Problem/Challenge:
Launching a new wine label in a crowded marketplace is a difficult endeavor. The typical wine shop presents the shopper with hundreds of bottles differentiated by region, grape, label and vintage. The market itself is spread so horizontally that historically, the largest wine maker in the world, Gallo has only a 2% global market share.
Under these circumstances, a new label has to quickly differentiate itself so that consumers are aware of it before they even enter their local wine shop.
Most consumers are poorly educated as to the specifics of what makes a good, great or poor wine. They are often attracted to the date a wine was produced, seeking the older bottle, when in fact most wines are best served within a year or two of the vintage. Screw caps, a new innovation in the wine marketplace, is often viewed as indicative of a cheap or poor quality wine when in fact screw caps are better at protecting wine in the bottle than is cork.
Stormhoek, a small South African vineyard, was introduced in the United Kingdom in 2003. Initially it had several challenges:
- Competition with better known regions;
- Competition with better known providers;
- Use of a screw cap instead of cork;
- The grapes and method of preparation called for the wine to be drunk within a few years of vintage, therefore, any marketing campaign needed to emphasize the idea of “freshness" for wine.
Solution:
Beyond ensuring that consumers were aware of Stormhoek prior to entering their local wine shop, the goals of the marketing program were to associate Stormhoek with the notion of wine as a social lubricant. That is to connect Stormhoek with conversation, social interaction and good company.
With this in mind, Stormhoek hit on the idea of working with bloggers as a way of creating conversation around this idea.
Stormhoek and blogger Hugh MacLeod introduced a sampling program for UK bloggers. In the spring of 2005, MacLeod announced in his blog (www.gapingvoid.com) that any UK blogger who was interested in trying out Stormhoek could receive a bottle if they emailed him their address. 100 bloggers signed up for the initial program.
Each blogger received one bottle of Stormhoek with a personalized label with the URL and name of their blog. A brochure with artwork and a “manifesto� authored by MacLeod accompanied each bottle.
Ideally, the bloggers would of course mention Stormhoek on their blog, however they were not asked specifically to comment on the wine, either positively or negatively. This was to ensure the program did not seem fixed and was done in the open and transparent spirit of the blogosphere.
In addition to the bloggers campaign, Stormhoek itself maintained a blog at http://www.stormhoek.com. Entries discussed various issues related to wine including how the grapes are grown, the logic behind using screw caps instead of corks and explanations of the freshness issue. The blog itself maintained a light, humorous air, consistent with the image of MacLeod’s blog and cartoons.
Results:
The results, both quantitative and qualitative, were dramatic.
-
Shipments of Stormhoek to UK wine shops doubled, from 50,000 cases in 2004 to 100,000 cases in 2005;
- Flickr alone has more than 600 photos of Stormhoek bottles;
- Technorati reports over 2,100 blog posts mentioning Stormhoek;
- In 2006, Stormhoek was recognized for their innovative approach to wine marketing with the prestigious Drinks Business Magazine Award for Best Consumer Campaign (http://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5198&Itemid=226) beating out far more prominent consumer brands for recognition by the UK’s leading wine industry publicaton.
As measured by blog entries, tags, pictures on Flickr and other social media mentions, the program was a dramatic success. This has created a great deal of interest in Stormhoek’s ongoing launch into the US market, currently underway with a similar program but one that focuses on blogger gatherings and dinners. New labels, drawn by MacLeod in the spirit of his blog and cartoons, are also being introduced in conjunction with the US launch.
In a more quantitive measure, Stormhoek now has the reputation of being the wine of blogging and, more specifically, of the Silicon Valley hi-tech crowd. Following prominent mentions in TechCrunch and ValleyWag, it now seems natural to expect to see Stormhoek at geek dinners, conferences with bloggers in attendance and at Silicon Valley events.
More importantly, Stormhoek has changed the way wine can be marketed. Traditional wine marketing, emphasizing pastoral scenes with vineyards and classical music, is passé and not relevant to the way people enjoy wine. Stormhoek’s blogger campaign took its cue from the idea that enjoying wine is a social activity and whom would best understand that would be bloggers. In the process it made a name for itself as one of the first consumer brands to leverage social media for its launch and to differentiate itself in an over-crowded marketplace.
