Case: Wine Marketing for Silicon Valley Bloggers

Problem / Task:

To promote a new brand of wine in a crowded market is not an easy task. As a rule, the wine shop offers the buyer hundreds of bottles, differing by region, grape varieties, brands and harvests. This market has grown so horizontally that the share of one of the world's oldest, largest wine market, Gallo, accounts for only 2% of all market profits.

In such conditions, the new label should stand out very quickly, so that consumers know about it even before entering the local wine shop.
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Most consumers are poorly aware of what makes a wine good, what is wonderful, and what is low-grade. Often they are attracted by the date of the vintage, as they are simply looking for the oldest, then, as in fact, most wines are best used within a year or two after the harvest. A screw cap, one of the latest innovations in the wine market, is often seen as an attribute of cheap or low-quality wine, despite the fact that such caps better protect the wine bottled than cork.

Stormhoek, a small vineyard in South Africa, was introduced in the United Kingdom in 2003. Initially, it had several objectives:

• Competition with better known regions;
  Competition with more well-known suppliers;
  Using screw caps instead of cork;
  Grapes and methods of its processing require that the wine is consumed within the next few years after harvesting and, accordingly, any marketing company should emphasize the idea of ​​"freshness" of wine.
  
  Decision:
  
  Besides the fact that consumers had to become aware of Stormhoek before entering their local wine shop, among the objectives of the marketing program was to link the image of Stormhoek with an understanding of wine as a social service for communication . That is, to associate Stormhoek with conversation, social interaction and good company.
  
  Driven by this intention, Stormhoek came up with the idea of ​​connecting bloggers to this business in order to create a discussion around this topic.
  Stormhoek and blogger Hugh MacLeod organized a special promotion for British bloggers. In the spring of 2005, MacLeod announced in his blog (www.gapingvoid.com) that any British blogger who wants to try Stormhoek can get a bottle if he writes his address. 100 bloggers have responded to this introductory action.
  
  Each of the bloggers received a bottle of Stormhoek with a name sticker, which indicated the URL of his blog. Each bottle was accompanied by a postcard and a "manifesto" signed by MacLeod.
  
  Ideally, bloggers should, of course, mention Stormhoek in their blogs, however, no one specifically asked them to give any comments about this action, both positive and negative. This was done deliberately so that the action did not look artificial, but was maintained in the spirit of an open and transparent blogosphere community.
  
  In addition to promotions for bloggers, Stormhoek has launched its own blog at www.stormhoek.com . The publications discussed various wine themes, including cultivation, the meaning of using screw caps instead of corks and explanations of the topic of freshness. By itself, the blog radiated light, sparkling humor, in accordance with the caricature style of the blog MacLeod'a.
  
  Results:
  
  The results, both quantitative and qualitative, were stunning:
  
  
  • UK Stormhoek wine shop supplies doubled from 50,000 boxes in 2004 to 100,000 boxes in 2005;
    On Flickr alone, more than 600 photos of Stormhoek bottles appeared;
    According to Technorati, Stormhoek was mentioned in more than 2,100 blog postings;
    In 2006, Stormhoek, for its innovative approach to wine marketing, was awarded the prestigious award from the Drinks Business Magazine Award in the nomination for the best consumer campaign (http://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id = 5198 & Itemid = 226) and, thus, much brighter, brands, have provided themselves with a unique opportunity to shine in the main UK industry magazine.
    
    As shown by blog posts, tags, pictures on Flickr and other mentions in social media, the program has achieved great success. This gave Stormhoek grounds to think seriously about its future campaign in the US market, in many respects similar, but specifically aimed at blogger parties and banquets. New labels that MacLeod drew in the cartoonish caricature style of his blog were also made with an eye to the future campaign in the USA.
    
    More precisely, Stormhoek has earned a reputation as a blogger and, to be more precise, an attribute of high-tech Silicon Valley parties. Taking into account the statements in TechCrunch and ValleyWag, now it is quite natural to expect Stormhoek to appear at dinners of various geeks, conferences with the participation of bloggers and events in Silicon Valley.
    
    Most importantly, Stormhoek has changed the way in which wine can be marketed. Traditional wine marketing used pastoral scenes with vineyards and classical music, which does not quite match the setting in which people usually enjoy wine. The idea of ​​the Stormhoek campaign was that enjoying wine is a social activity and is best understood by bloggers. Thus, the company became one of the first consumer brands to use social media to light up in a crowded market.
    
    Translation from English to:
    blog.worldwebstudio.com