice combination of getting more visitors to the winery, encouraging them to talk about the experience, as well as generating new visual proposals for use on labels and other promotional materials.

Wine 2.0 Minifesto >>> Vino 2.0

Still as relevant today, Tim Elliot's "mini-festo" on what Wine 2.0 is all about should be read by all wineries. I've translated it into Spanish for the benefit of wineries here.

Winery blogging on the business side: Tintoralba

It may seem self-evident that companies can use their blog and those of their business partners (or those they'd like to work with) to get in touch, to deepen a relationship, share info, improve their Google ranking, build a reputation, etc., etc., etc. But in the wine industry, this is not always the case. And since no one wants to get a negative comment, its easier to just stay on the sidelines. But... negative comments are (in a way) good: they prove that 1) the company has sufficient confidence in the quality of their products that they can handle a bit of criticism and 2) that the comments are real comments, not paid-for advertizements, hence they are believable.

In a post last week, Emilio of Bodega Tintoralba shares how he made use of blogs (his own and that of Bubble Brothers) to get in touch with a potential importer/distributor for the UK/Ireland.

Presentation on Reputation and Wine Marketing 2.0

I spoke yesterday at Alimentaria. Appearing with me were Juan Such and José Luis Contreras of Verema.com, one of the best (most lively and informative) wine communities there are.

Presentacion en Vinorum (Spanish).ppt

2.0 wine marketing presentation at Alimentaria: Time change

FYI to those intending to attend my presentation on 2.0 wine marketing:
The time has been changed to 4PM on Monday March 10.

I hope to see you there!

Jaumandreu - welcome to the blogosphere!

The winery of Jaumandreu, located in the heart of Catalunya, in the Pla de Bages D.O., is a customer of my communications company, Manfatta. One of the strategies we advised them to implement was the creation of their own blog, which is now up and running: http://jaumandreu.blogspot.com/.

The blog will provide information on the harvests, the winemaking, special offers and other news. As their blog is aimed at their main customer base, the posts are in Catalan (the winery's website has sections in Spanish, German and English).

The estate has been in existence since at least 1516, but the vines are all young, predominantly Cabernet, Merlot, Syrah, Sauvignon blanc and Chardonnay. Their three wines, Idaeus and Cedrus (reds) and Nisus (white) all offer excellent drinkability and as the vines come into their prime, the quality will continue to expand. One of Spain's most important critics, José Peñín, has given Cedrus 2004 a 4 star price/quality ratio (out of 5 stars possible). My personal favourite, Idaeus, has great character and a pleasant spiciness.

Congratulations to Pere and the team at Jaumandreu!

Martin Scorsese to film Freixenet TV ad

News today that legendary director Martin Scorsese will create the big year-end TV ad for Cava giant Freixenet. The spot will run about seven minutes and will be shot in New York City.

No word as yet who will star. It may well be done with unknown actors as Freixenet is departing from its big name star approach of the past 30 years to feature big name directors. The 1977 spot starred Liza Minelli and last year's featured Gweneth Paltrow. Other stars have included Demi Moore, Pierce Brosnan and Penelope Cruz.

Azul y Garanza launches winery blog

The Azul y Garanza winery, which has been a favourite producer of mine for several years has launched their own blog (in Spanish). They talk about this year's harvest, which got underway 2 days ago in ideal conditions, some recent awards, and other news.

The winery was founded in 2000 and is located near Carcastillo in the DO Navarra of northern Spain. The winery has some 40 hectares of vineyards on which Tempranillo, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Garnacha are grown. They produce a medium aged and young red wines, and a rosado. Azul y Garanza is expanding sales outside of Spain, so drinkers looking for enjoyable, excellent value wines should seek out this brand!

Tempranillo in Flylosophy

The influencial Spanish trend-watching web site Flylosophy has this month published an article by me on current trends in wine marketing. Click the title of this post to access it. Its written in Spanish with an automatic translation feature. If you would like to have a more polished version in English, please contact me at steventolliverATmanfattaDOTcom.

The Gehry - Marques de Riscal Winery Hotel: restricted access only

Writing in today's El Pais newspaper, Llàtzer Moix laments the no-access policy of the new Rioja landmark, the Marques de Riscal deluxe hotel and restaurant created by Frank Gehry. Access is only allowed to guests staying the 43-room establishment or dining the restaurant. Even those who pay the 6 euro fee to visit the winery (built in 1858) are only able to look the new structure from the outside. Hotel Director Michel Nader defends the policy given that the guests are paying for their privacy and that to enjoy a visit in the hotel "there is a simple solution: book a room there". The mayor of Elciego where the winery is located is trying to get the hotel to set up an "open-door" day. Meanwhile the throng of visitors hoping for a peek inside need to book a room or a reserve a table at the restaurant.

For those not yet able to make the visit, the town's website features this video via Youtube: http://www.elciego.com/elciego/gehry_riscal.htm

Tempranillo: somos expertos en Marketing y Ventas para Bodegas, D.O. e Instituciones vinícolas.

Conozca a su interlocutor:

Steven Tolliver tiene más de 20 años de experiencia en Marketing y Exportación de vinos y cavas.

Steven es co-fundador de Manfatta, agencia de Marketing especializada en la Gestión de la Visibilidad y de la Reputación.

Ofrecemos servicios para mejorar la visibilidad de su marca y aumentar sus ventas, tanto en el mercado interno como internacional.

¿Cómo?

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• Aumentamos la visibilidad de su marca.
• Establecemos o mejoramos su presencia en Internet.
• Fomentamos las opiniones positivas sobre su marca o producto.
• Seguimos y analizamos la reputación de su marca o producto entre los consumidores.

Exportación:

Para empresas que inician su actividad internacional y las que desean expansión a nuevos mercados:

• Estudio de su gama de productos
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