Courtesy www.urbandiner.ca

Although the worlds of food and wine are certainly married in many ways, one of the important ways they are not is in the trends that sway each industry in very specific directions. It always puzzled me that, at the height of the locavore movement, at a moment when you had to be careful not to eat your off-season strawberries in front of anyone, that wine lists were still touting libations from far flung corners of the world.  Where were all the local wines?

Well, fast forward a few years later to today and there are plenty of restaurants in New York City and, notably, Brooklyn, with wine lists that either focus on local (or, at least, domestic) wines or are entirely composed of them.

The locavore movement has evolved yet again to the point where savvy restaurateurs are now not only singing the gospel of local, but, in a move straight out of a Portlandia sketch, they’re now listing the farms and purveyors of almost every item on the menu (eggs, kale, beef, flour)

courtesty www.ahalife.com

This is a trend that, for once, echoes the goings-on of the wine world. A wine’s producer has always been important. Could you imagine a wine list that didn’t list producers?

In the wine world, however, a producer is often just a name or even a brand. It can signify a certain expectation of quality, price or both – but it doesn’t evoke an actual human so much as it signifies a legacy. It’s no surprise, then, that often a producer is just a name – an inherited and unchangeable name – rather than an actual person.

Just as the food world has developed an appetite for transparency in bringing to light the hard working farmers, chefs, and artisans who put food on our tables, the wine world is slowly catching on.

As consumers grow increasingly aware of what they’re drinking, it seems inevitable that they will also start questioning what’s in their glass.  With the rise of the organic, biodynamic, and natural wine movements, one could easily argue that it’s already happening. The next step is surely for consumers to wonder, not just how their wine is made, but who is making it.

Courtesy www.cartoonstock.com

It’s time for winemakers to get personal. As consumers become more accustomed to knowing the face and name of their farmers and producers (real or imagined) it makes sense that this particular trend will carry over into wine. Consumers are ready to see behind the curtain, as it were, and meet their winemakers. Impersonal brands are going to start to feel lazy and consumers are increasingly craving the romance of a back story and personality.

The smart winemakers will give it to them.

I love science, especially when research findings justify my self-prescribed glass of wine after a long day. So far, 2013 has not disappointed with new studies on the health benefits of wine. In February, the New England Journal of Medicine announced that roughly 30 percent of heart disease-related deaths can be prevented by switching to a Mediterranean diet rich in olive oil, nuts, beans … and seven (!) glasses of wine per week. It gets better! Researchers from Detroit discovered resveratrol in red wine isn’t just good for your heart, but may also prevent hearing loss. It seems that an apple a glass of wine a day does, in fact, keep the doctor away. Beer drinkers have reason to celebrate, too. Researchers at Granada University in Spain found beer can help the body rehydrate after a workout better than water or Gatorade. Cheers to that!

With all this great news for wine and beer lovers, how do you communicate these health benefits without waking up with a major PR hangover the morning after?

1. Use humor: A sense of levity in your news signals to people that you are not taking yourself too seriously and also not trying to sell health findings at face value. In the age of memes and Bluntcards, interesting content communicated amusingly gives you a shot of going viral on Facebook and Twitter.

2. Use moderation: This is a no-brainer, but be sure to deliver the important message point about moderation and responsible consumption when linking your beverage client to health benefits. The moderation message is a good rule of thumb for other industries – tanning, for example.

3. Let others do the talking: Every once in a while (or lately, at least once a month), a very reputable organization such as The New England Journal of Medicine releases new research findings that potentially benefit your client. These scientific findings spread in the news like wildfire because the reputation of these scientific institutions is impeccable. Sometimes it’s best to let others (aka the scientists) do the talking and sit back as a brand. Consumers will hear the message loud and clear and connect the dots the next time they are shopping for a bottle of vino.

[Image credits: Writer Unboxed, Very Hilarious, HLN, My 10 Online]

I am a cross-drinker – an equal opportunist when it comes to alcoholic beverages. I love wine. I love bourbon. Oh man, I freaking LOVE craft beer. What I’m drinking depends on my mood, the season, who I’m with, how bad my day was, what I’m eating, whether the Yankees won, or perhaps most importantly, what I can afford.

Now that my disposable income-sucking kiddo has joined the family, my taste has tended more toward the affordable gems than the rare, high-ticket bottles I once enjoyed during my split-second, DINK phase. For a few fitskies, I can get a four or six-pack of 12 oz. craft brews perfect for after-work sipping, or paired with my favorite manchego. THAT is the true beauty of craft beer. I think I have personally kept Sierra Nevada, Bell’s and Dogfish Head in the black over the past decade.

Over the past few days, there has been an uproar in the beer community over an article published in The New York Times, entitled “Craft Beer’s Larger Aspirations Cause a Stir.” The author, largely a spirits writer, makes an observation about the rise in large format beers from “high-profile brewers,” namely the “22-ounce ‘bombers,’ 750-milliliter wine bottles, even three-liter jeroboams.” This trend is something he refers to as the “wine-ification” of beer, or craft beers attempt to be as fancy as wine, so that typical wine drinkers might instead pair one of these large format bottles with their porterhouse.

The controversy comes in claiming beer is trying to be more like wine by being paired with good food and stored in large, shareable bottles. The challenge with this statement is two-fold: (1) Craft beer lovers don’t believe beer is trying, or should try to be anything but itself, as a high-quality, shareable, food-pairable product in its own right. (2) Beer has a long history, in fact, of large bottle formats, and only trended toward the typical six-pack format after prohibition when large brewers invested in these bottling lines because a six pack fit more neatly into the newly popular refrigerator.

The author questions whether large format beers turn customers off, because as he puts it, they are “too expensive and, thanks to their typically higher alcohol content, a challenge to finish in one sitting.” He also points out that the big bottle format is “particularly troublesome for merchants and restaurateurs, who say it can be hard to persuade customers to commit to these big, boozy beers.”

My two cents: if craft beer shops found it difficult to move these larger format bottles, you wouldn’t see “shelf after shelf taken over by giants.” Anyone who has trouble finishing this format bottle on their own can share with a friend, or find plenty of selection in the smaller, 12-oz format to keep them satisfied, as this is still the great majority. Besides, who has trouble finishing what equates to two pints of beer, even if it is a little higher in alcohol? Not most beer lovers I know, and certainly not this equal opportunist, craft beer lover.

Cheers!

Photos courtesy of Beer and Whiskey Brothers and Brookstone Beer Bulletin.

By Caroline Helper (@forgetburgundy)

Holidays are both a blessing and a curse for wine PR pros – on the one hand, we’re given the opportunity to put a timely and creative twist on our product. On the other hand, most of the time we end up producing a pitch that every other PR pro is either also using that year, or has in years past.

That’s why this, year, I propose throwing out the old horse (not a real metaphor, right?) and rebranding the holidays instead. This Valentine’s Day, for example, may I introduce you to Treat Yo Self Day.

Click here to view the embedded video.

For some, the dawning of February sets off a tizzy of paper hearts and pink glitter. For others, it inspires a visit to the darkest depths of self-pity.

Why don’t we all just admit it? No one likes Valentine’s Day – this “holiday” does nothing but introduce problems, sad feelings, and unmeetable expectations. So let’s stop celebrating Valentine’s Day and start celebrating “Treat Yo Self” day with a bottle of [INSERT YOUR WINE HERE] on February 14 instead.

Ladies, if this isn’t a day to treat yo self to a bottle of wine and a good rom-com on the couch, then you’re not doing it right. If you’re single, invite the girls over and enjoy a bottle (or, who are we kidding, three or four) while treating yo selves to some sweet treats and salty indulgences. If you’re attached, ditch your man and spend some quality time with the girls anyways. Treat yo self.

Alright, so you still want to spend the day with your significant other. You know what’s always better than flowers? Wine! Treat yo self and your sweetie to a bottle of [INSERT YOUR WINE HERE]. It’s like flowers that you can drink! Treat yo self.

This Valentine’s Day, no matter your marital status (or lack thereof), show yourself a little love and enjoy [INSERT YOUR WINE HERE]. You deserve it. Treat Yo Self.

See how easy that was? And wasn’t it fun? And have you ever seen a brand adopt/create a new holiday before? Look, if the Presidential Debates of 2012 taught us anything it’s that creating a thing out of thin air has never been easier (@bindersofwomen, I’m looking at you, kid). I officially declare 2013 the Year of Previously Uncelebrated Holidays. See? Now it’s a thing.

By Pia Mara Finkell (@piamara)

I’ve had engagement on the brain lately. Social media campaign goals might have once focused on growing online communities, but now our focus is mostly on engaging this community. Who cares how many people like you on Facebook if you’re just shouting from the rooftops into the cyber wind every day? It’s inefficient, of course, but also very, very boring.

Here are a handful of examples to inspire you to better engage your own Facebook community. If you’re looking for the perfect recipe, take a few shakes of snazzy infographics, a dash of gold teeth and blend it into a whole lot of dance craze. Allow me to expand.

1. Try Something Different

The last thing you would expect to be cool is a rap about a German wine varietal, but the funny and quirky team at Wines from Germany put this little gem out there for all to see and share. Does it class up the region? Perhaps not, but I bet it’ll stick in your head and randomly pop out the next time you’re in a wine shop! Way to not take yourselves too seriously, guys.

2. Humanize Your Brand

I love when wineries post videos of goings-on at the winery, especially when it introduces the people behind the wine. Knowing more about the winemaker, the owner and even the friendly folks in the tasting room makes me feel more connected to the wine and more likely to remember them fondly when I’m ordering a glass.

The awesome team at Jordan Winery has really let their freak flags fly, allowing customers a peek behind the curtain at their personal style and silly antics, thanks to an in-house videography department producing some awesome video content. You know you have a down-to-earth CEO and winemaker when they star in their own Gangnam Style parody. Is that their viticulturist dancing with two chickens? Now I’m REALLY a fan.

3. Draw a Pretty Picture

Another good way to add intrigue to posts and encourage them to go viral is through appealing and informative branded images, in particular infographics that share some tasty morsel of unique content.

The wine social networking site Snooth does a great job of offering cool infographics that are attention-grabbing and likely to go viral among wine nerds. Here’s a cool one that breaks down the Truth about Wine Prices.

Cheers!

Videos and photos courtesy of Pinterest News, Wines of Germany, Jordan Winery and Snooth.

By Laura Petrosky (@chronic_ally)

It’s a tricky thing with New Year’s resolutions. As a huge fan of making lists (yes, I am that type A personality), I embrace the challenge, year after year, of coming up with just the right amount of quantifiable self-improvements for the New Year. My rule of thumb is that if your resolutions take up more than a sticky note, you will probably not stick to them for the whole year (pun intended).

Image courtesy of amberrisme.com

So this year, I thought I’d share 4 professional New Year’s resolutions with fellow wine PR professionals. What are your goals for this year? And, more importantly, how do you prevent them from waning just after January 31?

#1: Taste more, drink less: A glass of wine with dinner? Sure! But I recently realized that I tried “more of the same” instead of exploring different wines. This year, I will refine my palate and expand my wine tasting journal by stopping by one wine tasting every other month (at least). Beverage Media’s event calendar is a good place to find upcoming tastings in your area.

#2: Read on my commute: Meetings, reports, more meetings and client calls – let’s be honest: Reading wine or industry news at work often falls through the cracks. Lucky for me, I live in Queens and work in Manhattan, so I am dedicating every other morning commute on the subway to reading at least one client-relevant story. Here is a quick list of sources that co-workers and I recommend: Wine Opinions, Shanken News Daily, Wine Business, Eric Asimov’s NYT blog, Dr. Vino, Terroirist, Fermentation, 1WineDude, Palate Press and Vinography, just to name a few. If you crave more, Vintank has published a great list of wine blogs worth checking out.

Image courtesy of TresSugar.com

#3: Follow more influencers on Twitter: Roughly 30 percent of Americans get their news from social networks, according to a 2013 Media Relations Strategy White Paper from Press Feed. Following examples of Twitter-savvy co-workers and fellow wine geeks @piamara and @forgetburgundy, I dedicate 2013 to expanding not only my own Twitter following, but to follow significant industry influencers for bite-sized, real-time 140-character industry updates. Ken Waggoner’s @alawine Twitter profile has great lists of Tweeters to follow for starters, but you can also browse WeFollow or IntoWine.com’s annual list of the top 100 most influential people in the U.S. wine industry list.

#4: Quality over quantity pitches: Yes, it’s a no-brainer to personalize pitches, but I think wine writers are a very particular breed of journalists. It’s not enough to know what they have previously written about, but a big plus to know what wine regions they are personally passionate about, how they like to receive and taste samples, what price point they favor, etc. Here is to digging extra deep into wine writers’ likes and dislikes before reaching out to them in 2013!

Image courtesy of photobucket.com

The good news is that all my 2013 resolutions do indeed fit onto one (large) sticky note! What are your goals for this year? How do you keep yourself accountable, and, more importantly, how do you prevent them from waning just after January 31?

By Pia Mara Finkell (@piamara)

The blogosphere has been abuzz with chatter and predictions since the most powerful voice (and palate) in the wine industry, Robert Parker, announced this week that he intends to step down as editor-in-chief of The Wine Advocate (TWA) – the powerful wine publication he founded over 34 years ago – and sell “a substantial interest” in it to Singapore-based investors. The story broke in the Wall Street Journal, but has since been reported in dozens of news sources, including the The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, London’s Financial Times, as well as an army of blogs.

While Parker stated he will maintain a role as CEO of the publication and continue to “cover Bordeaux, the Rhône, retrospectives on California vintages and profiles of under-$25 wine bargains,” he announced his intension to step down as its editor-in-chief, turning this role over to TWA’s Singapore-based correspondent and Master of Wine, Lisa Perrotti-Brown. This news came as a shock not only because of Parker’s prominence in the wine world, but also because the new iteration of TWA will now accept luxury advertisers outside of wine. Well-known for his staunch independence, Parker had previously refused advertising of any kind as part of the publication’s official “Ethics and Standards.”

The changes also demonstrate a shift in focus for the publication – and the world of 100-point-scale-dominated wine publications – to the booming yet adolescent Asian market. Much like the then-immature U.S. market when Parker launched his publication over thirty years ago, Asian markets are hungry for rigorous and focused information and status symbol wines. As Eric Asimov of The New York Times points out, “the new wine markets of Asia will benefit from any guidance and influence The Wine Advocate can offer, until, for them, too, it’s time to separate and go off on their own.”

Now 65 years old, it is understandable that Robert Parker chose to lessen his role at his signature publication and bring in investors. What remains to be seen is whether TWA can continue on without Parker’s influential leadership, face, and “million-dollar nose.”

Cheers!

Photos courtesy of The Atlantic, The Institute of Masters of Wine and Bordeaux Traders.

By Pia Mara Finkell (@piamara)

Before becoming one myself, any term modified by “mommy” made me wince. Mommy blogs, mommy marketing, mom(my) jeans. Barf. Now that I have an adorable, bubbly, giggling, non-sleeping baby at home, I’m warily starting to take notice. I find myself secretly reading some of these mommy blogs, thinking about buying some of those mom-targeted products, and contemplating the rising waistline of my jeans. It’s unavoidable, I guess.

One that I really get, now more than ever, is why wine is increasingly marketed to women, particularly young moms. In my house, we call it mommy juice, and apparently, we’re not the only ones. Someone’s already packaged a product with the same name, and there’s no shortage of others trying to take advantage of the fact that, according to a recent Gallup poll, 52 percent of women prefer wine, compared to 20 percent of men, and according to The Beverage Information Group in 2011, make up 58.1 percent of wine buyers. Mommy’s Time Out actually filed for trademark infringement due to MommyJuice’s use of the ubiquitous word in their wine marketed to women. Mad Housewife, Lulu B. (which, full-disclosure, I used to represent as their North American Brand Ambassador), Girl’s Night Out, Bitch Wines, and on and on and on. Needless to say, there’s a lot of competition for my evening tipple of choice.

This has become such a hot topic that even The New York Times recently wrote an article, Marketing Wine as a Respite for Harried Wine Women, discussing the brands above, as well as popular Facebook groups, such as “Moms Who Need Wine,” (640,000+ followers), and “OMG I So Need a Glass of Wine or I’m Gonna Sell My Kids,” (127,000+ followers). Interestingly, this article also discusses a new campaign primarily targeting women from a brand that doesn’t obviously target women through name alone, Chateau Ste. Michelle. Targeting their wines at women like me, 25 to 38 and referred to as “reluctant adults,” Chateau Ste. Michelle’s ads and Facebook campaign use an “engage-with rather than talk-at approach,” asking women to declare and share how they most enjoy wine.

Chateau Ste. Michelle is betting this choose-your-own-adventure method of engagement will make women feel the brand really “gets them,” affording them a sympathetic sound board, as well as an evening buzz after the kids’ bedtime. Something tells me they’re not the last wine brand to go down this path. As for me and what will fill my glass tonight, now that my little guy is finally sleeping, it will likely come down to taste, how well it pairs with the dinner my lovely husband made and, to be honest, the speed at which it’s poured.

Cheers!

Photos courtesy of The New York Times, OMG Wine and Moms Who Need Wine.

By Rebekah Polster (@BekInBklyn)

If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there, does it make a sound?

If you make a video for a client, post it on YouTube and it doesn’t go viral, did it ever happen?

Sadly, yes. On the bright side though, you’re not alone. Time after time, a client has said, I want a viral video. Great, I want to finish my novel and win a Pulitzer, but that isn’t happening any time soon.

The Proactive Report posted an article about how to make a video go viral. Listing such elements as having a network of influencers to send the video to, a video that will capture attention, and maintaining that video, or keeping an eye on it so that you can Re-tweet as necessary.  That’s great, and many videos around the world have accomplished that, not necessarily from a brand perspective, but from a personal perspective, capturing an audience that is instantly attracted to the newest, latest video craze (Example: Gangnam Style).

But in my industry of wine and spirits, it’s a little harder to get something out there and have people talk and post about it.

I have searched far and wide, and have not come across a video for a wine brand that has one million hits – they don’t even make it into six-figures. Wine brands have message points (also known as baggage); they are all about education, the background, the history… you get the picture. Even the big names in the wine industry, from Sutter Home to Mondavi to Yellow Tail, have only their commercials to get the word out, and because of U.S. regulations in the ad industry for wine, there’s not much umph.

As for videos though, Gary Vaynerchuk of WineLibraryTV has the most hits if you compare him to a wine brand, and that is mostly about education. But Gary Vaunerchuk isn’t talking on behalf of a specific brand; he’s talking on behalf of himself, a different situation when it comes to going viral.

Furthermore, College Humor posted a mock-commercial wine video, Second Cheapest, which received over 262,000 views. But again, this isn’t a brand, it’s a comedy. More important, it’s poking fun at the wine industry. Did this receive all those hits because of how it portrays what is usually conceived as a stuffy industry?

Spirits and beers, however, have found a happy medium. With both promotional and commercial videos, these brands have managed not to get bogged down with the troubles that the wine industry has, and they have gone outside the box to create excitement and entertainment, all while incorporating their brand story.

One that has gone completely commercial, with little to no brand identity in their viral videos, is Heineken: its videos are geared completely towards its consumers in a fun and entertaining manner, gaining traction to receive over 12.5 million views for a commercial that first appeared three years ago. Although, with Heineken’s recent sponsorship of the upcoming James Bond film, whatever videos it has lined up, those numbers will increase for 2012, most likely into 2013.

Spirit brands, too, have found new ways to make their videos become viral. Take for example Absolut, which has gone the music video route in order to gain traction (see Gangnam Style) by partnering with major musicians like Swedish House Mafia. Of course, Absolut and Heineken are brands with millions of dollars behind them, so to create a video that can become viral is turnkey.

One of the best examples is Johnnie Walker – The Man Who Walked Around the World; with 1.7 million views, it was one of the most successful campaigns that premiered at the beginning of “viral videos” in September 2009. Since then, many companies have tried to copy this format, and include their brands in funny and entertaining ways.

Click here to view the embedded video.

When I first began in public relations, making a video go viral was unheard of. In 2007, I worked on a wine brand and tried to incorporate a video contest on YouTube. It was a complete failure. The idea was there, but the execution was lacking, as my colleagues and I had no clue how to position it; promoting it was obviously not enough.

Things have certainly changed since then. It’s a whole new world for videos – everything is being posted and Tweeted and passed around, only to have the next cool thing happen five minutes later. I hope that wine brands will soon jump on the bandwagon to get the word out about their brands, to have people talk, and to be excited about them, even if it means skipping over some identity issues. And once they do, I’m sure there will be another platform that will become the next big thing, and we will hear the brands say, I want my 4D image to go 5D viral.

By Caroline Helper (@forgetburgundy)

Before I started writing a wine blog, before I started working in wine PR, I was just a 20-something with an interest in wine. I’ve never claimed to have an extraordinary palate nor have I ever been able to pinpoint a wine’s origin using only my nose.

I was just just a 20-something interested in wine beyond the usual, “White or Red?” The transformation from annoying-girl-at-the-wine-bar to full-fledged-wine-geek happened over many, many glasses of wine (some bad, some fantastic) and it was something that came pretty easily. People ask me all the time, “How did you get into wine?”

But I’ve never had a good answer. In a lot of ways, wine for the consumer is just like anything else – there are those with a passing interest, those who get fanatical, collectors, enthusiasts and every stripe in between.

It’s like fashion – there are those who wear what they wear because they like it, those who obsess over the runway shows from afar, those who have a front row seat, those who start a blog or get a job at a magazine, and those who simply don’t care – whose own clothing choices are dictated by fashion in a way best summarized by Meryl Streep’s character in The Devil Wears Prada.

Click here to view the embedded video.

So it is with wine – if you don’t have the innate drive to learn and discover, and in this case, taste more, you probably shouldn’t force it. However, there are many people in the wine industry, widely made up of people of a fanatical stripe when it comes to wine, who are convinced that the only reason more people don’t love wine is because they don’t know enough about it.

This is a type of thinking that insists that the wine world needs to let its hair down, put on its dancing shoes and ditch the attitude. Lose the pretention, stop intimidating everyone, and let’s all have a good time, OK?

Reconciling the posture of the wine industry with the expectations of consumers is tricky and one of the most successful iterations of this  attitude towards wine is in the Wine Riots put on by a company called Second Glass.  Run by a couple of savvy 20-somethings, the ultimate goal of Second Glass is to enlighten millenials about wine.

A few of us from CRT/tanaka’s New York office went to the latest Wine Riot on Saturday night. It was fun, casual, crowded and cool, and I drank a lot of wine. There were wines from all over the world, a photobooth with props and accessories, friendly and informative pourers and lots of 20-somethings milling about.  The events span two days in each city, usually sell out and get crazy-good press.

The goal of these events is not to convert the uninitiated, but rather, to arm consumers with just enough information to drink a little more bravely – a handful of varietals, a region or two and a bouquet of adjectives – fruity, floral, heavy, bold, earthy, light – to pluck when describing what they like (or don’t). A tourist’s guide of traveler’s phrases rather than a whole immersion course, if you will. And for those who might be ready to take the leap, the Wine Riots offer a pretty good glimpse of what lies down the rabbit hole of wine-geekdom.

After spending a week on the road hosting consumer events for Georges Duboeuf in four cities, and coming home to New York to attend Wine Riot from the other side, I feel like I should have some brilliant insight to share about winning over consumers with wine. So here’s what I’ve got: Don’t force it. There are all kinds that come to a wine event – those who want to learn, those who want to get buzzed, those who were dragged out by a friend. Make sure there’s something for everyone: available education, a good time, variety.

For most people, wine is something, at most, they like to imbibe with friends while building a steady buzz. As long as it doesn’t cost too much and doesn’t taste too bad, most people are happy. The trick, I think, is to associate wine with a good time – the rest will follow in time. Patience is essential to good winemaking, and it’s something that the industry needs to apply when building its relationships with consumers, too. The industry is warming up to consumers more and more, letting them in on the industry’s biggest secret: that there is no big secret to wine.

By Laura Petrosky (@chronic_ally)

The wine harvest, at least in the good old days, is a truly collaborative effort. The participation and collaboration of many is the only way to get the job done during harvest season. On the web, this is called crowdsourcing. Many folks in the wine industry pat themselves on the back if they crowdsource the name of a new wine or label design on Facebook. But is this really all the social community can do for wine brands? Or, maybe, is this all we marketers let them do?

After listening to a recent episode of “TED Talks” on the Power of Crowds on NPR, I am convinced that many PR folks have yet to discover the true potential of crowdsourcing and letting innovation happen through the wisdom of a crowd.

Here are three truly inspiring TED case studies on the power of crowds. While they are not related to wine, they show that crowds can accomplish amazing things if you give them a platform:

· Eric Whitacre’s Virtual Choir: Inspired by a Youtube fan video of a teenage girl singing one of his compositions, classical composer Eric Whitacre had the idea of a virtual choir. He posted the conductor video and music to a new composition on his blog, encouraging singers from all over the world to post their tracks singing the composition on YouTube. Hoping for 50 collaborators, Eric ended up with 185 videos of twelve countries and merged the individual tracks into a virtual choir singing Lux Aurumque. His second crowd sourced virtual choir reached 2,051 singers from 58 countries (!) and can be heard here.

· Lill Hjonnevag’s Melodic Protest: When Anders Behring Breivik admitted to killing 77 people in Norway in 2011, he blamed a popular children’s song for “brainwashing” the country’s youth. Norwegians had been singing the song, “My Rainbow Race,” for decades, and grad student Lill wanted to give a positive meaning back to the song she grew up with. Her idea: Use Facebook to get a crowd of 100 people together in a central square in Oslo and sing the song together. After one week, 10,000 people had RSVPd to the event and Lill found assistance from a Union leader through Facebook to help coordinate the logistics of the ever-growing event. On April 26, 2012, a total of 40,000 people came together in song, amongst them the famous songwriter.

· Marcin Jakubowski’s DIY Tractor: We always think of crowdsourcing as something magical happening online, but Marcin has been using the power of crowds to help change the physical world. By publishing open source blueprints for 50 industrial farm machines on a Wiki, he helped create instructions on how to build these machines cheaply from scratch. His Wiki attracted engineers, farmers, grad students and handymen from all over the world who came together in the “real world” during project visits, developing easy DIY instructions to build anything from cars to tractors with simple tools and without any required engineering knowledge in as little as one week.

Some brands, like Middle Sister Wines, have already trusted their online community with more than just voting for their favorite wine label – they dared crowd source their newest wine blend. Online conversations with fans of their 74,000-strong Facebook page guided the creation of their newest red table wine, Sweetie Pie. But it doesn’t have to stop there. What would happen if winemakers from all over the world came together in a crowdsourcing project to experiment with new varietals? Or if we encouraged wine lovers to put their tasting notes on YouTube to create a video library of consumer-generated tasting notes? I think the possibilities are (almost) endless. We just have to trust the power of crowds.

I agree with social media guru Clay Shirky: “Historically, we have overestimated the value of access to information, and we have always underestimated the value of access to each other.”

Images courtesy of germanwineusa.us, cdn3.se, activioslo.no, flickrhivemind.net, opensourcebi.wordpress.com

By Emily Valentine (@ebvalentine)

THE BOOZE BIN

Red wine is generally my beverage of choice come cocktail hour, but with temperatures at 105 degrees and humidity thick enough to slice, my go-to glass of vin rouge is holding far less appeal.

So I’ve taken advantage of these sweltering summer months as an opportunity to explore some more refreshing cocktail combinations and examine the latest beverage trends.

Since I addressed the growing popularity of dry rosé in a blog post last month, I’ve watched my peers reach for the pink stuff weekend after weekend, sometimes sipping it on its own, and sometimes dressing it up by adding a few sliced cherries or strawberries. And, like Megan Headley of Cville’s Working Pour, I’ve encountered St. Germain in scores of summer cocktails, most recently in a coupe de champagne at a casual dinner party.

Here are a few other notables from my (oh-so-grueling) summer research:

Blueberry Applejack Martini

I witnessed the invention of this cocktail during an innovation session at the Culinary Institute of America sponsored by our client, the U.S. Highbush Blueberry Council. The tasty combination of apple-based spirits, blueberry juice and fresh basil speaks to two current beverage trends:

1) Re-emergence of historical cocktail ingredients – Applejack was a well known “cider spirit” throughout growing America, and both George Washington and Abraham Lincoln were big fans. Oft used as currency to pay New Jersey road workers in the colonial era, it acquired the nickname Jersey Lighting – a moniker well-matched for blueberries, which were first cultivated in Whitesbog, NJ and continue to dominate the state’s agriculture.

2) Interest in alternative sweeteners – Mixologists are responding to consumers’ growing aversions to refined sugars by applying new sweetening agents perceived to be more “natural” than simple syrup. Alternative sweeteners you’ll find in cocktails these days include agave nectar, maple syrup and pomegranate molasses, to name just a few. In this case, pure blueberry juice acted as the not-too-sweet sweetener, lending just enough tartness to balance the high alcohol content of the Applejack.

Stone Cold Voodoo

This mix of silver rum, white peach, damson plum gin, allspice and Creole bitters is on the menu at Monument Lane, a charming spot around the block from our New York office. It is one of several cocktails on their list featuring bitters, a 2012 trending ingredient that some restaurants have begun to make in-house. Forward-thinking mixologists have been experimenting with bitters for the past few years, but it’s evident this trend has now caught on with the mainstream. The LA Times recently reviewed a set of traveling cocktail bitters and bloggers are posting recipes for homemade ones left and right.

Limonada de Coco

Amid the worst of the East Coast heat wave, a friend taught me how to make this chilly Colombian favorite using coconut cream, rum, lime juice and plenty of ice. I slurped my first glass down before the ice began to melt and, while pouring a second, began to place the Cartagenan treat in the context of food and beverage fads. With coconut products flooding the U.S. market, a rum resurgence on the horizon and growing interest in Colombia’s culture, Limonada de Coco is poised to become the next “it” drink, and a natural choice for mixologists marketing to a cosmopolitan crowd.

Next on my list to try: the Conrad’s boozy popsicle cocktail and my colleague Jason’s homegrown brews.

What’s on your cocktail hot list for the summer?

IMAGE CREDITS: Creative Culinary U.S. Highbush Blueberry Council, Stirred Not Shaken blog, Vimeo

 THE BOOZE BIN

By Emily Valentine (@ebvalentine)

Do you remember the first time you tasted rosé wine?

I do. And, no, I don’t mean that swig of Boone’s Farm Wine after a high school dance or the after-dinner “blush” my grandmother makes by pouring white on top of her red.

I’m talking about the crisp, dry, perfect-with-a-picnic-lunch type of rosé produced mainly in Southern France, but also in parts of Spain, like Rioja. It’s not made by mixing, but by crushing dark-skinned grapes and leaving the skins in with the juice for several days before discarding them, allowing them to impart tannin and a rosy color.

In my pseudo-scientific research, I’ve discovered almost everyone has a story to tell about their experience with the pink stuff. From “Hmmm … reminds me of the summer I spent in Spain,” to “yeah, I drank the world’s supply of it at a cookout last night,” rosé is a beverage that knows how to leave its mark.

Experience five shades of rosé on the Georges DuBoeuf website

Wine media have been forecasting a major comeback for rosé in the U.S. for years, and, so far, the sales figures support their predictions. According to a 2012 Nielsen survey, sales of imported rosé swelled more than 26% last year – a growth rate more than seven times that of total retail table wine sales for the same period. The average price per bottle is also steadily rising, indicating consumers’ growing appreciation for premium rosé.

But there are still plenty of Americans who balk at pink wine.

Sales drop off dramatically outside the top rosé-consuming states—New York, California, Massachusetts, Illinois and Florida—and true adoption is concentrated among a few customer groups:

- Europhiles – The primary consumers of rosé in the U.S. are people who’ve traveled to France, Spain or the UK, tasted the good stuff and formed positive associations with it. For them, rosé is all about the experience – enjoying a touch of European flavor in moments of relaxation.

- Wine and Food Lovers – Highly educated wine lovers understand how rosé is made and appreciate its versatility.

- Gen Y Urbanites – City-dwelling millennials are increasingly opting for rosé over the usual alcopops or cocktails.

Its popularity is growing, but rosé still has a significant image problem in the U.S. To reach next-tier customers, imported rosé will need both greater distribution and stronger reputation management.

Baby boomers still tend to equate pink wine with the sugary “blush” wines that began flowing out of California in the 70s, and plenty of Gen-Xers cite bad experiences with pink wine they’ve encountered in tasting rooms or on grocery store shelves. There’s still a lot of bad rosé produced in the world, so if you don’t know what to look for in a bottle, it’s easy to get screwed.

In addition, Rose is hindered by misperceptions about its flavor profile (“ugh, too sweet”), quality (if pink wine is sold at 7-11, how good can it be?) and production (I blame my grandmother).

So, herein lies the opportunity…

From a functional standpoint, imported rosés have a lot going for them. They’re light and refreshing, pair well with a variety of foods and actually have lower sugar content than most white wines.

They also have a built-in premium positioning thanks to their precise, purposeful production methods … and they apparently have a knack for creating memorable experiences.

As a brand marketer, I’d love to see the rosé industry conduct research on current perceptions of their product, evaluate gaps and uncover opportunities for enhancing its identity. Messaging that works for Europhiles and Gen-Yers may not work for next-tier wine purchasers, so rosé producers need to figure out what will … and then craft campaigns accordingly.

Investing in image development and reputation management will help the dry rosé industry build awareness, fight “color profiling,” and ultimately drive sales.

I’ll keep rooting for rosé regardless, because la vie est trop courte pour boire du mauvais vin ….

Photo credits: Gourmet.com, Georges DuBoeuf

By Caroline Helper

Last Thursday was Languedoc Day. Just as the marketing powers-that-be have managed to successfully transform nearly every day of the calendar into a holiday celebrating certain foods and ingredients, these same days are being gobbled up by various wines and regions, too.

Many of these wine days are really only celebrated virtually – via hash tags on Facebook and Twitter. Too often they are too obviously marketing schemes aimed solely at generating impressions and playing the numbers games for clients. However, as I learned last week, these kinds of days can also offer an invaluable opportunity for education– if they’re done right.

This brings me back to last Thursday. A friend of mine who happens to be a fellow wine obsessive who loves putting parties and events together managed to convince about 20 other bloggers, wine industry professionals, and otherwise curious millenials to head up to the Upper East Side for a night of wine education and imbibing.

The occasion, we were told, was Languedoc Day and we’d be spending the night celebrating with three different wines from the region, pizza, and a promise to post using the day’s hash tag via various channels of social media (our choice of Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, or Instagram) over the course of the evening.

It wasn’t the first “wine day” I’d been “invited to” – my Twitter feed occasionally gets clogged up with hash-tagged tweets from fellow wine bloggers and professionals. However, it was the first wine day that I’d spent in the company of others all joined to celebrate and learn together. And learn is the key word – the idea of using these wine days as opportunities for education is part of their whole appeal.

I had a great time sipping with others while discussing the wine in person and sharing my thoughts and impressions virtually. It was fun, natural, dynamic, and exciting. The experience really encouraged me to rethink the way I’ve approached the whole idea of tweet chats and to reconsider their value.

As a millennial, I’m supposed to be a consumer who is, if not dependent on technology, at least unprecedentedly comfortable with it. However, I think that we, as marketers, sometimes underestimate the power of good old fashioned one-on-one socializing. If last week’s experience showed me anything, it was that perhaps, especially when it comes to wine, there might be more to gain by actually getting out there and drinking and engaging with one another in real life than by logging into a social network and participating via hash tags and key words.

Brands and celebrities have long led a symbiotic existence. Whether through paid endorsements or acts of serendipity, stars throughout the years have proven their trendsetting power by driving product sales and putting unknown brands on the map. Consequently, for as long as the concept of brand (or corporate image) has existed, marketers have actively recruited movie stars, athletes, musicians and other pop culture icons to serve as brand ambassadors.

The alcohol industry has never been one to ignore opportunities – from Hemingway and Havana Club rum to P. Diddy and Ciroc, we see countless instances of celebrities and booze brands profiting from one another. Here are a few of the celebrity branding patterns I’ve observed as a marketer, and a few noteworthy examples from the beverage industry:

Paid Endorsements and Co-Branding

How it works: Beverage company wants to revive its image, reach a new demographic or simply grow brand awareness. Company approaches celebrity with a proposal, formal contract and fee schedule … negotiations follow. Eventually, arrangements are made for a series of endorsements via advertising, film, events, media interviews, social media channels and so on.

What it looks like: These types of partnerships are brokered by beverage brands all the time, from Bette Davis and Jim Beam to Kate Beckinsale and Absolut Vodka. One recent example worth exploring is that of French spirit brand Cointreau and burlesque star Dita Von Teese. This strategic alliance has matched two complementary personalities to create alluring co-branded programs that increase exposure for both parties. Thus far, the collaboration has encompassed a “Be Cointreauversial” burlesque tour, which evoked “the Cointreau world” with performances by Dita in cities across the globe; co-branded cocktails including the Cointreau Teese and Cointreau MargaDita; a Travel Essentials promotion with Morgans Hotel Group; and, a pop-up speakeasy in London. And, as a wise colleague recently observed, Dita’s strategic exposure has been instrumental in putting Cointreau back on the map.

Burlesque Star Dita Von Teese As a Cointreau Brand Ambassador

Organic Endorsements

How it works: Celebrity is so fond of beverage brand, he/she mentions it unprompted in an interview or song lyrics or the like. Brand benefits from organic exposure and increased name recognition, awareness and appeal. Sometimes, brand then approaches celeb to discuss further paid endorsements.

What it looks like: Hennessy Cognac and hip-hop culture offer a perfect example of this phenomenon. Bizarre as the connection may be, the French spirit brand’s popularity among younger generations has grown in the last 15 years, and it has rap stars to thank.

Mac Dre was evidently the first to reveal his love of Hennessy through song lyrics and, since then, such artists as 2Pac, Nas, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg and Eminem have referenced it in all sorts of *lovely* ways (*note the sarcasm).

Freekey Zekey says, when in doubt, “Blame it on the Henny”

Hennessy’s response to this cultural preference has included sponsoring hip-hop events and establishing Hennessy Artistry, an annual concert series curated and headlined by hip-hop artists and entrepreneurs. In 2010, Hennessy introduced its first new blend since 1961 – Hennessy Black. Designed to be mixed rather than savored, and associated with “high energy” drinking occasions like dance parties in urban nightclubs, Hennessy Black is well-positioned to reach its new target customers.

           Hennessy Before                         Hennessy After

See the UGG story for another example of organic product endorsement leading to brand success.

Brand Extensions

How it works: Celeb rises to fame in the film, music or sports industry and later begins to explore new projects using his/her acquired resources. Upon discovering an area of opportunity (or realizing a new passion), said celeb applies his/her personal brand to create and market a new product.

What it looks like: Just as successful corporations leverage brand equity to extend their business into new realms, celebrities often apply the strength of their personal brands to explore new endeavors. In the spirits space, we see examples of this with Danny Devito’s limoncello, Dan Aykroyd’s vodka and Justin Timberlake’s tequila; in the beer world, there’s Kid Rock’s Badass American Lager and the Hanson brothers’ forthcoming MmmmHop IPA. There are also dozens of celebs who own wineries (Boz Scaggs, Mario Andretti, Sam Neill and more) and/or take pride in making their own wine blends (Joe Montana, Lil John, Carlos Santana, etc.).

One of the few celebrity-made wines I’ve actually tasted is that of musician Dave Mathews, who, in my opinion, sets an admirable example for celebs seeking to blend business with passion and goodwill. In 2000, Mathews partnered with his brother, Peter, and longtime friend Brad McCarthy to establish Blenheim, a small winery in Charlottesville, Va. Dave provided the resources and creative vision while Peter tended the vines and Brad made the wines. Since then, Blenheim has come to produce quality wines well-respected by wine critics as well as local wine drinkers and restaurateurs. The winery’s green architecture and sustainable farm practices show its owner’s respect for the environment and surrounding communities, and its low-profile marketing philosophy is just what you’d expect from Mathews, who tends to shun the limelight.

Dave Mathews’ Sketch of Blenheim Winery

With a fruitful Virginia wine venture under his belt, Mathews recently launched Dreaming Tree Wines, a California-based collaboration that, so far, exhibits many of the same branding principles that have defined Blenheim’s success. I expect the remaining chapters of the Dave Mathews wine story will be anything but boring, so keep an eye on these two brands in the coming years.

Dave’s Brand Extends to Dreaming Tree Wines

If celebrity product endorsements are the oldest trick in the book, then celebrity brand extensions are the newest. Either strategy can flop if ill-conceived or poorly executed, but, as the above examples show, a well thought-out campaign that aligns your brand with the image, culture or worldview of an influential public figure can also yield great advantages in terms of awareness, appeal and relevance.

What celebrity beverage branding trends have you observed lately? Share them in the comments section below.

Photo credits: Cointreau, Rap Godfathers, Hennessy, Blenheim, Dreaming Tree.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past couple of weeks, you’ve probably heard about, and hopefully prepared your brand pages for the changes that come with the new Facebook Timeline. As a refresher, I’ve compiled these changes into a list of the top three things you’ll need to remember in order to effectively tell your brand story and fully tap into your potential with Timeline in the next few weeks and beyond.

Imagery, Imagery, Imagery

There is nothing more important for brands than populating a file of rich brand images. Timeline is a highly visual experience, beginning with a page-wide cover photo. Whether you’ve selected a powerful stand-alone product image or created a collage of storytelling snapshots, this cover photo should capture the interest of your fans, inviting them to enter into your brand’s online world. The photo we chose for our client, Rioja Wine is an excellent example of how best to utilize this new Facebook function. Not only is it colorful and captivating, but the photo tells the story of Rioja Wines. Nothing fancy, just a highly impactful, culture-rich brand image.

While the cover photo is the first thing a fan sees, brands should also tap into their file of rich brand images for regular Timeline posts – and often. Any true storyteller knows that sharing an image is much more powerful than any carefully crafted body of text. To stay true to this guideline, I’ll let each of the following images previously posted on our client, Early Mountain Vineyards’ Timeline speak for itself. 

Mastering Milestones

One of the most important elements of telling a brand’s story is celebrating its history. With the new Facebook Timeline, brands have the ability to do so via the new milestone function. Just select “milestone” in the sharing tool at the top of your brand’s page, then add a headline, location, date, description and photo to illustrate all the important pieces of your brand’s history. Check out how we’ve utilized this function to tell our client, Cambria Suites’ story.

Playing Telephone

Just as in the children’s game of telephone, Facebook provides a function for fans to pass along a story to their friends, friends of friends, friends of friends of friends and so on. In addition to the posting of engaging and “shareworthy” content, Premium Ads and Reach Generator provide new opportunities for brands for expanded engagement. As we make our way into the second quarter of the year, we will be experimenting with these new capabilities in order to ensure our brands’ stories are heard.

And now for your viewing pleasure, just a few more of our clients’ stunning cover photo selections. They’ve really taken to Timeline!

By Emily Valentine (@ebvalentine)

I tend to view the world through brand-colored glasses, so, on a recent trip to California wine country, I wasn’t surprised to find my mind wander to the realm of customer experience.

A positive tasting room experience will clearly lead to repeat purchases, but beyond that, a purposeful on-site tasting is the ideal opportunity for a wine brand to make its mark in the minds of consumers.

To me, the emotional and sensory experience a winery manages to deliver to customers on site – and then re-create online or at the point of sale – lays the groundwork for effective wine branding.

I’ve witnessed several good examples of this principle at work in my home state of Virginia (see 5 Reasons to Try #VaWine), but here are a few highlights from the golden state:

• Scribe is an artisanal Sonoma winery that won my heart on this trip. The love affair began when I stumbled on a handsome bottle of Scribe cabernet sauvignon before heading to Sonoma. Its thick glass body and wax-dipped neck spoke of candlelit dinners and intimate conversation, creating an allure that only grew stronger when I arrived on site at the winery. Perhaps I was seduced by the fresh-cut wildflowers adorning the outdoor table where I sat, the buttery shortbread baked with rosemary from their garden, and the relaxed attitude of the woman who led our tasting. It was as if she – and every employee – had been hand-picked as an embodiment of the Scribe brand … effortlessly cool and open-minded. I left feeling like I’d just visited a new friend at home for the first time, suddenly comprehending all the intangible factors that make her who she is.

Needless to say, I’ll buy Scribe wine again whenever I’m able (the limited availability only adds to its intrigue). In the meantime, I’ll keep up with the winery via its website, blog and Facebook page, and spread the word to friends through my own social networks.

• Flora Springs Winery prides itself on being family owned and operated. It’s one of the first things I learned when I arrived at the estate, and the idea of family pervaded my experience with the Flora Springs brand. A twinkle-eyed man full of mischievous jokes led our tasting, putting everyone at ease in what could have been a stuffy setting. He invited us to experience the brand’s “legacy” with wines that reflect the spirit of its matriarch. Scanning a QR code on the wine club brochure took me to a webpage celebrating Flora’s 100^th birthday with eight webisodes on the family-based history of the winery. Flora Springs seems like a brand that’s never met a stranger … tweet @florasprings and expect to get an enthusiastic response.

• Kuleto Estate Vineyards boasts an idyllic mountaintop setting shaded by Spanish oak trees and luminous views (see above). For the scenery, I’d go back in a heartbeat … to make a purchase, I’m not so sure. The wines might have been good, but the brand experience was so watered down that it diluted their taste.

Why didn’t Kuleto’s personality shine through? Maybe it needs further aging to reach its full potential … or maybe it was just muffled by the 80s rock blaring in the tasting room.

What I’d love to have gotten from this brand is a better feel for the face behind the name and how his creative viewpoint is expressed through his wines. Videos, photos, even one great story would have gone a long way in making the wines less forgettable.

So, here’s my “glass half empty” marketing insight: Wine brands hoping to succeed in today’s marketing environment can’t afford to neglect their customer experience offering – in the tasting room, online or elsewhere. There are too many other options for consumers to choose from, and too many ways for consumers to broadcast less-than-positive brand reviews.

And, for the more drinkable “glass half full” version: The emotional and sensory nature of the tasting room experience poses tremendous opportunity for wine brands, big and small. Boutique wineries with limited marketing budgets should orchestrate cost-effective experiences to differentiate themselves and galvanize brand advocates.

By Cassandra Bianco (@cnbianco)

Monday afternoon I attended Return to Terroir, where 77 wineries from Chile to Slovenia to Australia showcased their biodynamic wines. My colleague and I circled the energetic room chatting with winemakers from Corsica, Georgia, France and Italy, and inquired about the vast differences of terroir. It was interesting to find that a number of these vineyards could afford to be sustainable mostly due to the ideal geographic microclimates. But none of the conversations led to how terroir relates to biodynamics, so I decided to look into this further.

In short, biodynamic agriculture is a method of organic farming that emphasizes the holistic development and interrelationships of the soil, plants and animals as a self-sustaining system. Biodynamic farming has much in common with other organic approaches, such as emphasizing the use of manures and composts and excluding of the use of artificial chemicals on soil and plants. I came across Lily-Elaine Hawk Wakawaka’s four fantastic diagrams (two included in this post) that visually help explain the process.

Dana Nigro at Wine Spectator recently reported on the current organic wine debate, which highlights how the U.S. and Europe view organic wine practices differently causing consumer confusion.

Given the trend for all things green, seeing Biodynamic on a label does have a certain caché. But from a marketing perspective, I’m curious to see how the biodynamic movement plays out, and if it will continue to recycle. One thing for certain, organic horticulture practices are here to stay. Marketers, we are now tasked to make a conscious effort in working towards clarifying consumer awareness on what makes products truely organic, for all wine and food products.

 By Laura Petrosky (@aushunmon)

 Skinnygirl, the ready-to-drink, low-calorie cocktail brand from ex-Real Housewives of New York reality star Bethenny Frankel, is introducing its first low-calorie wines to the U.S. in March. After selling 595,000 cases of the brand’s margarita, sangria and white cranberry cosmo last year, Beam Global Spirits & Wine (who bought the brand from Frankel) is planning to leave a not-so-skinny impact on the wine market.

With an initial production of 200,000 cases, three low-calorie California wine blends (including a red blend made primarily with Syrah, a white blend made primarily from Chardonnay and Pinot Grigio, and a rosé blend featuring Grenache and Syrah) priced at $15 each will target the fitness- and health-conscious female wine drinker. The market is there: Women buy roughly 80 percent of “everyday” wines, while they only make up about 60 percent of wine drinkers. And the brand promise is enticing: Merely 100 calories for a five ounce pour of Skinnygirl wine.

Beverage marketers have long known that even peeps who watch their waist size want to have a good time. When was the last time you walked into a bar and could not order a light beer or a skinny cocktail? Even marketing wine as a lower-calorie option is not new – most glasses of wine only contain 125-150 calories, per say. Clever marketers such as beverage giant Diageo capitalized on this when they noticed an uptick in consumer interest in healthier beverage choices without actually changing their winemaking styles. After a new ruling by the U.S. government in 2004 allowed beverage makers to place information about calorie and carbohydrate content on its back labels, Diageo started to market its high-volume BV Coastal, Sterling Vintners Collection and Century Cellars brands as “low-carb.”

Moscato, a grape variety naturally low in alcohol content, has become increasingly popular for its lower calorie count compared to its taste or food-friendliness. Numbers don’t lie: In 2011, Moscato achieved by far the largest year-on-year gain in U.S. wine sales, up 73 percent in value and volume compared to 2010.

 Highlighting an existing product feature because it fits into a current lifestyle trend is one thing, but tweaking the product to fit the demand is different. Many American winemakers and marketers have reported an increased interest in wines in the 11-12 percent range, as opposed to 15-16 percent. That’s why, in 2004, Napa Valley’s Beringer Blass Wine Estates launched White Lie Early Season Chardonnay, the first reduced-calorie wine from a major vintner since the 1980s. By harvesting grapes early in the season, they were able to control their sugar content.

 And now there’s Skinnygirl. As a consumer, I applaud more variety to choose from. As a wine lover, however, I hope that people will continue to choose wine based on taste, not calories. The craftsmanship that goes into producing a stellar bottle of wine is too important to ignore just because one glass of vino has 125 calories compared to another that has 100. When it comes down to it, omit something else from your diet – like dessert – and still indulge in that great bottle of wine.

 Images courtesy of CelebrityChatta, Eater, RedOrbit.

By Pia Mara Finkell (@piamara)

This is my last Booze Bin post before Baby Finkell joins the party, so I thought I’d leave you with some of my favorite wine social media tools and platforms for 2012. Don’t worry though, my much smarter and wittier colleagues will be pinch hitting for me while I’m on maternity leave. The Booze Bin lives on!

 Now on to those hot tools for grapey greatness. The first applies to much more than wine, the second saves you time and keeps you engaged (for free) and the third offers a good solution to small business owners trying to get on the social train.

1. Pinterest: I’ve heard mention of it so many times in the past month that it seems a waste to not start a drinking game, or at least scream Pee-Wee’s Playhouse word-of-the-day style with every reference. For those of you without estrogen running through your veins or a close female friend in her early 20’s, Pinterest is an invite-only, visually-beautiful, digital bulletin board that takes your magazine cutting and scrapbooking habit online, and makes it searchable for others with similar interests.

Now one of the top 10 social networks, Pinterest is perfect for wineries and wine regions looking to engage potential customers online with cool visual (image + video) elements of their winery and wines, pairings and recipes, new label ideas, etc.

2. Social Connect: Created by a friend’s wine digital think tank, the second is a killer tool to help the wine industry listen and engage with their customers in the online sphere FOR FREE (yes, actually free, forever). It was a cool tool as Cruvee, but the spanky newest version of this web application mines and delivers all online conversation around your wine brand on wine blogs and discussion boards, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Foursquare, CellarTracker and others. It has lots of new bells and whistles, but bottom line, it’s a great free tool to measure online discussion specific to the wine industry. Rad.

3. Social Candy: Great for individual wineries on a shoestring marketing budget (take a look at their client lineup), Social Candy offers small businesses simple, online tools to create and manage Facebook content, including wine e-commerce, events and integration with other online mediums (blogs, websites, etc.). One of their customers from Lambert Winery testified, “the integration to our eCommerce system allows us to change content in a single location, and it automatically updates on our website and in Facebook at the same time. Social Candy also makes it easy for us to change our featured wines, update event information and showcase our beautiful winery.”

Cheers y’all and thanks for reading the Booze Bin. Lordy knows I’ll need a stiff drink once this baby is on the outside, so you can be sure you’ll hear from me soon.

Photos courtesy of Godammit.com, Wine Industry Network and AppsBistro.

THE BOOZE BIN

By Emily Valentine (@ebvalentine)

Just before the holidays, I invited a friend over for a glass of wine and asked her to bring a bottle of her choice. When she arrived at my doorstep bearing a bottle of Cupcake Chardonnay, I couldn’t help but smile. This must’ve been exactly what the Cupcake marketing team had in mind when it built the brand back in 2008.

Picture a 20- or 30-something woman browsing the supermarket wine aisle. She wants something tasteful, but she doesn’t have much time or money to spend. Suddenly, her eyes land on a bottle that might’ve rolled right out of an Anthropologie store. It’s elegant, classy, chic … just like the woman she aspires to be. When she picks it up for a closer look, her decision is sealed – and if this wine brings her as much enjoyment as its pastry namesake, she’ll be a very happy customer.

Consumer opinions on Cupcake’s approach to winemaking and labeling vary, but with a million cases sold in 2011, the brand is no doubt basking in its success. And, regardless of whether you like Cupcake wines, there’s much marketing wisdom to be learned from their example:

1) Know your audience – Cupcake’s first shrewd move was to identify a) the customer group with the greatest potential to grow wine sales and b) what that group wants from a wine. The Cupcake line, says winemaker Adam Richards, is designed to “please the palates of the next generation of wine drinkers” who are always looking to try something new, especially at an affordable price point. In a somewhat miraculous feat, Cupcake has managed to bottle a lighthearted, feminine formula that delights everyday wine drinkers without appalling the wine elite.

2) Differentiate – No other winery before or since has used such sugary terms to describe its blends, but it’s working for Cupcake. The genius of calling a wine Red Velvet, Angel Food or “reminiscent of lemon chiffon” is three-fold: it’s unusual enough to make an impact, familiar enough to stick, and simplifies wine terminology for beginner wine consumers.

3) Appeal to emotion – In 2008, the gourmet cupcake craze had begun to take hold in the U.S., and Cupcake’s founders sought to emulate the emotional drivers behind this trend. The Cupcake brand was crafted to invoke the feeling people get when they reward or indulge themselves – be that with wine, sweets or other “bite-sized bits of fun.”

4) Curate relevant content – Brands that find a way to be relevant to their customers’ lifestyles and continuously offer fresh, useful content are apt to succeed in today’s marketplace. It didn’t take Cupcake long to figure out what occupied its customers’ minds … and how it could get a slice. The brand now has an entire section of its website geared toward brides-to-be. Visitors to Cupcake’s Bridal Headquarters can find advice on everything from party planning on a budget to selecting the perfect wedding wines. (Eat that, Martha!)

As its blue and white wine bottles continue to fly off store shelves, Cupcake has taken its branding recipe to the next level with a line of flavored vodkas that promise to be “as rewarding and delicious as the wines that came before it.”

So, look out … the next thing you know, your millennial friends will be ordering Frosting and soda or Devil’s Food tonic.

By Laura Petrosky (@aushunmon)

I love “The Today Show.” As a PR professional deeply rooted in wines and spirits, I am a huge fan of the 4th hour with Kathie Lee and Hoda. It’s every booze brand’s dream to get on a show that celebrates “Tuesday Boozeday” and “Winesday” with two hosts who are disappointed if their late-morning beverage is actually non-alcoholic. Since Chelsea Handler introduced alcohol to the 4^th hour in 2008 while promoting her book “Are you there, vodka? It’s me, Chelsea,” alcohol has become a signature staple of the show. Even “Saturday Night Live” paid tribute with a hilarious spoof.

In a country where local TV stations in places like Texas or New Orleans won’t even allow an unopened bottle of wine on morning television, Kathie Lee and Hoda celebrate everything from National Margarita Day to Oktoberfest in front of 2.3 million viewers nationwide.

Since November 2011, the 4th hour also gets repeated at 2 a.m. the next morning, averaging a healthy viewership of around 683,000. Can this get any better for peeps in liquor marketing, one may ask? It can – the 4th hour attracts the sought-after audience of women ages 25 to 54 and has a mind-blowing social media following. 369,000 Facebook fans and 36,600 followers on Twitter, to be exact (@klgandhoda).

So how do you land a gig on “The Today Show?” Two former clients of mine, a champagne and a vodka brand, each got their two minutes of fame on the most famous Happy Hour of morning television. If you ask me, here’s what they did right:

• Pitch a story, not a product: We’re in PR, not in sales. Pitch a compelling story that fits your brand message, while including some other non-competing products. Working for an eco-friendly brand? What about “Sip a cocktail, save the earth! Cocktails that give back for Earth Day?”
• Invest in an A-list spokesperson: After all, it’s national broadcast. Partner with established experts, such as the editor-in-chief of Food & Wine magazine. Stuck with a no-name spokesperson? Invest in local TV exposure first. The producers of “The Today Show” expect excellent B-roll footage of people they have never worked with.
• Know your audience AND your anchors: Did you know that Kathie Lee does not drink boxed wine? Get familiar with the anchors and their female-skewed audience before you even think of proposing a story. The manliest cocktail of mankind is probably not going to be the right fit.

For more general tips on how to successfully pitch the 4th hour, check out Sabina Ptacin’s blog post on Preneur.net.

Oh, and one more piece of advice, if you represent a liquor brand, always, and I mean ALWAYS, have professional bartenders on set when your brand will be featured on “The Today Show.” A producer once insisted that he only needed the recipe and would make the drink himself in order to save time. The facial expressions Kathie Lee and Hoda sported live on air when they tasted my client’s cocktail haunted me for a while.

Photos courtesy of the Today Show, Jezebel and Xfinity.

By Pia Mara Finkell (@piamara)

With the New Year well rung in and my resolutions still irresolute at best, I thought I’d focus on ways to improve my mind this year. Full disclosure: I am 7½ months pregnant and quickly entering the waddling phase, so delusions of improving my body have flown straight out the window. Plus, given all the at-home time in my near future, I figure when I’m not rocking, changing or gushing over my new little man, I’ll need some good reads to keep my mind from turning (entirely) to mommy mush.

So, on that note, here are my top five go-to wine blogs for staying tuned-in, learning something new, being inspired as a (pseudo)writer and self-proclaimed wine dork, or perhaps just having a good laugh. After getting Tina Fey’s Bossy Pants as a gift, I feel comedic writing is by far the most admirable, so hopefully there will be more than a few good laughs. Given sleepless nights and mom jeans are a foregone conclusion at this point, I’ll likely need it.

1. Dr. Vino

If you’re into wine, you probably already read this blog and for good reason. Tyler’s writing is smart with a dash of dork, and his content teaches me something new almost every time I tune in. From quirky observations and fun facts to juicy exposés with an equally interesting comments section, I read Dr. Vino more than any other and you should, too. Period.  

2. 1WineDude

Now that this dude has made the scary leap and joined the wine biz full-time (congrats Joe!), we can all look forward to more funny, tell-it-like-it-is blog and vlog posts for the intermediate wine lover. Graduated beyond wine 101? Three pieces of good news for you: everything is more interesting from here, it’s more about enjoyment than dissection (i.e., to really “learn” about this stuff, you have to swallow more than you spit) AND there’s a wine blog just for you. 

3. Dave McIntyre’s WineLine

Since moving from the big city to small-town, Virginia wine country a few years ago, I’ve fallen in love with the local movement, especially #eatlocal and #drinklocal. Dave’s blog has served as a good forum, offering deeper insight into local wine news (and beyond) and new bottles to try. Since I prefer to buy chèvre from a local goat cheese producer, beers from a local brewer and, of course, wine from a local vintner, I appreciate a blog with similar interests.  

4. Terroirist

I got into this blog during last year’s Wine Blogger Conference in my hometown. Simply stated, it is good stuff. I love the format (daily and concise), the weekly winemaker interviews and various contributor voices. And since my free time for reading blogs is limited, as I’m sure is yours, the “Daily Wine News” posts offer a succinct summary of interesting discussions on other wine blogs and news.

5. Drink What You Like

Reasons why I like this blog: 1) Frank is a fellow Virginian and through his writing, openly proud of our local juice. 2) He is one of the few people who seems to travel more than me, but makes the best of it through his love of wine and writing. 3) He drinks and writes what he likes, and I tend to like it, too. 4) He has a newborn at home and still seems to find time to enjoy wine, food and time with his family. This gives me hope for the year to come.

Cheers!

Photos courtesy of Wine Travel Media, 1WineDude and Alex Eben Meyer.

By Emily Valentine (@ebvalentine)

The month of December always brings back warm and fuzzy memories for me – making eggnog, wrapping presents and boozing … I mean … feasting with dozens of aunts, uncles and cousins.

But, for many, holiday activities are fraught with emotion. Entertaining, gift-giving and spending time with family can be comforting, exhilarating and rewarding … or laden with guilt and stress. From a booze brander’s perspective, this time of year is a promotional heyday. What better time to forge a lasting connection with consumers than when they are hurtling along an emotional roller coaster, searching frantically for something soothing to glom onto?

Consumer brands can make the most of holiday marketing by 1) understanding the seasonal sentiments of their target customer, and 2) tailoring messages to appeal to their needs and aspirations. At the end of the day, whether or not someone tosses your product into her holiday shopping cart depends entirely on what it can help her achieve.

Here are a few examples of beverage brands that have tapped into their customers’ emotional needs and are responding to them this holiday season:

1. Clos du Bois apparently has found that its target customer wants to feel and/or appear effortlessly sophisticated when hosting a holiday party or giving holiday gifts. This fall, the California winery partnered with Banana Republic on limited edition wine bottles that appeal to the yuppie lifestyle aspirations of its target audience. Associating with an influential fashion brand builds Clos du Bois’ credibility among an image-conscious crowd, and bringing a limited number of the “designer wines” to market adds an air of exclusivity so buyers feel privileged and in-the-know.
2. Whether they have a large network of family and friends or are more reclusive by nature, many people find comfort and satisfaction in connecting with others during the holiday season. Heineken is hitching onto this phenomenon of social psychology to enhance the link between its brand and “what’s truly important in our lives this season – our friendships.” The Dutch beer brand’s new Facebook application lets consumers use photos of their friends to make and share a Social Christmas Tree, spreading plenty of green cheer and buzz about the Heineken installation in the process.
3. Okay, so Coca Cola isn’t exactly booze, but it is the preferred mixer for many rum and bourbon drinkers around the world … and, as the world’s most valuable brand, it’s always one we can learn from. This year, Coca Cola is piggybacking on the fact that many consumers want to feel like they’re doing good and giving back to the community during the holidays. In November, the megabrand transformed its iconic red can to arctic white in order to raise awareness and funds to protect the natural habitat of its brand mascot, the polar bear. I see this campaign as a win-win for all parties involved. Coke fans get to support the World Wildlife Fund while sipping their favorite beverage, and Coke marketers get to drive holiday sales while embedding their responsible citizen image into the minds of consumers. A number of die-hard Coke drinkers didn’t see it the same way as I did, however, and the brand has since tweaked its strategy in response.

These are just a few instances of smart holiday beverage branding. What others have you noticed?

Photos courtesy of Banana Republic, Heineken and Coca Cola.

By Pia Mara Finkell (@piamara)

After testing the concept in several Northwest stores, Starbucks announced its plans to add wine, beer and accompanying tapas dishes to around half a dozen stores in Chicago next year.

According to a recent article in the Seattle Times, Starbuck’s spokesman Alan Hilowitz reports the coffee chain will focus on appropriate neighborhoods for this concept. He added the addition of wine and beer to test stores has resulted in “double-digit sales growth after 4pm.”

A Chicago Tribune article discussed Starbucks’ hope to create a “more community-oriented store” to help them compete with local watering holes for consumer’s happy hour dollars. Their hope is the non-bar atmosphere and availability of coffee options for those abstaining or simply underage will better help them fill seats during the evening daypart.

Other fast food chains selling booze to boost sales include Burger King, Sonic and Pizza Hut. While adding alcohol to their menus can offer greater sales opportunities for the late afternoon and evening crowd, there is some discussion that the risk might not be worth the investment given increased liability comes with the turf.

Starbucks clearly believes the risk is worthwhile and will continue to look for appropriate stores for an added wine and beer list. Along with booze, the coffee chain will experiment with live music, poetry and other entertainment to further attract the evening crowd and boost sales.

It seems to be a logical next step for Starbucks. Call me old fashioned though, but I still enjoy my friendly corner bar for a pint and a wine or tapas bar for a glass of vino. It’s nice to have options though, so to each his own.

One hopeful thought is Starbucks will focus on local wines in each of their shops to demonstrate support of the local community. Cheers to that!

Photos courtesy of Freaking News, Beyond the Bottle and Dr. Vino.

By Pia Mara Finkell (@piamara)

It’s that time of year again. Obnoxious Christmas music blasts in stores, despite the fact that Thanksgiving is next week. Can’t we focus on one holiday at a time? But I digress…

With 2012 just around the corner, here’s a look at the major booze trends ready to make a splash in the New Year. Cheers!

1. Value is the new cheap

When the recession first hit a few years ago, headlines like “Top 10 wines for under $10” and “Secrets to drinking on the cheap” became ubiquitous. Cheap was the new black. Interestingly, trends this year seem to instead be moving toward a desire for value at all price points, and 2012 looks to place more importance on consumers trading up to get better values and find diamonds in the rough.

As an example, I work with the wines of Rioja, a region noted for its value proposition at various price points. We have noted the biggest growth this year in our premium wines, Reservas and Gran Reservas, which grew by over 50% and 95% respectively in the first half of the year. Rather than simply cheap wines, it seems consumers are looking for wines that taste more expensive than their price tags.

2. Eat Local. Drink Local

The Farm to Table movement has been around and going strong for quite a few years, but recently, this locavore movement seems to be translating into support for local wineries (yes, they’re farmers, too!), brewers (many grow their own hops and source ingredients locally) and local artisanal spirits.

I wrote recently about my love affair with Virginia wines and the movement to #DrinkLocal, and I’m not the only one. From a growing organization devoted to the local wine movement, to a bill supporting local craft brewers to news of a recently launched American Craft Spirits website devoted to the craft American spirits movement, including whiskey to rum to absinthe.

3. Burgundy over Bordeaux

With Bordeaux prices at astronomical levels, it seems the future markets, especially in Asia, are turning to a neighbor to the east focusing in pinot vs. cabernet. According to Elin McCoy’s recent article in Bloomberg, the big bidders are getting tired of the “ubiquitous” Bordeaux.

“Burgundy’s on fire and sizzling,” said John Kapon, president of New York-based Acker Merrall & Condit, which set 145 price records at its Nov. 4 and 5 auction in Hong Kong. “Bordeaux is a day at the office now.”

On a personal note, while I also prefer Burgundy, I’d take that day in the office any day!

4. Movement for modesty…in alcohol levels

Halleluiah, it looks like the wine verging on port, fruit bomb movement is dwindling at last. While there is, of course, still an audience for 15 and 16 % alcohol, “New World” wines, it looks like winemakers and consumers are finally swinging that pendulum back towards more elegant and balanced wines with modest alcohol levels (think 13-14%).

According to a recent Washington Post article, despite their reputation as producers of “overripe, over-oaked, too high in alcohol” wines, top California are making the “return to elegance,” including Francis Ford Coppola of Niebaum-Coppola and Bob Lindquist of Qupe winery. Others in California are proud to maintain this more reserved style, such as Au Bon Climat, Arcadian, Alma Rosa, Copain, Clos du Val, Qupe and Frog’s Leap.

5. Wine sales lead charge, but overall alcohol sales predicted to rise

Overall on-premise alcohol sales, especially in the wine sector will increase in 2012 by 2.4 and 3.5 respectively, according to the food and wine research firm Technomic, as reported by a recent issue of Nation’s Restaurant News.

An increase in prices will contribute to this growth, but also according to the Los Angeles Times, strong demand for wines by the glass, craft beer and premium spirits will play a part.

Photos courtesy of Sommelier Journal, Edible Manhattan, Forget Burgundy and New York Barfly.

By Pia Mara Finkell (@piamara)

Eating local is all the rage. But what about drinking local?

You’re already growing your own tomatoes, peppers and basil, because they just taste so much brighter when plucked right out of the soil. And, of course, you are a big supporter of your local farmers and take your eco-bag to the farmer’s market every weekend for the fresh veggies, berries, jams and plants you don’t grow yourself.

Come September, you can’t wait to pick apples and pumpkins at your local farm, and your kids look forward to blueberry and peach picking every spring. Eating local just makes sense, both to support local businesses and get a fresher product without fear of listeria from that harmless looking supermarket cantaloupe. Even more importantly, the local products actually have an aroma, and just taste better, right?

But let’s get serious…what about the booze? Everyone loves their local brewpub, and regional craft beers are on the rise. Next to our locally raised pork and backyard tomatoes, there’s usually a six pack of Blue Mountain Brewery Full Nelson in my fridge at any given time. Mostly because it’s delicious, but also, because we are proud of the awesomeness of our regional brews.

So, what about local wine? This is where it seems to get stickier. Personally, I have a love of wines from France and Spain, and given my work over the years with Rioja, Rhone, Burgundy, Alsace and Provence, I still lean towards these wines. But, I moved to wine country for a reason and the local wines are taking over my collection these days.

No, I’m not in overpriced Disney World Napa Valley (sorry Paul), sunny Sonoma or sleepy Walla Walla. Moving 3,000 miles west was not an option for someone with an outspoken Italian mother (I believe “over my dead body” was her exact words). Instead, I fell in love with romantic Virginia wine country and moved south. When I tried to tell my fancy wine geek friends how good the local wines are down here, it was either met with a goblet full of eye rolls or complete dismissal as they continue to sip their 15% alcohol Cali jet fuel.

Times they are a changing and the #drinklocal movement is on the rise, catching up with the ever-popular #eatlocal and farm-to-table movement. This week marks the 4^th annual DrinkLocalWine (DLW) regional wine week, founded by regional wine supporters Dave McIntyre of the Washington Post and Jeff Siegel of The Wine Curmudgeon, encouraging people to drink local wines outside of California and the Pacific Northwest. From Texas to Virginia to New York, there are local wine supporters that will talk your ear off about how good the wines are from just down the road. Just search for #drinklocal handles on Twitter, like #vawine, #txwine, and you’ll see how passionate the base is about locally produced vino.

It’s not just local politicians or us yocals pushing this juice. Well-respected palates, from England’s Master of Wine Jancis Robinson to Eric Asimov of the New York Times, are starting to appreciate the high quality wines made in lesser known wine regions like Virginia and New York. Com’on y’all, all the cool kids are doing it!

Join me in celebrating Regional Wine Week with your favorite local wine. If you’re in Virginia, here are a few of my favorites: Veritas, Keswick, Blenheim, King Family and Barboursville.

Support your local farmer on your plate and in your glass. Cheers!

Photos courtesy of EatDrinkBetter, New Horizon Wines and Hawk Haven Winery.

By Pia Mara Finkell (@piamara)

Earlier this month, I was invited to a typical professional walk-around tasting at a trendy restaurant in downtown NYC. Having attended and organized over ten years’ worth of these kinds of tastings in the wine industry, I felt overly prepared for the experience.

Everything was as expected. A room full of buyers, distributors and media…check. Proud and interesting producers and importers pouring their wares to an eager crowd with seemingly unquenchable thirst…check. A dusting of disheveled, wild-eyed party crashers, shoveling beautiful charcuterie platters down as if it was their last meal…check. Yup, everything was in place.

All except for one thing. This packed room of professionals didn’t come to swirl, sniff and spit a range of fancy-pants wines. No, we were all here to taste all those well-known and sought after craft beers from Belgium…Portland…FRANCE. Yes, France people. And YES, I do win the esoteric contest of the day.

Held at DBGB on the Lower East Side of NYC, the tasting was organized by the French Craft Brewer’s Association. I couldn’t resist trying both Daniel Boulud’s newest eatery and craft beers from the wine capital of the world in one mouthful. I guessed a few other people had a similar thought as I  avoided elbows and glassware in the jammed and buzzing room. It was clearly an industry on the rise.

Though nationwide beers sales of the big brands have fallen, craft breweries are enjoying incredible growth. Siting the annual BMO Capital Markets Beer Report, Market Watch reports that American “small breweries have risen in number from about 10 in the early 1980s to more than 1600 in 2010.” By sourcing high-quality, local ingredients and appealing to the foodie crowd thirsty for a more fulfilling beer experience, domestic craft brewers like Fat Tire-producers New Belgium Brewing and DogFish Head are experiencing significant growth and expanding rapidly.

In the era where beer gardens are popping up at every corner, gastronomes are experimenting with beer as an ingredient , the New York Times’ wine writer devotes a feature article to the ultimate in beer reference books and New York’s finest restaurant is expanding their fine beer program,  one has to wonder if craft beer is the new wine? Perhaps. I just hope beer snobs don’t become quite as ubiquitous as their vinous counterparts.

Images courtesy of, Sabotage Times and The New York Times.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I originally set out to write a post on the cork harvest debate, but to my surprise, I found contrasting stories rooted in myths and misunderstanding. I thought to myself, how could so many people think that wine corks were destroying the cork trees? When in fact, the bark is harvested through one of the world’s lowest-impact farming techniques every nine years, and is anything but harmful. And how did this mass-confusion begin? Are there other wine myths that are still lost in confusion? According to Natalie MacLean, yes.

My recent interview with Natalie MacLean, renowned wine writer, speaker, judge and accredited sommelier, I found that wine isn’t just…red or white. Named World’s Best Drink Writer at Australia’s World Food Media Awards and author of Red, White and Drunk All Over, Natalie’s passionate approach to wine education addresses the common myths that are still bamboozling the wine crowds.  

She believes the cork harvesting debate remains a complex issue involving many players. However, the cork debate isn’t the biggest issue wine is facing today. According to Natalie, drinking local to support local growers & winemakers and reducing carbon emissions, in addition to heavy less-economic glass bottles no longer adding prestige to the packaging are the latest wine sustainability issues similar to the cork issue a few years ago.

The question still on my mind, did marketing manifest these wine myths? Natalie states that perhaps the media and PR could have played a role in the confusion, but it is difficult to tell.

After putting our heads together, here are the 4 tips we offer to marketers to effectively disseminate information:

• Campaign authenticity – be transparent in your campaigns and respect consumers. We want information so you can help with that as long as you’re upfront with your goals, motivations and sponsors.
• Research comprehensively – study each side of the issue and understand the spectrum of opinions.
• Go to the source – reach out to experts in the field that can give you an unbiased opinion on the situation.
• Report honestly – trust is the leading factor in becoming an honorable and credible source which will bring audiences to you again and again.

By Pia Mara Finkell (@piamara)

Ten years ago, I landed my first gig in the wine industry at a small, but respected wine magazine. Coming out of an all-women’s college known for its influential alumnae (Gloria Steinem, Julie Child, Sylvia Plath, etc.), I don’t remember ever feeling intimidated by what I was told was a male-dominated field. If anything, it made me want it more. Ironically, I had chosen wine as my calling over another male-dominated field, having spent most of college pouring over weighty pre-med textbooks.

Over the next decade, I bounced from one side of the industry to the next, never really taking note until just now that every company I have ever worked for was run by men. The wine magazine, the chain of boutique wine shops, the wine communications agency, the wine events business, the winery and importer….all dudes at the reins. Even now, with a powerhouse female mentor as one of the heads of my agency, it remains a fact that the majority of our highest positions are held by men…and this is PR, an industry known for its strength in XX chromosomes.

Having grown up a feisty tomboy in a family with two older brothers, I never minded being one of the few ladies playing in the sandbox. My powerhouse mom probably had a lot to do with this, but also, I always felt I was following my passion and loved every minute of it. I only really thought of it this morning after reading a few interesting posts on the topic on Tom Wark’s Fermentation blog, winner of this year’s Wine Bloggers Conference best wine blog award.

As Tom points out, this year marks the 21^st birthday of Women for Wine Sense (WWS), the “premier worldwide grassroots organization for women interested in wine.” Founded in 1990, this educational and networking organization has helped educate and support women hoping to break into the wine industry through classes, events, tastings and annual scholarships. To celebrate the big year, this awesome organization is offering a discounted “Afficianado’s” membership for only $70 for two years.

Other young women wine lovers often ask me how to crack into the industry. A group like WWS is a great first step. I truly understand their desire to get in…I still love my job as much as I did a decade ago.

So, here is my advice for them. Learn (and taste) as much as you can, network your skirt off and don’t take no for an answer. In the words of my powerhouse (and wise) mother, if someone says no to you, just assume they misunderstood the question.

Cheers!

Photos courtesy of Women of Wine and Women for Wine Sense.

By Pia Mara Finkell (@piamara)

Ok, I’ll admit it. I drink and tweet.

It’s usually not a great idea though, not only because one’s ability to self-edit after a few glasses is significantly weakened, but more importantly because it’s just hard to keep track of what I’ve tasted. I’ve written over 2,600 tweets, so the likelihood of finding one tweet about that awesome Tempranillo is pretty slim.

When I used to work for a boutique chain of wine shops, one of the most common inquiries from customers would go something like this:

I had this great wine the other week, but I can’t remember the name. It was an AWESOME red with a picture of an animal on the front…like a deer, or maybe a dog. I think the label was blue. Do you know it?

Since that narrowed it down to about a million wines, I’d usually just ask what kinds of wine they liked, their price range and what they were making for dinner, and go from there. More often now, people take smart phone pictures of favorite wines, and bring this into a store. I’ve personally taken so many pictures of wine labels at this point, I’ve had to download them onto my desktop to clear space.

One of the greatest inventions for wine lovers of late is the wine app. There are a million out there now, so our friends at VinTank put together a great wine app report last spring reviewing the best of the best. Just recently, however, a cool, free iPhone wine app called Crushd launched at last month’s Wine Bloggers Conference in Charlottesville, Virginia. It solves a few problems mentioned above, plus puts the social back in social drinking.

  Crushd is a straight-forward wine app with a user-friendly interface, combining the wine review concept of other apps like Drync, WineLog and HelloVino, with the social networking and geotagging capabilities of Twitter and Foursquare. This app allows you to share wine reviews and pictures with friends, but even cooler, if your friend has “crushd” a wine, you can click on the shopping cart icon to find out where to buy it nearby. As my own social group’s resident wine dork, I’m often asked for wine recommendations. Crushd would allow my friends instant advice without having to text me from the store.

Not that Crushd can replace your local, friendly wine steward (if you find that wine you love, ask your wine merchant for other similar recommendations!), but there’s nothing better than a recommendation from a friend. That is, except for sharing a glass or two in person with that friend. That’s definitely better.

If you decide to join the Crushd community, you can follow me (piamara) and my upcoming tasting shenanigans. Android users, the app is coming your way soon. Don’t just take my advice…here are a few other recent reviews on the wine app: Wine Harlots and Cork_Dork.

Photos courtesy of Social Media Jam and Crushd.

By Pia Mara Finkell (@piamara)

For me, blogging evokes two emotions in their purest form…stress and satisfaction. It’s a two-step process.

First, I spend a few hours stressing about what to write for the Booze Bin. It’s not that there’s a lack of ideas, but rather a surplus, plus the uncontrollable urge to make each post brilliant. Clearly, I’m shooting for a James Beard Award every time I hit publish (ah, the sweet scent of sarcasm).

A million ideas swirl through my head, I research all of them until my eyes cross, obsess over the details, and then stress some more. When I’m thoroughly exhausted, because I woke up at 5am to start the process having procrastinated all week, I give in to the demons and start to write.

While the actual writing moves at lightning pace, it’s the stressing, editing and finally, satisfaction that takes up the majority of my time. Let me further explain the satisfaction part of this predictable process. It’s an even assemblage of staring at my completed work, waiting for the confetti, balloons and clowns to arrive once published (still waiting for this actually), and buzzing about it on every possible medium (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.). Retweets are like corndogs at a carnival. Comments make me as giddy as my bullmastiff Vinny discovering peanut butter for the first time. Mentions and write-ups about the post? Well, no simile could do this justice.

Taking part in this weekend’s Wine Bloggers Conference made me realize a few things. One, there’s a ton of talented wine writers out there publishing their work every day for free. Some are successful enough and have chosen to accept advertising to try to make a living of it, but all blog for the love of wine and all in attendance strive to improve and grow.

Another solid learning is the best wine bloggers should be treated, and should behave, as colleagues to the best traditional wine writers. Eric Asimov made a good point during his keynote speech: “it’s time to think of ourselves simply as writers.” Whether you are an industry writer or write reviews, cover a single subject or discuss heated wine politics, the rules of good writing and reporting should apply to as much to bloggers as traditional writers.

Here are some of the best wine bloggers out there, from this weekend’s 2011 Wine Blog Awards:

• Best Overall Wine Blog – Fermentation
• Best New Wine Blog – Terroirist
• Best Writing on a Wine Blog – Vinography
• Best Winery Blog – Tablas Creek
• Best Single Subject Wine Blog – New York Cork Report
• Best Wine Reviews on a Wine Blog – Enobytes
• Best Industry/Business Wine Blog – Fermentation
• Best Wine Blog Graphics, Photography, & Presentation – Vino Freakism

For some key learnings from this weekend’s awesome keynote speakers, Eric Asimov of The New York Times and well-known wine author, Jancis Robinson, take a peek at this post-conference write-up on Richmond.com.

Photos courtesy of Creative Copywriter, Crushd and Wine Blogger Awards.

By Pia Mara Finkell (@piamara)

 I fancy myself versatile, but really, I’ve only ever worked in wine and food. PR, marketing, social media…they’ve all been vehicles to help me stay in the world I love. If you can drink it, or eat it…I’m in. This Thursday, June 30^th, however, is social media day, dedicated to the global awareness of emerging trends in all things social and mobile. Perhaps I get the nerdy urge to celebrate because, like wine, social media offers similar academic challenges with a small sip of dorkiness and a heavy pour of interesting.

On another note, a friend from the wine marketing industry told me she recently forayed into fashion PR, and found the industry was so much more “with it,” as far as social media. It got me thinking. With the cushy topic of booze, are we all getting a little lazy? Perhaps, but there are still some best practices out there that are worth mentioning. Here’s one for you!

Currently, my oldest client reigns from Rioja, Spain’s most famous wine region. Rioja wineries produce some of the world’s most food-friendly wines, offering a choice for every style, occasion and price point. Five years ago, the region’s regulatory board, Wines from Rioja turned to CRT/tanaka to introduce and contemporize this old world wine region to a new generation of U.S. consumers through a multi-pronged integrated branding campaign.

In order to successfully create awareness about this vibrant wine region – from educational trade seminars to fun consumer parties– every part of the campaign is integrated for the greatest impact. Coming into its fifth year in the U.S., Vibrant Rioja is proud to have a social media component to all activities.

This is a region that truly ‘gets it,’ and as the Regulatory Board’s Marketing Director, Ricardo Aguiriano commented: “the power of social media is a reality and Rioja must be actively involved more than ever before. It´s probably one of the best ways to spread the message of this storied wine region.”

This year’s Vibrant Rioja Grand Tasting events included a two-city tour with social media components integrated in every portion. This included promotion from Vibrant Rioja’s Twitter account @RiojaWine and the creation of the official Grand Tasting event Twitter hashtag: #RiojaBuzz to create a virtual conversation around the events. This year’s Grand Tasting also features the RiojaBuzz lounge, offering an approachable, engaging space for attendees to interact digitally, including:

• Live-streaming Video: Broadcasting live streaming video to engage Rioja fans all over the world who couldn’t attend the Grand Tasting in person at http://www.vibrantrioja.com/riojabuzz.
• Live Interviews: Live discussions with attending winemakers and influential attendees were repurposed afterwards on Rioja TV (Vibrant Rioja website) and the Vibrant Rioja Facebook page.
• Twitter Feed: Flat screen TVs in the lounge featured the Live Streaming video, plus Twitter discussions, so attendees could join the conversation in real time from the lounge.

In order to increase engagement with Rioja’s Facebook site and Twitter handle during the Consumer portion of the Grand Tasting in New York, the Vibrant Rioja team partnered with the online social networking site for wine lovers, Snooth to co-host a social media sweepstake. Guests were encouraged to tweet about the event to #Riojabuzz and post their favorite wine and post a picture of themselves at the Grand Tasting.

The wine industry may not always be on its game, but I think we’re doing something right!

Cheers and Happy Social Media Day to nerds everywhere!

By Pia Mara Finkell (@piamara)

Let me start by saying, I’m a big fan of blogging, and bloggers as a community, in general. I like them for the same reason I have an inexplicable soft spot for the Cubs, despite being from New York.

I think it has something to do with my fondness for the underdog (despite being a rabid Yanks fan), but maybe also because I’ve always fancied myself a writer at heart. So, when my Agency agreed to a trade of services, allowing us a presence at the upcoming Bloggers Conferences, in exchange for helping Zephyr Adventures get the word out to the media about four of their seven upcoming gatherings of blogging minds…I. was. PSYCHED.

As part of our sponsorship, I was allowed a coveted seat on one of the breakout session panel discussions. Full disclosure, the thought of speaking in front of 75-100 of my peers is both horrifying and thrilling. What could I put out there that would be interesting enough to get butts in seats and hold these top bloggers’ attention for an hour? Deep breaths. Would either of the keynote speakers, Eric Asimov or Jancis Robinson, be in attendance? Pass the paper bag, please.

To add to the challenge, there is a ridiculously awesome line-up of sessions on the docket. In the same time slot as my session on their published agenda, they’re offering a session on the Aromas of Wine, led by Master of Wine and all-around nice gal, Sheri Sauter Morano. Sheri will guide attendees on a quest to develop their “sensory memory bank and a nose for picking out aromas commonly associated with certain varietals.” AMAZING. To add insult to injury, I’m also up against a session exploring Online Technologies and Wine, with digital/social and wine ninjas like Paul Mabray from Vintank, John Meyer of 9 Clouds, and Philip James from Lot 18 and Snooth. Are you kidding me with that? Side note, I hope they will record the sessions, because I’m bummed to not get to sit in on that one.

As to my session, I have been thinking (and blogging) a lot about all things Millennials and wine, so that seemed a logical starting point. But what about this wide topic would particularly interest a room full of bloggers? Getting a little deeper, what makes a wine blogger tick? Perhaps a discussion on what blogs Millennial wine lovers read and how they choose to drink up (yeah, I went there) these sound bites. Or maybe a deeper sociological study of how my generation prefers to learn about wine, in contrast to our Boomer parents. Tasting Notes or video? Advice from a wine expert or a friend? Should bloggers cater to this particular audience, or stick true to their voice (if you’ve read anything I’ve written on this in the past, clearly I believe the latter)?

The session on Millennials and Wine is still in the works, but having this opportunity to reach out to other bloggers, wine and digital experts to pick their brains on the topic and invite them to join the panel has been a treat. Lordy knows I’m not as cool as the Sheris or Pauls of the wine world, but the great thing about a bloggers conference is that I don’t have to be. Everyone gets a chance to speak their voice, and (in theory) there’s no judgment.

All that being said, I’m still looking for ideas, so use that comments section friends!

Photos courtesy of Wine Bloggers Conference, Dirty South Wine and Vintage Texas.

By Laura Rossacher

It’s one of these things every PR professional has a different opinion on – how to organize a successful trade show. When I got hired I was told that my biggest responsibility would be to serve as the event manager of Vibrant Rioja’s annual Grand Tasting. At my old job, I regularly exhibited for a wine region in France; wearing the hat of the overall organizer instead of an exhibitor seemed enticing, even though I only had a vague idea of what to expect. Seven months of planning and two Grand Tasting events in New York and San Francisco later, I am proud of my learning curve. (I am also thankful that I kept my spirits and calm for as long as I did, not fully knowing what I was getting myself into.)

Looking back at my rookie days of planning a wine trade show, there are many components I credit for our Grand Tasting success. However, these 5 success factors stand out:

1. Pick an overall theme: Would you read a book without a title? Choosing an overall theme for your event gives exhibitors and attendees an idea of what to expect, and is a helpful thread during the event planning process. It guides you in many decision making situations, like which industry experts to invite as panel speakers, or what the look and feel of your event space should be.

2. Invest in relationships year-round: One key asset of the Vibrant Rioja team is outstanding relationships with importers, buyers, journalists and other professional wine drinkers. Dusting off your Rolodex once a year to fight for wines and half a day of people’s time won’t get you far. Nurturing your relationships year-round is key. From monthly industry newsletter, to daily contact with importers we treat every connection and new business card like a prized possession. The Austrian Trade Commission in the US is big on partnerships and personal relationships as well, leading to two sold-out Austria Uncorked! events earlier this year.

3. Sweat the small stuff: At our New York Grand Tasting, I worried for an hour about spit buckets that seemed slightly too small. A colleague commented: “People like us are good at what they do BECAUSE they have the capability to obsess about small stuff.” Pay attention to details, especially the ones that keep your exhibitors happy, from letting them know if/where refreshments are served to providing them with a clean exhibitor space and empty trash can. Attendees appreciate extra pens and pocket-sized tasting booklets to avoid the circus juggling act of tasting and writing.

(Spit bucket Photo Credit:http://www.waitersfriend.com/images/products/product111.jpg)

4. Take advantage of social media: The days where your event location dictates the number of people you reach are over. Invest in livestreaming your event through sites like LiveStream.com or Ustream.tv. Hosted by W.R. Tish, founder of Wine For All, Vibrant Rioja’s livestream received over 2,500 viewers from 10 countries.

TISH INTERVIEW WITH PAUL GRIECO :

If you host a seminar, send tasting samples to bloggers and Tweeters who can’t attend in person to encourage taste and buzz about your event remotely. We included our official event hashtag, #RiojaBuzz in all event materials to encourage people to share their experience. Here are more tips on how to use social media to enhance your trade show, and some great social media usage case studies, such as the Italian Wine Week and their event hashtag, Virtual Vino.

5. Don’t neglect the consumer: Yes, you are organizing a trade show, but it would be foolish to neglect the consumer who, in the end, keeps your business growing. Adding a consumer portion to your show is a small step compared to the overall organizational effort.

For the first time this year, Vibrant Rioja opened its doors to consumers with Snooth, who offered complimentary access to our Grand Tasting exclusively to their members. Alternatively, you can tie your event to a restaurant and wine store promotion, offering “wine by the glass” specials at the bar or discounted deals.

By Jason Stemm (@NYCubsFan)

“The horizon leans forward, offering you space to place new steps of change.”

~Maya Angelou

This weekend, the restaurant industry will converge on Chicago for the 2011 NRA Show at McCormick Place. More than 1,800 companies representing all facets of the industry will be exhibiting to over 40,000 attendees for 4 days.

I have been attending the show for a decade now, and have certainly seen changes in that time. There seems to be added buzz to this year’s show. Perhaps it is optimism for an improving economy, a sense of industry unity as it confronts policy and legal challenges, or the way social networks allow for pre-conference interaction and excitement to build leading up to the show.

Much of the buzz tends to be generated by new exhibitors and products. This year a variety of new technologies and platforms to connect with customers and improve efficiencies will be on display, along with a host of ways to cut costs and use of natural resources to create a greener more sustainable industry. Here’s what I’ll be hunting.

Technology—Restaurants have a lot to see this year. From POS systems that improve the speed and accuracy of orders to back-end data management systems that track customers’ habits and improve marketing efforts continue to be more robust and less costly. What I’m really looking forward to is seeing opportunities for mobile marketing and connecting with customers on their smartphones. App designers have great templates for mobile ordering that are affordable for even independent operators. QR codes continue to hover over the horizon, and 2011 may finally be the year it springs into mainstream use.

Green Initiatives—Earth-friendly cleaning options have been around for years, and equipment manufacturers continue to produce more efficient machines that use less energy and produce less waste. This year I’ll be looking for companies that are empowering chefs, buyers and consumers with greater information on the food they chose to buy, like FishChoice.com. They are culling information from five leading environmental organizations and delivering it in a straightforward easy to navigate site. Companies like this reinforce the important role the restaurant industry plays in preserving our ocean resources. I will miss Chris Koetke’s presentation on selling the sustainability story on Tuesday, but hope to make his session on composting on Saturday.

Bacon—It has its own category with ten exhibitors listed on the NRA Show app. With chains like Denny’s riding the bacon wave with its Baconalia celebration (including a Maple Bacon Sundae), and other creative chefs making bacon croutons I may have to invest in pork belly futures at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

Food Safety—The CDC’s alert system for identifying foodborne illnesses is more sophisticated than ever and is able to gather information quickly from smaller sample sizes. For restaurants, this means the potential for negative headlines if implicated. Most instances arise from improper handling, prep or storage at the restaurant, so you will find everything from cold and hot storage equipment to rodent-repelling trash bags at the show. I’ll also be seeking out new technologies for managing and tracking inventory that can help restaurants prevent and control threats to their operations.

Flavor Trends—Beyond the bacon craze, a number of flavor trends will be on display. Ethnic food representation continues to grow in the European, Asian and Hispanic categories, and a rising number of products from South America and the Mid-East will be on display. Small plate items from appetizers to desserts will be well represented. For research purposes only, I will likely try the red velvet cheesecake from Eli’s. They must read Nancy Kruse’s trend reports as closely as I do. I’ll be at her Menus 2011 session on Sunday, and report back on the BuzzBin.

Health/Nutrition—I found 52 exhibitors listed in this category, but that number may be a little high, since 5-hour Energy is included (they also come up in the candy category). In addition to the usual suspects such as produce companies like Calavo, Chiquita and Gills Onions, a growing number of gluten-free manufacturers are exhibiting to provide operators with convenient options to satisfy restricted-diet diners. With growing momentum to address the obesity epidemic and efforts like Let’s Move, the industry has been making strides in acknowledging its role in this effort. A tweet from RD Katie Hamm confirmed that the RD community will be well represented at the show.

My bags are packed and my schedule is full for this year’s show. If you are there, you’ll find me walking the floor looking for the next wave of industry leaders that will drive growth in the 21^st century. As James L. Fisher wrote, “Leadership is the special quality which enables people to stand up and pull the rest of us over the horizon.”

Top image from swissre.com

Show image from restaurant.org

By Pia Mara Finkell (@piamara)

From fashion to packaged foods to technology, big business has long analyzed consumer tendencies as a basis for sophisticated brand building, according to specific demographic categories, including age and generational ranges. For some reason, however, this seems a little foreign to the wine industry, which has tended to focus more on romance, packaging and product placement. Maybe even the term “brand building” seems to take the romance out of a product that is, at base, all about pleasure.

A recent Business Week article by Duane Stanford spoke of a large wine company looking to shepherd their brands into modern day brand building, similar to other publically traded companies like Proctor and Gamble or Coca-Cola. The world’s second-largest wine seller, Constellation Brands includes well-known wine brands like Clos du Bois, Ravenswood, and Robert Mondavi. As Stanford put it, Constellation “is trying to introduce brand building to an industry unaccustomed to sophisticated consumer targeting.”

When it comes to marketing, like many other wine brands, Constellation chooses to fish where the fish are. According to the article, “more than 40 percent of Millennials increased wine drinking last year.” Given the sheer size of the Millennial generation, comparable to that of their Baby Boomer parents, and their leanings towards wine consumption and brand experimentalism, it is no wonder big companies are paying attention.

In the hopes of reaching this younger generation, one major consideration on Constellation’s collective mind is the importance of authenticity. I’ve previously discussed the particular importance of authenticity in reaching Millennials, because of our overly tuned BS-radar, but this can be a challenge for large conglomerates managing many varying brands with widely ranging stories. As quoted in the article,

“They don’t want to look like a giant mass-produced wine company,” says JPMorgan Chase (JPM) analyst Neal Rudowitz. “You want to appear authentic.”

For Constellation and other forward-thinking wine companies, big and small, social and digital is the way to get there. Considering their marketing strategy previously only included ads in Wine Spectator and in-store promotions, the increase in their digital marketing budget by 150% is a serious step forward. CEO Robert Sands believes it to be the future, “because drinkers have long discovered new tastes through real-life social networks. ‘If anything lends itself to social media, it’s wine,’ he says.”

One part of this budget went to recruit digital marketer Karena Breslin from Gallo (the #1 largest wine seller). Since starting, Breslin has founded a ‘Digital 101’ class for her colleagues, encouraging engagement, conversation, and the “soft sell” in social media. The proof is in the pudding, as they say, and everyone is looking for ROI. On that note, Breslin proved social and digital can equal profits through the her Arbor Mist campaign.

This success story includes the development of Facebook’s most popular wine brand page with 270,000 fans and during an online promotion with social media components, Arbor Mist sales jumped 20 percent. Albeit not my cup of tea, clearly there are some serious Arbor Mist fans out there and Breslin and Constellation have found a cool way to engage them via social and digital.

Photos courtesy of Forbes.com, High, Wide & Handsome, Foodies Unite, and Wine Stopper.

By Cassandra Bianco (@cnbianco)

Stories move us. They give us meaning and help us sequence otherwise overwhelming messages and facts. For marketers, storytelling authenticates all, especially when the big fish speaks directly in-person to the consumer.

Storytelling is how to get the consumer to join your tribe.

Last night I attended Australia Redux, another Noble Rot event, hosted in collaboration with Bernard Hickin, Chief Winemaker at Jacob’s Creek Vineyards. I enjoyed tasting the wines, while discussing how (entrepreneurially) inspiring the Banksy documentary is with event-designer mastermind Adam Aleksander, and chatted with Darryl Robinson on the importance of educational marketing campaigns, specifically with wine products.

So in between the catch ups, winemaker podcast and noshing on Tuck Shop meat pies, I realized that these events are the best added value a wine brand can offer, to achieve endearing loyalty.

And on this note, I shall take the opportunity to plug that my team and I excitedly just announced our Thursday, May 5 livestream of the upcoming 2011 Rioja Grand Tasting events. During the live broadcast, wine aficionados all over the globe can tweet questions to Rioja winemakers, and to cool folks like Paul Grieco, co-owner of Hearth Restaurant and Terroir in New York.

In the spirit of Mark Twain’s famous words, below I included the Australia Redox invite—a great example of how to peak interest.

Friends,

History will tell you that Australia is a continent of vast unknown and traversed landscapes, home to a ruling majority of the world’s most deadly creatures, arid deserts and unexplored hotbeds of archeological history. Australia may contain the secret to life itself…! And of the scores of European cultures that have descended upon its shores in efforts to populate and conquer the continent, we may in the coming years be thanking the many early German Farmers who begat Australia’s wine country. As the wine-growing community undergoes its Renaissance, the fruits of their labor will undoubtedly yield great benefits to us all, and so it is in the spirit of defining a wine culture that we present an evening of Australian Regionality with one of the country’s most well-known wines: Jacob’s Creek.

The year was 1847. The man was Johann Gramp. He missed the wine he used to drink in Bavaria, his homeland, and so he planted some vineyards to make a wine. Join us as we explore Gramp’s present day wines and learn of their evolution over time .

And here is what you may expect:

• SIP: A welcome glass of JC’s blended Charonnay/Pinot Noir Sparkling wine to liven your palate and perk up your senses.
• LEARN: The Noble Rot Talks - a short recorded podcast with Jacob Creek’s Chief Winemaker, Bernard Hickin. We’ll learn about Australia’s grape-growing history and Germanic roots and discuss the differing micro-climates of Barossa Valley, Adelaide Hills, Coonawarra and other wine regions you’ll eventually be able to pronounce. Mr. Cigar and Bernard will attempt to out-saber each other with wit and claims of legitamate wine-speak, as you sip faithfully on a crisp and delightful Chardonnay.
• DRINK: Taste your way through JC’s: Adelaide Hills Reserve Chardonnay, Adelaide Hills Pinot Noir, Barossa Shiraz and Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon.
• FEAST:  An array of small plates, paired to highlight each wine by Chef Christine Wells of The French Cullinary Institute to entice your palate throughout the evening with delicious Tuck-Shop meat pies lending a local-Australian flair to the night.
• CHALLENGE: Sit down at the Sensory Challenge Table with Bernard and the Noble Rot crew and test your own sense-memory and vocabulary. We’ll have aromas in the form of liquids and solids reminiscent of flavors in the wine as well as black glasses that will confound you in your efforts to recall what you’re tasting.
• Full pours, incredulous banter and side-line encouragement from Noble hosts, Jonny Cigar, a self-appointed Master Sommelier and Brian Quinn, a State-Certified Absolute Gentleman.

By Pia Mara Finkell (@piamara)

“What’s the ROI of Social Media?” – Future Social Media Marketing “Expert”

“What’s the #*@% ROI of your Mother?” – Gary Vaynerchuk

I first heard this amazing one liner online last week after attending the Nomacorc “Marketing to the Next Generation of Wine Drinkers” Symposium from wine and social media ninja Gary Vaynerchuk (@garyvee). From a quick Google search, Gary might want to trademark this expression, because it seems to be working for him on the speaking circuit. The New Media version of a “yo’ momma” joke, this is one of the funnier things I’ve heard about social media in a while. That’s not saying that much, because let’s be honest, humor about social media is normally pretty nerdy.

Speaking of nerdy discussions, I finally “get it” as far as why Gary is brought in as a keynote speaker so often. With his awesomely inappropriate trucker’s mouth in tow (although he went a little more G-rated at the Nomacorc conference), he is commanding and captivating, clever and charming (disclaimer: excessive use of words that begin with “c” is entirely coincidental), and yes Gary, just a bit better looking in person. For those of us who swim in the warm waters of social media for a living, much of what he said was not earth shattering. He did not give us a step-by-step playbook on how to achieve social media greatness, or the secrets of digital life, but then again, that’s not the point.

Gary’s purpose is to inspire, and in that, he was successful. All the wine marketers in attendance left with a renewed energy to get out there, digitally speaking, and try a little harder and care a little more. The point of his soon-to-be signature expression is to point out the difficulty in assessing the return on investment of a human-based relationship. Should we even try? Are we focusing so much on ROI for our clients that we’re missing the best opportunities to deepen relationships, and further their business along the way?

Gary thinks so. I’d tend to agree, but that doesn’t change the fact that our clients will always and forever ask for measurable goals. It is our job to help them understand the value of the unmeasurable, but also strike a balance in providing the measurable (reach, engagements, e-sales, etc.). Here are some other key take-aways from Gary’s speech at the conference and the corresponding quotes (courtesy of Wine Business Monthly):

· Learn How to Tell a Good Story

“There’s been a gross misunderstanding in this industry of what stories to tell the consumer. No customer cares about how many yields per acre you’re picking at.”

· Social Media is Not a Tactic; It is a Tool

“Social media is a buzzword and people are going to do it. …There are people like VinTank pushing the envelope … People are doing their thing. Things are happening. Fine. So you’re going to do it. But most of you are going to do it wrong.”

“I watch a lot of your engagements on social media and guess what you’re all about? Open house this, two bucks off now, do this, we’re tasting here, push, push, push, push, push. It’s all you guys do. … a social media campaign is not a one night stand.”

· It’s about Caring…or, You’ll Sleep When You’re Dead

“How am I going to do my real job if I’m going to engage with customers 24-7?’ I hear that all the time. I don’t know. When did your ‘real job’ consist of not actually talking to your end-user?”

“It is time for every single person in this room, no matter what your brand is, to take full control of your brand and engage directly with the consumer. Don’t be in the position where you’re at the mercy of anyone between you and the consumer…the problem is that collectively wineries and wine brands got real lazy.”

To give you a deeper sip of the best quotes from the conference, check out Cyril Penn’s wrap up on the Wine Business blog. For a sampling of his speech and a post-conference interview, check out this video courtesy of fellow speaker/panelist and all-around nice guy, Joe Roberts of 1WineDude

Cheers!

Photos courtesy of Paul Sahner and Winergy.

By Pia Mara Finkell (@piamara)

Writing from sunny St. Helena in Napa Valley today, I am particularly psyched out of my mind to attend the Nomacorc Symposium for wine marketing managers on “Marketing to the Next Generation of Wine Drinkers” today at the Culinary Institute of America. The lineup of speakers is killer, from the king of all things wine, social media and the JETS, Gary Vaynerchuk (@garyvee), to wine blogger extraordinaire, Joe Roberts (@1WineDude). I wonder if there will be a JETS v. Steelers showdown? But I digress.

The conference will surely bring plenty of learnings, which I’ll share in an upcoming post. The roundtable discussion on “Strategies for Building Wine Brand Loyalty” is of particular interest. The session poses the question “what makes a wine drinker come back to a brand over and over again?” Building brand loyalty is, of course, key to the growth of any brand, but particularly challenging when it comes to wine and Millennials.

As a generation, Millennials are known for experimentalism and openness in trying new brands, but perhaps are not the easiest crowd to hold on to for the long haul. So, what makes us such a challenge to win(e) over? Is it even possible to hold our attention in this fast paced world where the next hot thing is just one aisle over?

One of today’s panelists, Joe Roberts of 1WineDude isn’t so sure, or at least he knows brands won’t be able to use the same approach to build loyalty among the Boomer generation. So, what is the right strategy? The answer is not quite as simple as the following, but for the sake of brevity, here are three words to use as your mantra in  building brand loyalty among Millennials:

1. Excellence: Bottom line, put something good out there. If the quality of your wine is top-notch, you won’t have to work quite as hard to market yourself, because we’ll do it for you. In a recent BizReport article, fellow Millennial and PR executive at Edelman in Bangalore, Arathi Menon, summed it up well: "Focus on making an excellent product. If you do so then all of your marketing will be true… and most of the marketing will be done by us."

2. Authenticity: I’ve written about this before, but it’s worth repeating. Just because  you are hoping to reach Millennials doesn’t mean you should change who you are, sport a fauxhawk or start wearing Converse. Please don’t. Stay true to who you are (don’t worry, white Reeboks can be very cool), be proud of your awesome wine and story, and find a way to share that experience with us.

Leah Hennessy of Millenier put together a good approach to building brand loyalty through authentic experiences here, and Hardy Wallace of DirtySouthWine makes this good point: “A business should have one message – the truth. If you want to target market segments, alter your platform not your message.”

3. Engagement: So, now you’ve got a great bottle of wine, you’re staying true to your story and message… now what? Engage, engage, engage. It’s a time commitment. Sign on to Twitter and Facebook, and join the conversation already taking place about your brand. It’s all about the relationship. Just like with dating, when you’ve had a nice encounter with someone, it is so important to keep in touch. Engage them via social media and keep it interesting with news and events from your winery, wine or region.

Photos courtesy of 1WineDude and StellaCat.

By Pia Mara Finkell (@piamara)

Before I get into my new social media influence obsession, I’d like to get real for a second.

Social media is pretty awesome, but it can also be a world-class time-suck. While my employer thankfully pays a great deal of attention to the importance of a work-life balance, what I struggle with lately is striking a delicate balance between social media and everything else.

Like a tween boy rattling off the back of baseball cards, I could easily reference all of my social media stats. People pretend they don’t care, but ever since we got that first numbered grade in primary school, we were all hooked. In the wine world, writers and magazines have traditionally used the 100-point system to rank the worth of wines, although many now push to find a new, non-numerical system of badges or medals. In many ways, I agree, but hold out little hope that we can move away from this deep-rooted system. Despite fancying myself a wine nerd, I won’t deny those scores still affect my buying decision on some degree when I’m strolling through my local wine shop.

As for my stats, I’m a 1301, 537, 360 (Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn respectively), and thanks to a new social media influence company, Klout, the new number I can obsess over is 43. Thanks to the number 43 (which, in case you are wondering, is up from last week’s 39), I’ll likely get a few moments less sleep, be just a touch less focused at work, or my dog’s ears will get scratched a few less times. Sorry, Vinny.

So, what is this hot, social media company Klout all about? As Peter Shankman (76) describes it:

The more you engage, the more people find you interesting enough to respond, repost, or retweet your information, the higher your Klout score will go. Essentially, Klout is using various algorithms to determine your relevant worth in the online world.

Actually launched in 2008, but receiving a huge boost last spring after an influx of investor funding, Klout ranks everyone from teenage pop stars to mommy bloggers, and from food celebrities to wine influentials. Using Facebook and Twitter, each score is an amalgamation of engaged audience, their influence, and the likelihood your online presence will influence them. With the eventual goal of covering the entire social web, the Klout folks are constantly tweaking their algorithm and plan to include LinkedIn, YouTube and Flickr in the near future.

So, why does any of this matter? The co-creator of Klout Joe Fernandez (58) gave a good answer in a recent interview with Business Insider, placing the ultimate importance on a person’s (or brand’s) ability to garner attention and drive others to action in an oversaturated digital sphere:

I believe we are living in an attention economy. There is so much information coming at us online. We depend on our friends to help broker our time and attention. Your ability to drive others to action is critical in this new economy. We are seeing this in the real world too. People in sales and marketing positions need to have the ability to broadcast their network with authority and trust and leverage social media to get their message out at scale.

And now for the million dollar question: What are some good ways to increase your score? Fernandez recommends that people “be consistent and be themselves,” admitting this “is a much bigger challenge than it sounds.” If you’re looking for something a touch more specific, here’s a good post from the official Klout blog to get you started. Cheers!

Photos and video courtesy of Mindset Theory and JellyBeanBoom.

By Pia Mara Finkell (@piamara)

Somewhere at Groupon headquarters, there is a fully functioning crisis room where someone is drawing devil horns on a picture of Mark Zuckerberg. With the recent wild fire rise of Flash Sales and Group Buying, it should come as no surprise that the social networking leader Facebook announced its intentions last week to launch a location-based, Groupon-style service to its 500 million-plus members. 

This move shows Facebook’s desire to attract new local businesses as customers and drive sales. According to Bloomberg, Facebook “raised $1.5 billion from investors led by Goldman Sachs Group Inc., placing a $50 billion valuation on the entire company,” and “Facebook may have reached $2 billion in sales last year.” With 2 billion in sales, why is Facebook creeping on Groupon’s turf? As reported by Time’s online tech blog, Techland, “according to consulting firm BIA/Kelsey, daily deals will generate $3.93 billion by 2015.” Needless to say, there is some money to be had in showing some love to local and small business.

Facebook will roll out their new social offering in beta as part of their existing Deals program, starting in San Francisco, San Diego, Dallas, Atlanta and Austin. According to a recent statement from the Palo Alto-based company, “local businesses will be able to sign up to use this feature soon, and people will be able to find Deals in the coming weeks.” Facebook smartly extended discount offers beyond its own deals, offering users deals from partner group buying sites, such as Gilt City, PopSugar City, KGB Deals, HomeRun.com, ReachLocal, Tippr, Plum District and Zozi.

While this is an obvious next step for Facebook in developing their business model, this is good news for Facebook users looking for the next great deal, and great news for small businesses looking for new ways to reach their customers and generate loyalty via social media. As reported by Business Week, “’local is the last frontier that the Internet has not conquered, and everyone is going after it with a vengeance,’ said Lou Kerner, an analyst with Wedbush Securities Inc. in New York. ‘This news is just kind of an evolutionary moment in Facebook’s drive to be a major player in local.’”

Facebook has also done a fantastic job of working with U.S. and State authorities on drinking age restrictions to make sure their alcohol advertisers can effectively target the right consumers of legal drinking age. Even Twitter has cautiously opened Promoted Twitter Account options to bev alcohol brands and regional wine boards (upon individual approval). From restaurants to hotels, and (as it relates to the Booze Bin) from bars to wineries, small businesses and those in booze or other types of marketing have reason to pay attention to Facebook’s new offering.

Here is a great video from Facebook that explains their Deals Program. Cheers!

Photos and video courtesy of Nicholas Gill Bluurb, Guines Designs and Facebook/YouTube.

By Pia Mara Finkell (@piamara)

To the delight of Googlers everywhere, the leading search engine Google announced a shiny new algorithm last Friday, which promised “to reduce rankings for low-quality” content farm sites, and “provide better rankings for high-quality…sites with original content and information.” Using SEO to their advantage, content farms not only hire droves of writers to increase their reader page views, but also aggregate and republish an endless flow of original content from other sites (without permission). This strategy lands them on page one of a Google search, whereas the original author/website is sequestered to page two or three.

Google’s announcement spoke of reducing low-quality site rankings and maintaining a “healthy web ecosystem” with a greater emphasis on original content. Their definition of low quality, “sites which are low-value add for users, copy content from other websites or sites that are just not very useful,” beckons the question: how does the algorithm decide what is and isn’t useful? When I Google terms like “wine” and “social media,” would the search engine rank the Wikipedia definition as the most useful, or Wine Enthusiast magazine’s most recent article on the subject? ZDNet tech blogger, Larry Dignan fears “there’s a slippery slope here where Google acts as the Web’s judge and jury.”

While bloggers and online writers are likely ecstatic about this news, big business content aggregators, such as the ever-popular Huffington Post and Demand Media are not exactly breaking open the bubbly. Bottom line, content farming is big business, with high ranking and page views increasing sites’ advertising revenues. According to The Washington Post, “Demand Media fetched $1.9 billion in its initial public offering, and the Huffington Post’s aptitude for SEO-driven programming–much more so than its stable of A-list bloggers or its original reporting–explains why AOL is paying $315 million for the site.”

Stirrings about Google’s official announcement have reached as far as the wine industry, and the new algorithm will possibly effect one of the most popular and highly ranked wine review site, Snooth. One of the most popular wine blogs, Dr. Vino, reported yesterday on Google’s announcement, wondering “what would happened to Snooth.com, the wine web site that seems to be a champion of SEO, ranking high in the organic search results yet providing so little useful information that they were found to be scraping cellartracker.com content since 2007 to populate some pages.”

While Dr. Vino reports Snooth’s page views have declined somewhat, they still appear at the top of the Google charts for wine searches. It seems some sites were more affected than others, so perhaps not all sites are created equal when it comes to how Google now defines high and low-quality sites.

To find out how this affects your site, here’s a good article and way to track the changes.

Photos courtesy of Smackdown, and Hudson Horizons.

By Pia Mara Finkell (@piamara)

If you follow the idiom “fish where the fish are,” it might be tempting to focus all your marketing eggs in the Facebook basket with over 600 million users and growing. But the question that naturally follows is: with pools of fish (read: customers) swimming in the Facebook virtual hot tub, why am I still wading in the kiddie pool (translation: has my website become as obsolete as my Apple 2GS)? If a new client or brand is starting out on a limited budget, do they still need a website or can they just skip ahead with a tricked-out Facebook fan page?

Spoiler alert: you probably still need both, but here are the pros and cons for each, and if your marketing budget is limited, some good news.

FACEBOOK FANS

· All the Cool Kids are Doing It: According to a Reuters article, “more than 80 percent of 109 grape growers, distributors, retailers and other wine experts in the California who were questioned in a survey by the Wine Industry Financial Symposium Group and the University of California-Davis Graduate School of Management said they were using Facebook in their business, up from 46 percent in 2009.” If usage nearly doubled in a year’s time among a marketing savvy group, it’s probably no longer a fad.

· Engaged Audience and Customer Feedback: Websites can be a one-way street, offering brands a great way to put out their message, but receive nothing in return from customers. Facebook, and social media in general, are exactly the opposite, opening the flood gates to feedback (positive and negative) and engagement. According to InsideFacebook.com, 8 million users become fans of pages each day. While only a percentage of these will find and fan your page, engagement in this platform is overwhelmingly simpler (and cheaper!) than the advertising, SEO and promotion involved in getting a few thousand people to visit your website every month.

· Consolidate and Customize: Not only can you incorporate all of your social media activities onto your Facebook fan page, but you can create fan-only pages or tabs (depending on what version you have), opening up the possibility of traceable promotions, incentives, coupon codes, etc. Here’s another piece of good news for the budget conscious. With various other integrated social mediums as part of your marketing mix, your website doesn’t have to be as elaborate with a million built-in features. Instead, it should now serve more as a well-designed and easy navigable home base for key information.

WINNING WEBSITES

· Brand Legitimacy: As described above, social media is key to engaging your customer, and much of your online presence can be consolidated onto your Facebook page. A well-designed and simple to navigate website, however, is still necessary to show you are a trustworthy and legitimate brand. While websites are an investment, it still serves as your home base to demonstrate to customers that you mean business. Literally.

· Ownership: While it offers amazing bells and whistles, allowing branding, customization and engagement, Facebook owns Facebook (I’m blowing your mind right now, I know). There will always be limitations on how you communicate your message, particularly as a beverage alcohol brand, winery, brewery, etc. You have to play by their rules and can’t control how and when they change the platform design and functionality. Your website may be an investment, but at the end of the day, it’s yours.

· SEO, SEO, SEO: One cannot discount Google in this debate. They are the #1 way customers will find your brand and Facebook alone would be a challenge to get you to the top of the page. Social media is a great way to engage existing customers, but when potential customers search for your offering, website SEO is a priority. A well-optimized website with keyword rich content and structure combined with a solid link building strategy are reliable ways to help build stronger page rank.

Photos courtesy of Business Week, Salty Waffle and Big Search Blog.

By Cassandra Bianco (@cnbianco)

Photo courtesy Les Salonnieres

In the last year, pop up supper clubs have sprung onto the New York scene. From The Noble Rot’s traveling wine saloon, to Les Salonnieres’ “underground club of artists,” I’ve found these events not only great fun, but the intriguing concept is quite indicative of New York’s current restaurant landscape, and how word-of-mouth marketing comes into major play.

I had a recent discussion about this with Jenny Miller, Assistant Food Editor at New York Magazine, about how white tablecloth dining is no longer in large demand, but much more so the restaurants offering an intimate setting with casual fine dining. This in turn translates to the current supper club phenomenon, which one could argue is the epicenter of a unique user experience. Super club hosts thoughtfully plan the venue, theme, menu and special guests, and have the only goal of creating a memorable experience.

Some supper clubs can be very intimate. At last week’s Social Media Week Eats + Apps event, I had the pleasure of meeting  Tamy and Felipe, a delightful couple who cook together and experiment in finding the most “flavorful experience.” They cook for no more than 6 guests in a small one bedroom apartment in Tribeca. Their unending hospitality and joyful spirits certainly left an impression (and I’ve been told by food editors that the meals are quite excellent too.)

Click here to view the embedded video.

Tamy & Felipe, the Worth Kitchen

On the larger scale, The Noble Rot is a moveable feast for wine lovers. Hosts Brian Quinn and Jonny Cigar approach wine education with enthusiasm and flair. The theatrical tastings have included champagne tastings at the Waldorf Astoria to Williamsburg lofts complete with a bluegrass jazz band.

Photo courtesy, The Noble Rot

Here are 3 key supper club takeaways that marketers can learn from:

1. Team collaboration and comradery. Supper clubs partner with sponsors, bloggers, artists and actors. The eclectic mindset gels well, and allows for unique idea generation leading to successful events. This is key during marketing brainstorms. If the brainstorm is for a tech client, invite the IT department. If you can tap all your resources, the synergy grows quickly.
2. Focus on creating content that engages. Each event element should be handpicked so that it relates to the overall theme. Similar to PR, The Noble Rot and other supper clubs are all about openness, as opposed to private speakeasies. Elitism does not allow for growth.
3. Take an organic approach to networking. If anything, I’ve learned networking at these events comes so natural. Foodie universe is one where entertaining is the religion, and enjoying oneself is a plutonic notion that this is the way it ought to be. Cheers to that.

By Pia Mara Finkell (@piamara)

This weekend marked a changing of the guards as the Oprah of the wine world, Robert Parker, tapped one of his core writers, Antonio Galloni, to review California wines for The Wine Advocate. While his personal brand left its irrevocable mark on the wine industry, this move is yet another indicator that the power of a single voice has waned, as wine lovers learn to think for themselves.

The original personal brand in the wine industry, Parker was arguably the world’s  most influential wine critic (or critic in any industry), who had the ability to move thousands of cases with the blessing of one positive rating. The effect of his favored big-and-bold style preference garnered its own term, “Wine Parkerization,” caused by wineries around the world altering their winemaking practices to suit his taste and receive higher marks.

California cult wineries like Harlan and Screaming Eagle owe a good deal of their fame to Parker’s 100-point scores, while wineries and wine lovers with a more delicate, “Old World”-lean have often been left wanting in many instances. Needless to say, this has caused more than just a bit of resentment over the years among the latter.

Parker’s announcement has sent ripples through the online wine world, leaving us to wonder what it all means. Whether or not you are fan or foe, one cannot undervalue the impact Parker has made on the California wine business, and his departure certainly creates a void to be filled. On the flip side, the new generation of wine drinker could likely care less.

In his “Diner’s Journal” blog, The New York Times wine writer Eric Asimov spoke to this point:

A new generation of wine consumers has come of age in the high-speed Internet era, when far more sources of information exist beyond The Wine Advocate and Wine Spectator. The chorus now includes bloggers, merchants and sommeliers, people who can exert immediate, direct influence over drinking decisions. And while Mr. Parker’s primary passion is Bordeaux, these younger consumers, particularly in the United States, are far less interested in Bordeaux and so are less concerned with his opinions.

To be sure, The Wine Advocate will continue to be influential in the wine industry and it will be interesting to see how tightly Galloni follows in Parker’s footsteps. One thing is certain, however, and that is one voice will never again hold as much industry-wide, unfiltered (pardon the pun) supremacy. It’s not that personal brand is dead. Oprah Magazine has 132,847 followers on Twitter, whereas her personal handle has over 5 million. Personal brand is arguably more important than ever.

But even the new king of personal brand, Gary Vaynerchuk, places the highest importance on listening and discussion vs. simply talking and, as Dr. Vino puts it, “handing down knowledge and scores.” As Robert Parker understandably limits his critiques to his personal passion in Bordeaux and the Rhone Valley, there is more room than ever for new voices to rise…

…as long as they speak in softer and more humble tones.

Images courtesy of Dr. Vino, Connections to Wine and Courage Factor.

By Pia Mara Finkell (@piamara)

  Millennials have been called a lot of things, some nicer than others. Let’s get the negative ones out there first: unfocused, fickle, coddled…all entitlement, no drive. As for the nicer stereotypes (likely coming from our ever-adoring helicopter parents), we’ve been called confident, upbeat, experimental and open to change. A Reuters article last month, “Entrepreneurs Target Millennial Wine Drinkers” referred to the “typical millennial” as “aggressive, adventurous, skeptical and a wine drinker.” As a cusper millennial (I’m 31), the typical descriptors don’t always apply, but más o menos, that about sums me up.

Currently ranging in age from 17 to 34 (depending on who you ask), at about 70 million strong, we are a consuming force to be reckoned with and one not to be ignored. Given all the attention the Gen Y/Millennial/Echo Boomer Generation is receiving lately from marketers, especially wine marketers at trade shows, it looks like we’ve officially got the industry’s attention. The Wine Market Council’s U.S. Wine Consumer Trends conference last week showed more than half of Millennials are “core wine drinkers,” so it makes sense that all eyes are focused on the Next Generation of wine drinkers.

Over the past few weeks, there have been a few great seminars addressing the question du jour in the wine world, “how do we market to millennials?” Italy’s Virtual Vino 2011 Conference, “What Emily Post Can Teach You About Social Media, Millennial App-titude and Geo-Marketing” gave sound advice on how, what, when and where to engage us young whippersnappers via social media. Impressive not only for squeezing that many buzz words into one seminar title, but also for its down-and-dirty, helpful hints, you can check out the entire seminar here.

Another fantastic seminar with standing room only held at this year’s Unified Wine & Grape Symposium in Sacramento was called “What Matters to Millennials.” It received somewhat less fanfare amongst east coasters, but was no less brilliant. The speakers were engaging and the facts were entertaining, but what I found the most useful was moderator and panelist, Leah Hennessy of Millenier’s tips on how brands should best communicate with Millennials. Leah was kind enough to offer the presentation up for free in PDF form and an MP3 audio recording, but here are the key takeaways on what matters to millennials when it comes to brands, or maybe just life in general:

1. Be Approachable, Tread Lightly and Have Fun with It

Advice that’s seemingly a no-brainer, you would be surprised how many times useless, esoteric and completely subjective descriptors are thrown around in the wine industry. No one really cares if you think your wine tastes like the rind of a Meyer lemon vs. plain ol’citrus, so please leave the snobbery in the snifter, engage gently with something a little more interesting, and above all, have fun with it. If not, Millennials will sniff out your disinterest and disdain, and disregard your brand completely. And then you’d be stuck selling wine to my Dad. So, unless your wine is under $9.99 and pairs with a meat-only diet, you might want to try a new approach.

2. Be Authentic, Listen and (in the words of my old street hockey team), Don’t be a D—che Jerk

Authenticity is the golden rule when engaging millennials (or anyone for that matter), and going grassroots is the only way to get there. Remember, we’re a skeptical people. You can’t jump in on the first day with a funny label and a hard sell and expect a captive audience ready to buy your brand. Instead, jump in and listen. Then, find your voice and, as Leah so eloquently put it, “let your geek flag fly” (i.e. be yourself). And please, “don’t be a d­­–che.”

3. Help Us Help You

“Our experiences are our social currency.” Oh hey, awesome sound-bite! If you want Millennials to pay attention to your brand, align your interests with our social currency (read: experiences and stuff that matters to us in our everyday lives). At the end of the day, when you take a hard look at your brand from every angle and in every social medium, would we talk about it over dinner with friends? Would you?

Images courtesy of Fermentation, Millenier and Epicurious.

By Pia Mara Finkell (@piamara)

This will likely not inspire any Oprah-style “aha! moments,” but there are a lot of millennials out there and statistically speaking, if they’re old enough to drink, they’re probably drinking wine.

This wee fact has not gone without notice amongst us wine PR hacks. The only way to get more blitzed in a buzzword drinking game during any given wine trade show than taking a shot every time someone said “social media,” is if “millennial” was the grown-up version of Peewee’s secret-word-of-the-day. AHHH!

Depending on what age delimitations you use (the agreed upon upper limit ranges between adults currently 29 through 32), there are approximately 70 to 80 million millennials, around the same size or just slightly larger than that of their Baby Boomer parents. Just for sheer size alone, let alone their buying and consumption habits, it is only common sense to look to this Echo-Boomer generation as the future of the wine industry.

During the sixth annual Wine Market Council wine trends conference that took place yesterday in NYC, WMC President John Gillespie discussed the 17 consecutive years of growth of wine consumption in the U.S., despite two recessions, driven largely by the millennial generation. According to John, 51% of millennials are “core wine drinkers,” defined as someone who drinks wine at least once a week on average, up from only 37% five years ago. Not to be forgotten, GenXers are throwing back their fair share, with 62% as core wine drinkers vs. 41% in 2005.

So, what’s the best approach to market and communicate with this influential group of wine drinkers? A big week for the wine industry, Italian Wine Week ran an interesting seminar yesterday that broached this subject, entitled “What Emily Post Can Teach You About Social Media, Millennial App-titude and Geo-Marketing.” Ahh, what a delicious buzzword bonanza! I’ll cover this more thoroughly next week, but one major topic of discussion during this wine social media (AHHH!) conference was the importance of authenticity, accessibility and transparency in communicating and marketing to millennials (AHHH!).

On that note, I’ll leave you with a great quote from Tyler Coleman of Dr. Vino, who was a speaker on another panel during this week-long trade show. Speaking about the changing landscape of wine communications as the panel’s “new media expert,” Tyler left us with these thoughtful words:

“We’re at a crossroads for the way we talk about wine. The new era…is going to be much more inclusive with much more emphasis on discussion rather than just handing down knowledge and scores.”

“There will be voices that emerge that will have a great deal of authority, but that authority will have to be worn a lot more lightly than it has in the past.”

“There is going to be a lot more voices. It is going to be a more lively discussion, maybe harder to follow, but also maybe more fun. There will be more people to engage.”

Speak the truth, Tyler.

Photos courtesy of the Wine Business, Wine Market Council, Millenier and Fermentation.

Video courtesy of AddisonGr’s channel on YouTube…and Pee Wee Herman, of course.

By Pia Mara Finkell (@piamara)

If 2010 was the year we learned to dabble in social and mobile commerce and to work with social media, 2011 will mark the year we learn to make these mediums work for us.

While not nearly a new concept, NFC, or Near Field Communications has topped analysts’ lists as the next big thing in mobile commerce…for several years running. 2011 seems to be the year this prediction will come to fruition. As defined by Mashable, “NFC allows a device, usually a mobile phone, to collect data from another device or NFC tag at close range. In many ways, it’s like a contactless payment card that is integrated into a phone.” While not yet established in American mobile phones, rumors of the launch of several mainstream NFC-enabled phones on the US market have begun to fly.

Most notably, Piper Jaffray‘s lead technology and Apple analyst, Gene Munster just forecasted the arrival of NFC technology in the US, namely through Apple’s fifth generation iPhone with Verizon at the end of the 1^st quarter of 2011. “We are modeling for Apple to launch a CDMA version of the iPhone at Verizon in the March-11 quarter. The fifth generation iPhone will likely ship this summer with NFC capability,” Munster writes.

For consumers, this is major news, but for retailers and marketers, this marks a major opportunity to take advantage of NFC technology at the point of purchase to educate consumers and drive sales. While QR codes provide the consumer with valuable product information, for example tasting notes and reviews on a bottle of Rioja at their local wine shop, NFC enabled phones create a “digital wallet” for contactless payment with products marked with NFC tags. Not only will the consumer be able to learn about wines by tapping their mobile phone near the tagged bottle (or sign, advertisement, etc.), but they will now be able to easily purchase the product in the same tap, through preloaded digital account information securely contained in the device.

Stay tuned for these upcoming developments to learn how to best capitalize on NFC technology in your overall brand strategy as consumers’ seemingly insatiable social and mobile hunger continues to grow in 2011.

Photos courtesy of the San Francisco Chronicle and Mashable.

By Pia Mara Finkell (@piamara)

2010 has without a doubt been the year of social media growth. It’s impossible to watch the morning news, read a newspaper or conduct a meeting without hearing the term “social media.” It has gotten me thinking about brainstorming new names for the term. Web 2.0 came and went. Some people (including me) simply shorten it to “social,” or use the term “new media” to spice up the term. Let me know if you have any brilliant ideas; otherwise, I’m starting a drinking game for every time someone says “social media.”

But I digress…

As far as social media’s influence, the world of booze has been no exception. Social media marketing has swept through the wine, spirits, beer and restaurant industry like wildfire. Even the National Restaurant News’ annual survey of more than 1,500 American Culinary Federation member chefs, one of the top food and wine industry forecasts of the year, forecasted some interesting trends for social marketing.

Here are a few worth noting:

• 55% of chefs said they are currently using social media for professional purposes, and another 16% said they plan to start using such channels in 2011
• Citing top restaurant operational trends, 17% of chefs referenced social media marketing
• 15% of chefs said one of the most successful strategies for maintaining and building business during the recession was increased marketing efforts (including social media marketing)

Chefs often have strong influences on wine and cocktail menus, and thus on booze marketers, especially with the rise of culinary cocktails and focus on wine- and beer-pairing menus. If chefs make up one of your target audiences (and even they are making time for social media in the kitchen), it is clear 2011 should mark an increasing focus on all things social for marketers.

A few other social media marketing trends currently in their infancy phase are sure to create a lot of buzz and make their mark on our industry in 2011:

Quick Response Codes Help Demystify Wine Selection

The wine industry has just started to scratch the surface in the use of QR codes for marketing, otherwise known as Context Sensitive Marketing or CSM. QR codes have started popping up on wine labels (e.g., 94 Wines and Cellar Key), but there is tremendous room for growth by using this little digital bar code on everything from bottle neckers in wine shops (to hold winery information) to advertisements (leading to a Facebook page) and event promotion (an invitation leading to the RSVP site).

Geotracking the Next Step in Attracting Loyal Customers

Foursquare has begun to heat up, but other than a bar promotion here or there, it still remains a fun game without wide-sweeping usage or, arguably, enough concrete purpose in promoting business. But there is clearly tremendous potential when it comes to geo-marketing. One good example of the wave of the location-based social gaming future is the recently announced partnership of Vin Tank with SCVNGR Rewards, which awards redeemable points to loyal customers who check in at Napa Valley’s Franciscan or Robert Mondavi wineries.

Paul Mabray, the head of the wine industry’s leading think tank, VinTank, believes new social technologies like SCVNGR are the best way for wineries to increase their business. "The wine industry is primed and ready to start capitalizing on all of the emerging technologies available today. Wine is meant to be social, after all, and we believe adding opportunities for wine consumers to socialize digitally is the natural next step."

Photos courtesy of Orange County Register, The Cellar Key and Mashable.

By Pia Mara Finkell (@piamara)

This is my favorite time of year. Holiday parties aplenty, wassail up the wazoo, and enough popped bottles to impress even Lil Wayne. It’s also a time to reflect on lessons learned throughout the year, and forecast trends to come, so we don’t get caught with our proverbial pants down.

Here’s a look at the major themes of 2010 that will continue to grow in the coming year, affecting wine and spirits (and in some cases other) PR professionals and marketers in 2011.

Top 5 Booze Trends of 2010:

1. Jump In, the Water’s Warm!

Wineries and other small booze businesses dipped their toes into the warm waters of social media in 2010. In what seemed like overnight, wine businesses around the world launched Facebook and Twitter pages, featuring them front-and-center on their respective websites. While most are just beginning to see the benefits of engaging customers in the digital sphere, a few stood out. Wineries like St. Supéry hired a full-time social media manager and moved from participation to engagement, driving unique content and even a global movement (e.g. #Cabernet Day).

2. Taking the Snooty out of the Wine Selection

I don’t think sommeliers should fret quite yet, but according to Wine Enthusiast magazine’s blog, several forward thinking restaurants have turned to IPad “wine tablets” for their wine and cocktail lists this year. From NYC’ SD26 to Chicago’s Chicago Cut Steakhouse to Atlanta’s Bone Restaurant, restaurants saw a boost in sales from the very first day they introduced the iPad wine lists to their customers. According to the The New York Times, wine purchases shot up nearly 11% overnight. “The devices seem to be spurring deeper interest in wine and empowering bolder, more confident selections, they say, potentially revolutionizing the psychology of dining’s most intimidating passage.”

3. Simplify the Shopping Experience

Following on the theme of demystifying the wine experience, 2010 marked the creation of some incredible and very functional tools to simplify shopping for wine, including wine apps, wine vending machines and even QR Codes on wine labels. Considering the now overwhelming selection, Mashable thankfully just put out a list of the top 10 iPhone apps for Wine Enthusiasts, pointing to, among others, Snooth Pro for their cool image recognition technology and PairIt! for their huge database of searchable wine pairings.

4. Social Media Meets Social Commerce

I’ve written previously about the rise of private online sales, with popular invitation-only wine flash sale sites like Lot18, Deals From the Vines and VineCrowd offering a range of heavily discounted, premium and sometimes small-production wines. Sites that are doing this well safeguard the integrity of the wines they promote and offer a new way for wineries on small marketing budgets to generate brand awareness and attract/engage new customers through trial.

5. Putting the Social Back in Social Media

While many forward-thinking wine businesses and regional boards have begun to engage potential customers and fans online, the most savvy have found ways to replicate that engagement IRL (“In Real Life”). Putting the social back in social media, smart groups like TasteLive and the VA Wine Board have run virtual tastings and tweetchats with local winemakers, wine bloggers and industry influentials, driving overwhelming consumer participation, media coverage (print, online and TV) and even a Twitter trending topic.

For predictions on future trends for 2011, the National Restaurant Association just released its annual list of food and drink trend predictions for 2011. I’ll write soon about some thoughts in this arena for wine and spirits marketing professionals.

Images courtesy of Bryan Thatcher, Trends Update, Mashable,Recessionista and Drink Think Wine Blog.

By Pia Mara Finkell (@piamara)

One perk of the booze industry is attending trade events with hundreds of wines, new spirits and food pairings. But let’s face it; once you’ve been to one walk-around trade show, you have been to them all. Especially in the wine industry, when you are often working with traditional clients and industries, how do you make your trade show stand out in a sea of similar events while still making them functional for all involved?

There are million and one articles on how to incorporate a social media plan into event planning, when the event is open to the public. For example, you can check out good posts on Mashable here, here or here, or read this free white paper from Constant Contact. For consumer events, crowd sourcing is half the battle and going social is a great solution. But how can you use social media to simplify and enhance your event when it’s not open to the public or you need to target a specific trade audience?

B2B event planners are all too familiar with the many challenges involved in planning and executing a successful trade show. How do I promote the event to my target audience? How do I create buzz around the event? How do I continue to engage speakers, exhibitors and attendees afterwards to maximize ROI for my client? Event planning is expensive and, bottom line, you have to maximize your budget whenever possible.

Social media is the one tool in your toolbox that brings all of these pieces together, offering effective solutions at an unbeatable price: free. Here are 5 tips on how to use social media to plan your next trade show or event:

1. Think Long Term

If you are thinking of simply slapping a hashtag on your event, asking people to tweet during the one or multi-day event, you are wasting an opportunity. Incorporate the promotion of your event into your overall social media strategy and plan to engage your audience throughout the year. Think of the event as just one of the ways to build and maintain long-term relationships with your target audience. According to Jordan Schwartz of Seattle-based event social network Pathable in an interview by Michael J. Shapiro of Meeting & Conventions magazine, Schwartz points out “the best value that an exhibitor can get from a trade show is a long-term relationship with a customer. You can try to start a long-term relationship with a five-minute visit in a booth, but it’s really going to be most valuable when trust and understanding and background knowledge are built over time.”

2. Get the Word Out

Historically, we would use advertising, trade lists and call centers to help promote our events. While these might still be good methods, social media has expanded our options well-beyond the save the date. Since the event is now part of your overall social media plan, you can capitalize on your other social platforms to help promote your brand, including Facebook and Twitter to facilitate conversations before and after the event; LinkedIn and Foursquare to help connect attendees during the event; and Flickr and YouTube to keep the conversation going afterwards. For more detailed advice on each of these platforms, read some more good advice on “Working the Platforms” from M&C magazine.

3. The Social Lubricant

Now that you’ve gathered all of these like-minded people in one room, be it wine aficionados or techie gurus, how do you help them create connections to make your event the talk of the industry? First of all, make sure there is high-speed wireless available to allow social engagement  during the event. Second, if you’re hosting your event in New York, help people in Miami or Seattle participate in the event through a live video stream of seminars or interviews with participating influentials using sites like LiveStream or Ustream. Create and promote a unique hashtag, so attendees can engage in a discussion on Twitter during the event. Display tweets using this hashtag on screens throughout the event to encourage others to engage and give your team an opportunity to listen to feedback. Social Media B2B recommends using Facebook’s new SMS feature to automatically become your brand’s Facebook fan during your event by sending a simple text from their mobile phones.

4. Help Participants Drive Sales

All event planners know it is important to keep exhibitors happy during your event. The best way to keep smiles on their face is to focus on their bottom line and help create sales opportunities. One interesting way to do this is through QR Codes. Not only should you create incorporate a QR code into all of your pre-event promotion and advertising to help promote your event, but also encourage participants of your trade show to create their own QR codes (or do it for them and print it on their table sign) leading to their websites or a sales form. Happy participants with increased sales means good buzz after the event and increased participation next year.

5. Keep the Party Going

After months of planning and the final frenzied days of controlled chaos, the exhausted event planner’s natural instinct following an event is to collapse and take a vacation. Resist the urge to completely go into hibernation. Keep the dialogue going via all of your social media platforms by posting and encouraging participants to post videos (remember that live stream?), photos and discussion following the event. Use this opportunity to say thank you to attendees and remind them of the following year’s event (and dates, if you have gotten that far).

Photos Courtesy of Displays and Designs and Finance and Business Group.

By Pia Mara Finkell (@piamara)

How can one or a few people organize a one-day global event with a promotional budget of $0? Impossible? The answer is the Interwebs, my friends.

Initially conceived and mobilized by Rick Bakas of St. Supéry Winery, #Cabernet Day was eventually embraced by the international wine community on September 2, 2010. Celebrations and discussion took place around the globe during the largest ever online wine tasting, from Napa and Walla Walla over to Charlottesville and New York, down to Maipo Valley, over to Rioja, Bordeaux, Coonawarra, Hawke’s Bay and as far away as China.

#Cabernet Day gathered thousands of people around the world around a common interest, their love of the Cabernet Sauvignon grape and wines. As Rick said, “commonality leads to community” and using new media tools, such as Facebook, Twitter, Eventbrite.com and Meetup.com, #Cabernet Day was a huge success.

Over those 24 hours, the statistics were stunning:

While the chart above from Drink Nectar mentions over 7,000 tweets and 1,734 contributors, Bakas Media quotes “nearly 9,000 tweets, 4,000 Facebook posts, 75 in-person meetups in 6 different countries.” Either way, the word of mouth buzz generated by the simple idea of gathering like-minded individuals around a common interest was overwhelming and inspiring. Wine and lifestyle press picked up on the story, as well. Even Gary Vaynerchuk was on board, featuring several Thunder Shows celebrating #Cabernet Day, including this one:

Since this was originally Rick’s and St. Supéry’s idea, one might wonder how this directly benefitted their brand. It’s only fair that the winery “was mentioned 900 times online that day, far surpassing the second most mentioned winery at 236 mentions,” according to RickBakas.com. Many of the participants involved offered their Cabernet Sauvignon wines, including St. Supéry, at a discount, driving increased sales, as well.

Increased buzz, awareness, education and sales, and all without spending a single out-of-pocket cent (although time is, of course, money). Not bad, Rick.

If you’d like to learn more about how to engage a global audience using social media, Rick created a good 6-step approach here.

Photos and vindeo courtesy of RickBakas.com, Garys Wine, Wine Library TV, Hulu and Drink Nectar.

By Pia Mara Finkell (@piamara)

 Wine is by no means the only industry playing in the social media sandbox (for more on this, read any of the Buzz Bin posts below), but it may very well be the one deserving the ‘Most Improved’ award. Formerly stodgy and proud, over the past few years, wine has followed (and occasionally lead) the social charge, shifting its voice online to the hands of the young(er…think Gen Y and Gen X vs. Boomers).

It makes sense if you think about it. The enjoyment of wine is, at its core, as social as it gets. It’s lovely on its own, but without the trifecta of good conversation, good food and a good bottle, it’s just fermented grape juice offering up a nice buzz (not that I’m judging).

 One vocal advocate for social media in general – and as it relates to the wine industry in particular – is the well-known and respected wine blogger, educator and consultant, Ryan Opaz. Ryan is one of the main voices and co-founders of Catavino, a popular wine blog worth reading if, in his words, “you like Spanish and Portuguese wine, with a healthy dose of wine business sprinkled on top.”

In addition to running the now well-known European Wine Bloggers Conference, Ryan spends his time consulting and speaking internationally on the subject of wine social media. As a keynote speaker at the influential WineFuture conference held in Rioja, Spain, Ryan pointed out:

The real truth is that the consumer is tomorrow’s critic. And in the end if they don’t know where Tempranillo comes from it doesn’t matter. They do know whether or not they like the wine. As a group they have an aggregated voice that is powerful and broad. These consumers may never be the educated WINE GEEKS we all wish they were, but they will be the ones to buy your products and share their thoughts with their friends, just like they always have. If you do not listen to them…you lose. If you choose to engage with them…you win.

Recently, my colleague Cassandra Bianco (@cassandrabianco), who guest pens the occasional Booze Bin blog post on the mixology world, struck up a conversation with Ryan. Here’s an excerpt from their discussion on social media and the wine industry, with some good advice for small wine and food businesses just hanging up their shingle:

What do you predict the social media and the wine industry landscape will look like in the near future?

Catavino: We see social media becoming more and more accepted as we go forward. In the end, wine has always used social media to sell itself, whether it be a conversation in a bar or a familiar bantering at home. The difference being that now the conversation is online.

Wine is a social beverage, and wineries are finally realizing that social media is not a fad, but instead something that is necessary if you hope to find new markets and consumers. It’s a means to an end, where loyalty and trust is built through the dissemination of information and the quality of conversation.

Which wine industry events do you find to be the most professionally fulfilling?

Catavino: We love consumer events that are true “social media” gatherings, where people can meet and enjoy wine the way it was meant to be. Online, however, you’re starting to see some cool events based around Twitter, like the International Grenache day last September. It was a great event that really did a phenomenal job of showing people around the world the many faces of this amazing grape.

What do you consider to be the most satisfying aspect of working in the wine biz?

Catavino: Educating people and sharing experiences. For example, the European Wine Bloggers Conference attracted 200 individuals from 30 different countries who were passionate about studying new wine regions, exciting new grapes, and pressing issues that affect the industry as a whole. I suppose the key attraction for us is how wine helps to lubricate conversations and build relationships.

What advice do you have for wine stores and restaurants that are just setting up shop?

Catavino: Talk to your customers. With Facebook, Twitter and others, this job would not only be easier, but more lucrative. If you have a store or restaurant and are not using social tools to connect with and inform your customer base, you’re losing out on an invaluable set of free tools to increase sales.

Thank you to Ryan and Gabriella Opaz for the opportunity to chat with Catavino!

Photos courtesy of Vinus TV, Tim Whyatt and Catavino.net.

By Pia Mara Finkell (@piamara)

With the wildfire rise of online private sales, infiltrating everything from fashion to travel to restaurants, it was only a matter of time before wine lovers had sites to call their own. The newest invitation-only site to join the digital, flash- fray, Lot18 is brought to you by Philip James (founder of Snooth.com), start-up veteran Kevin Fortuna and a boat-load of funding from FirstMark Capital, a NYC-based venture capital firm.

Described as “a membership by invitation website for wine and epicurean products from coveted producers at attractive discounts,” Lot18 offers a range of heavily discounted, premium, small-production, and limited-run wines shipped directly from the winery for free with a purchase of six bottles or more. The site also includes an educational aspect with detailed winery/wine descriptions and reviews from their editorial team. Since you need an invitation to join, a few online sites received a limited number of exclusive invitations, including Luxist.com and The Next Web.

Another awesome wine e-commerce concept, Deals From the Vines is actually a  “social commerce experiment” bringing the flash sale concept to the Facebook closed group platform. Launched last month by Peter Alig and Paul Mabray of the digital wine marketing firm VinTank, DFTV gives any winery the opportunity to offer deals to members of this invite-only, closed community of consumers without paying any fees whatsoever. Alig spoke with Tom Wark of Fermentation, the daily wine blog in an interesting interview on why they chose Facebook for their flash sale concept.

Here are some key excerpts showing how DFTV works and why VinTank wants to merge social media with social commerce:

“Our members benefit from the extraordinary offers, and the wineries and etailers themselves raise awareness of their brands while adding valuable customers to their databases.”

“The Facebook Closed Group feature hides the deals from Google and www.wine-searcher.com, helping maintain brand integrity. The Facebook group also allows a representative of the winery to engage directly with the group in a conversational method.”

“Flash sales sites who intentionally or unintentionally market themselves as dumping grounds for wine will contribute to this negative perception. DFTV redefines the whole premise of flash sales and makes it about “we believe in our wine so much, we have reduced the price to get it into your mouth because we know you’ll love it enough to buy it again.”  DFTV is about reconnecting wine companies directly through SOCIAL COMMERCE with consumers.”

Generating brand awareness on a limited-budget is a challenge for any small business. For wine lovers, new sites, like Lot18 and Deals from the Vines, conducting their flash sales with integrity offer a great service to lesser-known, small wineries looking to attract and engage new customers in the online arena.

Photos courtesy of The Recessionista and Vin65

By Pia Mara Finkell (@piamara)

Last month, Justin Bieber’s love of pure maple syrup (and Vince Vaughn in Wedding Crashers) unexpectedly put my client atop the coveted Twitter trending list. Maple Syrup was a trending topic not only in the U.S., but around the world all day. While gaggles of teenage girls stormed their local grocery stores and Justin enjoyed his pancakes, the media scratched their heads at this young man’s influence and we celebrated with maple syrup cocktails.

Like hitting a hole in one on your first round of golf or finding a vacant parking spot on a Sunday night in Brooklyn, this was the stuff of urban legend and a chance happenstance that keeps PR folks coming back. But sheer luck and teenage heartthrobs aside, how do you get your client, product or event hashtag trending?

Well, let’s start with what doesn’t work. Simply getting a few friends together and using a hashtag won’t pass muster. Trending topics are about frequency, but it’s more important that a hashtag get tweeted by a large and geographically diverse group of people than a small group of hypertweeters using the same hashtag.

So, what does work exactly? Here are some ideas to get your concept trending:

1. Pick a Topic That Resonates: Just as you would choose interesting subject matter to draw top media to a press seminar, choose a hashtag or create an event with a better chance of striking a cord. As an example, the online wine tasting community site, TasteLive, the VA Wine Board and local wine blogger Denzel Quillen of My Vine Spot, invited 6 popular and social media savvy VA wineries and a panel of wine bloggers to participate in a live, virtual tasting and tweetchat. The tasting was fascinating and the results were impressive.

2. Timing is Everything: This is a simple rule, but if Steve Jobs is announcing the new IPhone or if Justin Bieber decides he is a Gleek, postpone your TweetUp. This is not a time for healthy competition. Choose a slow news time at an off-hour, perhaps mid- day or in the late evening. The TasteLive tasting was held on Monday from 8 to 9:30pm to allow various people and coasts to participate.

3. Invite the Popular Kids:  TasteLive and Denzel invited a panel of popular wine bloggers from around the country to participate in their tasting and discussion. It is equally important to offer an enticing incentive for influentials to attend and tweet during your event. The VA Wine Board sent the panelists wine tasting kit care packages, as most were outside of state boundaries without easy access to the selected wines. Not only did the bloggers participate in this case, but several of them have written articles following the event for their readers who could not attend the live tasting. 

The discussion not only invited a continuous flood of #vawine tweets throughout and following the event, but also garnered a local CBS TV feature and, amazingly for a lesser-known wine region, caused #Viognier to be a trending topic. Hats off to this group of smart Virginians for putting a modest budget to good use with fantastic results.

As with any activity in your marketing plan, you need tools to help you measure your success. Sites like What the Trend, CrowdEye, Trendrr and Monitter let you monitor and analyze trending topics. To read up on more useful trend tracking and analysis sites, Mashable offers a good resource with this comprehensive list.

By Pia Mara Finkell (@piamara)

 I always wondered how brand new business owners create their websites’ ‘Frequently Asked Questions’ (FAQ) sections the moment they hang out a shingle. If they’ve only been open for a short time, how frequent could these questions be? How do they know what the real sticking points will be?

Likewise, with so many small businesses just dipping their toes into social media, they don’t really know what questions are important to ask until they jump in and experience the pitfalls for themselves. Given the category itself is something like the Wild Wild West, small businesses engaging in social media often learn the most valuable lesson from Dr. Montessori: learn by doing.

For those businesses, mom and pop shops and budding entrepreneurs just starting out, in the booze industry or otherwise, they can learn from some of the earlier adopters. Here are some common questions and problems from other small businesses and ways to troubleshoot them:

Blogging, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube…where will I possibly find the time?

This is one of the first and most common questions, especially from small operators. With a million and one things to do to keep a new wine, beer or booze brand or winery, brewery or small-batch distillery afloat, and much of it occurring away from the confines of a computer, where does one find the time to engage online?

Kevin Rupy of Bluemont Vineyard gave the following good advice in a recent interview with Frank Morgan of @DrinkWhatULike. In a nutshell, you have to play to win and, similar to exercise, it’s all about dedicating a small amount of time every day:

In terms of finding the time, I think it is safe to say that wineries can accomplish a great deal by committing anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes a day to their efforts.  It is incredibly easy to get up and running on all of these sites, and I would encourage wineries to find one they are comfortable with and just jump right in.

How can I go Mobile when my vineyard is off the grid?

Last week I paid a visit to Keswick Vineyards, a Virginia winery that ‘gets it’ when it comes to all things social. Kat, the winemaker’s wife in charge of social media and marketing for the winery, commented on the blog post that she would try out a Foursquare promotion. I wanted to check-in, but thanks to AT&T’s crappy coverage in Central Virginia, there was no reception all the way out in Keswick, VA. It’s hard to take advantage of all the wonderful mobile tools available if you can’t get service!

Luckily, the smart folks at Keswick thought of this and set up a wireless hot spot open to visitors (no password [read: red tape] required). I checked in easily, although that Foursquare promotion isn’t up and running yet. I’ll just have to go back.

How will I know if I’m on the right path or know once I’ve gotten there?

In other words, what tools are available to measure success and the ever-important ROI with social media? How do I know if I’m just talking to myself in cyberspace? Once I have followers and fans, how do I convert their interest and online engagement into sales?

Bruce McGechan, a Kiwi consultant helping wine retailers with online sales put together this extremely helpful chart that identifies analytics and metrics behind various social media forums. If you’re trying to decide your own social marketing mix, from vlogging to Facebook to Flickr, this is a great place to start.

By Pia Mara Finkell (@piamara)

I’m a sucker for a bargain.

Though my mother is an avid shopper of the abundance mentality (the experience is something like supermarket sweep), I’ve always taken more after my father in this regard, whose great purchasing success stories tend towards “Check out my new golf shoes! Normally 50 bones, but I found them on sale at Sears for 5 bucks…not bad, ay?”

So, you can see why I got so excited to unlock the Newbie Special at Jefferson Vineyard this weekend and receive an offer for a free tasting! I’ve lived in Virginia wine country for a little over a year, and this was the first local winery I’ve seen take advantage of a Foursquare deal. It was only 5 bucks, but I literally felt like I hit the lotto, and it made my tasting experience that much more fun. I was impressed and will definitely return.

It got me wondering how many other regional wineries and breweries are using social media to help promote their small businesses. With often modest marketing and advertising budgets, social media offers these producers a way to engage their customers and reach out to potential customers without breaking the bank. It may take man power, but what is starting a new business if not time consuming?

In addition to Jefferson’s use of Foursquare, here are some other interesting ways regional wineries and breweries are using social media in their marketing mix to help their businesses thrive in a difficult economy and a competitive market:

Finding the Social Media Marketing Mix at Savvy Cellar Wine – Not forgoing traditional marketing, such as email blasts, Savvy Cellar lives up to their name when it comes to social media, using just about every form to help promote their winery and tasting classes, including Facebook, Twitter, mobile marketing, blogging, RSS feeds, Flickr and YouTube. According to Paul Rosenfeld, the CEO of Fanminder and a local business marketing expert, Savvy has developed and engaged a Facebook following of over 1,600 fans, and co-owner Brent Harrison sees “a cork-popping 32% redemption rate for his standard mobile offer of 25% off a flight of wine.” I agree Paul; I’ll toast to that!

Personalizing your Brand with Geolocation Mobile Marketing at Bridgeport Brewery – Already engaging fans on Twitter, Bridgeport gets an A for creativity in taking their social efforts to the next level. According to The Daily Pull’s Brady Walen, Bridgeport put a face to their brand in the social sphere, developing a character and host of local Portland Bar Crawls, the Hop Czar (also one of their beer names). By creating a seperate Twitter handle for the Hop Czar and tracking his bar crawl route on Foursquare, Bridgeport found a fun way of simultaneously personalizing their brand, engaging their customers and driving sales. Not bad for a little Portland pub crawl.

Community Involvement and Word of Mouth Marketing at Keswick Winery – The voice behind Keswick’s social media presence is winemaker Stephen Barnard’s wife, Kat Schornberg. Increasing event attendance and brand awareness through her Facebook and Twitter activity, Kat is on her game. She says it best in an interview with local Virginia wine blogger Dezel at Wine Spot:

“I think being involved in social media is really important for wineries, especially in  Virginia where most of our wine is sold through our tasting rooms directly to consumers versus through distribution. Anything you can do to help keep your customers more involved and let them know how much you appreciate them is crucial.”

She goes on to say Keswick’s social presence has helped drive “brand loyalty with customers because they get to know the inside scoop on everything that is going on here and get to feel more like part of the family, which is ultimately what we want every person who walks in the door to feel like!”

Smart girl. Couldn’t have said it better myself.

By Pia Mara Finkell (@piamara)

Based on a ‘Vint-ed’ post he wrote last month, Edward Deitch published an interesting article in Reuters today focusing on the stunning increase in social media use in the wine industry over the past year, mostly attributed to the effects of the economic downturn.

According to a recent survey conducted by the UC-Davis Graduate School of Management and the Wine Industry Financial Symposium Group® among California wine professionals (including wine producers, grape growers, distributors, retailers and others), the wine world is turning to mainstream social mediums, including Facebook, Twitter and blogs to help promote their brands and drive sales.

Here are some key findings from this study (comparing 2010 vs. 2009):

80% of the wine professionals use Facebook for business, up from 46% in 2009

64% use Twitter, up from 21%

52% write a company blog, up from 18%

41.5% use LinkedIn, DOWN from 60%

This is an industry, like many others, that clearly appreciates the power of all things social. With sales slumping at all price points and competition from imported wines on the rise, it is clear the California wine industry is devoting significantly more resources to communicating with existing and potential customers in the social sphere.

According to Dean Robert Smiley of the UC Davis Graduate School of Management, those in the wine business are turning to social media during the down economy “in part because it is quite inexpensive. The challenge is to make use of it strategically without wasting time.”

The study also shows 54% of those surveyed felt Baby Boomers were the hardest hit in terms of wine sales. Social media would appear to be a good approach to reaching this audience.

According to a Mashable article on eMarketer’s Boomers and Social Media Report, Boomer usage of the social web is, well, booming. With more than 40% updating a social profile, up 15% from the prior year, and 73% maintaining a Facebook profile, wineries are apparently fishing in rich waters. Also interestingly, a mere  13% of Boomers are actively using LinkedIn, which paralleled the dramatic dip by nearly 20% of the surveyed California wine professionals’ using this social network. This perhaps demonstrates the industry’s value on their target consumer perception vs. networking with other industry members.

I suppose, also, there are only so many hours in the day, especially when you must first and foremost worry about making great wines.

A client recently asked me to recommend some hot new wine bars in the big city, and several immediately came to mind. According to the Wall Street Journal, there are over 200 wine bars in NYC, 69 of which opened last year. I wondered to myself, Sarah Jessica Parker-style, how could I narrow down all these great places into such a short list? Why did these specific wine bars come to mind before the several dozen other great possibilities?

Was it their unique wine selections at reasonable prices? Of course. Cool atmosphere with dim enough lighting to make me better looking? Clearly. But what really made them stand out in a brain that has spent many an hour pondering over the location of her next glass of vino was their attention to detail and ability to communicate on a deeper level. In short, I felt I really knew and appreciated the personality behind the place.

There are a handful of wine bars out there swimming in the warm waters of social media and doing it well. I’ve previously written about how to become a top wine tweeter, but that is just part of the equation. Having already created the perfect blend to make them shine through, these true gurus include:

1. TerroirNY: I’m Terroir Wine Bar and You’re Not

One of my favorite wine voices in general, and arguably the social media king of wine bars, Terroir’s Paul Grieco and Steven Solomon are the lovable, quirky birds behind the two funky NYC outposts. They use every trick up their sleeves to reach out to their fan base, from a behind the scene video of Paul’s favorite part of Terroir Tribeca (it is a rad bathroom, Paul, Shrowd of Turin or not) to some of the funniest and engaging twiners tweets out there, Terroir gets three thumbs up for their top-quality efforts. Based on the consistent crowds in their bars, whatever they’re doing is working.

2. Bar Boulud: Lg. Formats, Rhymes & Life.

Using Twitter and Facebook to their fullest, all-star sommelier Michael Madrigale is both approachable and engaged, offering a friendly face to what could have come across as a stuffy wine bar. Every tweet is not an advertisement (for example, I learned from one recent tweet, he is an avid baseball fan…very cool in my book, even if he is a Phillies fan), he participates in the conversation (rubbing shoulders with other wine and food influentials, including Joe Bastianich and Dr. Vino) and offers fresh content, including twitpics galore.

3. City Winery: A vibrant, interactive space in NYC where you can not only make wine, but also meet friends new and old while indulging in quality food, music, art and life!

From making your own wine, to book signings and live music, City Winery is definitely more than just a wine bar. One of their coolest events was totally socially minded. Partnering with the likes of WineTwits, WIRED, Riedel and Bottlerockets to create the first-ever, fully interactive wine tasting, City Winery showed their tech savviness in organizing the highly popular Twit n’ Spit event last year. Don’t worry if you missed it, you can still chat with them on Facebook, Twitter and Flickr or learn more about the cool space here:

THE BOOZE BIN

By Pia Mara Finkell (@piamara)

To help put myself through pastry school, I taught wine classes and parties at my culinary school. I learned early from my mentor and pal Tish, who runs the fun and highly popular wine events company Wine For All, wine shouldn’t be taken too seriously. A typical comment I’d hear during a wine party was “I love wine, but when I go to choose a bottle, I clam up and don’t know what to pick!” You can’t pick up a wine magazine without coming across an article on deciphering an intimidating wine list or how to demystify wines.

Apparently, the wine world can be a scary one, which is why I was so impressed when I came across 94 Wines, a cool wine company putting the fun back in the shopping experience. Unfortunately not yet available in the U.S. (though I’d guess it’s just a matter of time), this Dutch company simplifies the wine selection process by numbering and color-coding their bottles. Their website offers a simple ‘wine ID’ quiz to help consumers find their best wine matches.

Now that is a cool concept, but let me tell you where it gets really cool, especially for the tech lovers out there. Each bottle can be given a personalized QR code on the label, which can store a range of information from text to pictures to video, allowing you to record your message of choice when gifting a bottle to a friend. The files can be read on their website with a numerical code, or by simply using a mobile device.

The Dutch aren’t the only wine techie innovators out there either. Mashable recently reported on Cellar Key, a wine concept from the Lion Nathan Wine Group, which put “QR Codes on wine bottles to help everyday wine buyers make better selections.” Consumers can scan the codes using their mobile phone to find out more information about the wine, from videos of the winery itself to food pairing recommendations.

Through QR Codes, both Cellar Key and 94 Wines offer wine lovers a better way to engage with their brands, taking the intimidation factor out of the shopping experience. That is a concept I can get down with and one that could easily translate to other companies trying to demystify their brands or simplify the purchasing process.

Dynamic Wine Labels from andrerib on Vimeo.

By Pia Mara Finkell (@piamara)

I saw a statistic recently that blew my mind. It literally hurt my brain to think about.

Social Media has overtaken pornography as the #1 activity on the Web

Ok, so that one didn’t really blow my mind, but I thought it was interesting enough to mention. The one that actually was responsible for the mind blowing was this:

If Facebook were a country it would be the world’s 3rd largest (after China and India).

I don’t know if you can get your heads around that folks, but needless to say, social media is here to stay. It is the wild west of marketing, however, where everyone is a self-proclaimed guru throwing out a shingle to offer up some advice. It can be overwhelming to seek out help from a reliable source with so many voices chiming in and trying to ride the social bandwagon.

The wine world is lucky though. We have the ultimate role model in our industry and, unless you’ve been caught under something heavy lately, you likely already know and love him.

His name is Gary Vaynerchuk, or just “Garyvee,” and he is the gregarious host of Wine Library TV. If you’ve never watched one of his Wayne’s World-style wine videos, seriously, do it.

Follow that up with his appearances on Conan. You won’t be sorry. They made me weep the first time I watched them, and coming from experience, they never get old.

Gary Vaynerchuk on Conan O’Brien from Kevin Cupp on Vimeo

So, what are his credentials as a guru? Taking his family’s wine shop from $4 million in sales to $45 million by rebranding it as The Wine Library was good. Creating the now absurdly popular Wine Library TV to both educate and demystify wine to the average wine drinker was really good. Becoming social media’s Tony Robbins and signing a HarperStudio seven-figure 10-book deal, the first of which hits shelves this September…priceless.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123868606261082747.html

This past month, Gary also just hit the satellite waves and launched his very own “Wine & Web with Gary Vaynerchuk” on Sirius Radio. This dude is literally everywhere and when it comes to using the digital world to market his personal wine and business brand, he gets it. The good news is he wants you to get it (whatever it is) too.

So, what can we learn from Gary? In two words, use video. Besides Gary’s success, here are some other good reasons to incorporate video into your viral mix:

1. Get Real, Real Son: If Wine Library taught us anything, it is the importance of being yourself and video offers the ultimate platform for putting yourself (or your brand) out there. More personal than simply blogging, but less intimidating than asking questions at your local wine shop, plus sitting in the glorious comfort of anonymous home viewing, Gary’s hilarious wine videos landed him on Conan, and now attract 80,000 viewers per day. If you offer up real, authentic content, they will come.

2. It’s for Posterity: Gary explains in his now famous appearance at the Web 2.0 Expo in NY, “legacy is greater than currency.” His point is this: videos live online (and are thus viewable) forever, and your great, great grandchildren will remember everything you do because it will all still be out there. But how will they find you? According to Nate Elliot at Forrester, an indexed video on Google is 50x more likely to receive 1^st page ranking on Google.

“Not only are video results increasingly common in Google’s search results, but your videos stand a much better chance than your text pages of being shown on the first results page.”

3. Give ‘em what they want: According to the web measurement firm ComScore, 183 million U.S. internet users watched online videos during the month of May 2010 alone. The same month, YouTube achieved an all-time high of 14.6 billion videos viewed. More specifically to the world of wine, according to a study from Lift9, 700,000 people watch wine-related videos each month. Numbers talk, but since I’m better with visuals than numbers, take a look at this chart to see what I mean:

4. You Have to See It to Believe It: Garyvee put himself out there, filming Wine Library TV in his family’s wine shop until we noticed him. Neilsen reports that online video viewing on social networking sites was up 98% in 2009, so the opportunity is there. Show people who you are, or who your brand represents, and point out your humanity rather than remaining a faceless corporation.

5. Follow Your Passion: If you love what you do, it will come through in video and resonate with people. Gary clearly loves what he does, and when you watch him speak, it drips out of every pore in his body. With that, I’ll leave you with his words:

“Social drinking. Social networking. Pop the cork and join the conversation;”

By Pia Mara Finkell (@piamara)

If you have a bar, using Foursquare as a social promotional marketing tool is a no-brainer. The mayor’s beers are on the house! Of course. Restaurant owner? Stop in for lunch and get a free glass of wine. Done and done. Proprietor of the best winery in town? Well, Mr. Loyal Customer, stop on in to our tasting room five times this month and get yourself a free bottle of wine. No doi.

But what if you don’t have a storefront? What if your client doesn’t have a venue to hang its virtual shingle?  I’ve written in the past about ways to convince traditional clients to use social media within their marketing mix. My own clients include regional bureaus, associations and governing boards. Foursquare and other location-based services didn’t initially seem to be the right tool for these clients. Websites, blogs, Twitter and Facebook were naturals, but when you represent an entire wine or food-producing region, where would people actually check in? What about the non-profit, publishing and entertainment industries? These would pose equal challenges.

In our case, it quickly became apparent we would have to put our big-marketing-kid pants on and get creative to make Foursquare work for our respective clients, despite their lack of bricks and mortar. Here are 5 ways to use location-based services without a place to hang your hat:

1.  Everyone Loves a Good Bar Crawl:  While it may be difficult to choose one location for potential customers to check in if you are a tourism board, wine region or other brand without a specific home, innovative brands like Explore Chicago, Chicago’s Tourism Board, have used the on-location badge to create a virtual crawl around their fine city through their Ferris Bueller’s Day Off promotion. Offering travelers a chance to feel Ferris’ thrill by pressing their foreheads against the glass at the Skydeck at Willis Towers or experiencing life like the Sausage King of Chicago over lunch at one of the many great restaurants, Explore Chicago used the ever-popular scavenger hunt concept to build their brand.

2.  Find your voice and offer some advice: I’ve previously discussed finding your voice on Twitter, and this holds true for all social media, especially Foursquare. As Mashable pointed out, big brands like Bravo, Zagat and the History Channel are asserting their respective voices (be it that of their shows’ personalities, celebrities and cultural experts, or a nameless voice of a historically sage, virtual “friend”) through useful and interesting tips at stores, restaurants, bars, landmarks and beyond.

3.  Grab Your Partner, Dosey Doe: Whether a brand chooses to support a local charity or other local small businesses related to their work, Foursquare offers great potential for cross-promotion. In a joint venture with Facebook, Pepsi created goodwill and brand awareness by sponsoring Foursquare’s Leaderboard and offering a donation for every check-in point added to the Leaderboard during a set time period.

Simple, but effective.

4.  Link it up: Now that you have developed a loyal Twitter and Facebook following, why not do a little self-promotion? Drive traffic back to your other online presence (website, blog, Twitter and Facebook) through your check-ins and likewise, promote your Foursquare presence everywhere possible. If you are running a cool Explore Chicago-style scavenger hunt promotion, promote the heck out of it in your virtual spaces. This may seem obvious, but even big brands like Starbucks didn’t get this right the first time out of the gates.

5.  Throw a party: Foursquare was officially launched into the techie world at the SXSW 2009 conference and took home the coveted “Breakout Mobile App” award. If it can work for the app itself, a true brick-and-mortarless brand, it can work for yours. Create a Foursquare check-in at your company’s event or party to encourage online prospective customers or fans to engage offline and continue the conversation IRL, face to face.

By Pia Mara Finkell (@piamara)

At their core, my clients are traditional. They are quite literally rooted in tradition, be it age-old winemaking customs, or multi-generational biodynamic farming techniques.

As food and wine trade and marketing associations, many of my clients are tasked with representing the common interests of a large group of shareholders: winemakers and growers, farmers, or artisanal food producers. In addition to supporting their collective marketing efforts, a large part of their daily life is regulating strict quality controls over an entire industry to ensure the best final product for the consumer. Bottom line, it is their job to be skeptical of anything new and flashy, anything not based in science and tradition, and definitely any trend that seems fly-by-night.

Even if they see the value of social media marketing methods – if they already “get it” – they still have to convince a room full of business owners and farmers. Oh, and just to make it a little more of a Double Dare Challenge, English is often not their mother tongue, so there is quite literally a language barrier between us.

Impossible?

Like anything else, you just need to learn to speak their language. Here are five ways to translate social media, and convince conservative, traditional or just plain cautious clients it’s worth adding to their overall marketing plan.

1. Speak their Language: I’ve written in the past about explaining social media to your clients. I’ve learned the bottom line is you have to translate the gobbledygook into terms they can understand: ROI and dollars (or Euros). Explain any costs and time involved, and demonstrate that equally significant to how much it will generate is how much it will save. For more information on this topic, here’s a great white paper by Syncapse that presents social media in terms of ROI.
2. Illustrate the Value in the Real World: Take the theory out of your explanation and use real life examples of what the heck you’re talking about. There are endless case studies out there to prove social media is effective from the perspective of sales and brand awareness, but here’s a well-known recent one:

3. Don’t Create the Proverbial Social Media White Elephant: If your client is reticent about creating an entire budget line item,  avoid the silos and integrate social media strategy and tactics into your core program they feel comfortable with and have already approved. This will take the sticker shock factor out of the picture and allow them to see how the new kid on the block can fit in without breaking the piggy bank.
4. Think Long Term: While short-term strategies that immediately effect a brand’s bottom line are important, it is equally important to lay the tracks for the future. Social media marketing is a long-term “pull” method that should be seamlessly integrated with “push” portions of your campaign, keeping in mind the ultimate goal of building a community of brand loyal customers. According to the Syncapse study, 68% of Facebook Fans indicate they are very likely to recommend a product, and 41% of fans are more likely than non-fans to recommend a fanned product to their friends. Even for a conservative client, those numbers talk.
5. The Bottom Line: In addition to driving traffic to the website, driving brand awareness and word-of-mouth, top brands and companies are spending millions on social media campaigns because they increase sales. The Old Spice case study shows sales spiking over 107% in a month and Dell reported $3 million in sales through Twitter. For more information on leveraging social media to increase sales, check a previous post here.

By Pia Mara Finkell (@piamara)

Let’s face it. Wine can be pretty darn stuffy. That is inherently strange for what is at base, a fermented grape juice that offers up a nice buzz. But as anyone who has attended a traditional wine seminar can attest, there are a million and one ways to intimidate with this particular tipple.

Now imagine how the average wine drinking Joe feels. He just wants a nice spicy red to go with his hanger steak, and everywhere he turns, there is a different piece of advice, and in every wine shop, a thousand bottles to choose from. What’s a vino lover to do? In walks social media.

From #winewednesday to TasteLive! to Wine Library TV, wine lovers have taken all things social by storm. While getting advice in your local wine shop might feel overwhelming or intimidating, going online to chat about wine suggestions and pairings feels a little safer and perhaps inviting. Wine is a social beverage, best shared with friends. Forums like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Foursquare, Tumblr, LinkedIn and others have empowered wine lovers to interact, ask questions and generally socialize around a common interest without feeling unworthy or unsophisticated. It simply feels like getting advice from a friend.

Wine Enthusiast magazine reports:

“According to a new study from Lift9, 700,000 people watch wine-related videos each month. There are over 7,000 wine tweets per day, and over 1,300 bloggers focusing on wine. And the wine experience has become portable, with more than 300 iPhone apps.”

With so much demand for wine knowledge and interaction within the social networking sphere, there is tremendous potential for any winery or wine region willing to take the leap and join the conversation.

As evidenced by another interesting statistic from Lift9, a brand analytics company focused on social media marketing data:

“The top 20 wine bloggers in aggregate have a larger audience than the Wine Spectator online.  34% of bloggers post opinions about products and brands. 54% blog or tweet daily.”

Your customers are definitely out there, and they’re probably already talking about your product.

Don’t expect to sign up for a Facebook account, however, and see sales soar overnight. Think more like the turtle and less like the hare. Dipping one’s toe in social media, or better yet, developing an integrated strategy as a complimentary part of a winery’s overall marketing plan is a savvy way to increase the number of cases going out the door. Doing one without the other simply won’t work, so don’t forget about the simple things like sales promotion and communications.

Here are the first 5 steps to get you started:

1. Know your audience

Are your current and potential customers foodies or fashionistas? Soccer moms or stock brokers?  Collectors or casual drinkers? Understand who your customer is (or could be) and reflect on where and how they socialize online.

2. Jump in and listen

The best way to figure out where your customer spends their virtual time, in addition to simply asking them, is to jump in and put your ear to the computer.  If you want some more ways to find out where your customer is hanging out and what they’re saying about your brand, give this article by Jay Baer on Social Media Examiner a read.

3. Choose your stage

There are countless places to engage with your brand online, which can feel overwhelming.  If social media is anything, it is time consuming. The best approach is to start with a few, say Facebook and Twitter, and try to master those. Like learning to play the piano, this is something you will need to do multiple times each day.

4. Engage your audience and key influencers

Be proactive in reaching out to your audience base. Grow your network of friends, followers, fans, etc., but remember to focus on quality over quantity. Not only should you interact with existing and potential customers online, but also with influentials who have earned the respect with that base, be it top local sommeliers or prominent wine bloggers.

5. Get creative and integrate

From contests and rewards for your best customers, to hosting tweetups and live tastings, the sky is the limit on the cool and effective ways you can reach your customer online and convert it into sales. A good rule of thumb is to integrate your social channels to get the best bang for your buck. If you host a tweetup, link it to your Facebook page, tweet about it and then post a tagged video of the live tasting back to Facebook and publish it on YouTube.

If you’ve graduated from the basics and are ready for the master’s program, here’s some required reading for anyone interested in wine marketing. My amigos at Vintank have put out a free downloadable report on wine social media, attempting to understand the crazy world of wine (especially online wine sales) and how to get on the ride.

By Pia Mara Finkell (@piamara)

Twitter is kind of like online dating. At some point, you have to meet in person or it starts to get a little frustrating.

There are some conversations that simply can’t be expressed in 140 characters or less. I’m sure this is the case for all social and professional groups, but this holds particularly true within the world of wine. We are a social people by nature, but perhaps have a tendency to become a bit verbose at times. “This wine imparts the essence of the rind of a lemon…nay, a Meyer lemon with just a touch of star fruit.” (Translation: it tastes like citrus.)

While it’s important to express ourselves in writing, and virtual tasting experiences can be interesting and valuable, the pure joy of wine will always be sharing the experience of tasting something wonderful with like-minded people in the flesh.

Tweetups, where a particular cross-section of the Twitter community meets in person, are a valuable tool for bringing an experience or message to life. And because wine is such a sensory topic and is enhanced by social settings, this holds especially true for any wine business owner or marketer. So, from the perspective of the organizer, there are some nice benefits to bringing your conversation on Twitter to life.

There are plenty of good how-tos out there on the World Wide Web (Mashable: http://mashable.com/2009/02/25/tweetup/), but if you’re thinking of hosting your own, here are the top 5 benefits of hosting or sponsoring a Tweetup:

Seattle Wine Girl's Good Advice on the How-to's of hosting a wine Tweetup!

1. Human Touch. Bottom line, it is important to connect. We’re advancing as marketers to use social tools, but in the end, what resonates most with people is people.

2. Deeper Bonds. Tweetups are one of many ways to build upon a huge community of wine enthusiasts within your area. Twitter can make the world feel a lot smaller bringing like-minded individuals together from every corner of the globe, but it is equally important to develop stronger ties with others in your area with similar interests.

3. Thought Leadership. By hosting or a sponsoring a successful Tweetup, you will be viewed as a leader within your industry and in turn, further build your online community.

4. Built-in Focus Group. Getting together a group of your local target audience for a meetup is an inexpensive (venues often discount rates for meetups realizing the power of attracting influentials to their establishments) strategy for attaining valuable feedback on your product or business.

5. The Bottom Line. While it is simply fun to turn the online cocktail party into a live one, it is also a very powerful sales tool. Tweetups are a way for businesses to engage with their respective communities, all of whom are potential customers.

By Pia Mara Finkell (@piamara)

Social media is challenging to explain to those outside of the “bubble” of communications, most of all Twitter. The first time I tried to explain it to my father, who just signed up for an email account last year, I tried to simplify things for him. “It’s a place where you can, you know, tell people what you’re doing or thinking, or tell people about what other cool people are doing or thinking, or talk with a bunch of strangers who like the same stuff as you.” I realize I just ended up making Twitter sound pretty darn lame at best and kind of creepy at worst.

It was even more challenging to explain Twitter to clients just dipping their toes into the social media realm, in particular wine and food clients. How can a wine region use Twitter to reach their consumer audience and in the end, sell more wine, the ultimate goal of any wine PR, marketing or promotional campaign?

My advice is to show them the wonderful world of Twitter by giving them a list of the best people in the industry to follow. There are tons of great examples, but in the interest of maintaining the ever-popular list format, here are a dozen of the very best (read: my favorite) wine voices on Twitter, in no particular order, and 5 reasons why they are so successful:

1. @Enobytes: Home of #VinQ wine trivia game & bridging the gap between consumers and wine pros. Eat well, Drink well. Live well.
* Enobytes is a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing wine education and appreciation and they are one of the most interesting wine tweeters (twiners?) out there.

2. @dirtysouthwine: Wine Is Meant To Be Crunk!
* Penned by Hardy Wallace, aka “Dirty,” this hilarious tweeter has also been bringing wine to the people via his blog since 2007.

3. @TishWine: I am a recovering wine critic, now devoted to injecting humor and sense into the wine scene. Pairing wine + fun since the 20th century!
* He’s smart (read: went to Harvard), he’s silly (see picture at left) and most importantly, he’s funny. The perfect wine social media trifecta.

4. @KevinZraly: Kevin is the winner of the ’06 Wine Literary Award, European Wine Council’s Lifetime Achievement Award, and has been featured in the NYTimes, Newsweek and GQ.
* Kevin wrote what many consider to be the authoritative text on wine, “Windows On The World Complete Wine Course” and is one of the most recognizable and approachable wine educators and tweeters.

5. @garyvee: Wine guy, host of Wine Library TV. Video blogger and Businessman that loves people and the hustle.
* Gary Vaynerchuk is without a doubt the most famous and successful wine social media guru. He’s loud, he loves the Jets and he’s made it on Conan. That spells success in my book.

6. @alawine: Drinking wine makes me want to write about it & writing about it makes me want to drink it.
* Ken from @alawine is interesting, informed and very simply, built a cool list of the Top 100 Social Wine Tweeters.

7. @drvino: Author, blogger, educator, all about fermented grape juice, aka wine.
* One of the most interesting wine voices and all-around nice guys, Dr. Tyler Colman teaches me something new almost every day, and has made an appearance on Wine Library TV with Gary V. Not bad for a nice Midwestern boy with a PhD in Poli-Sci!

8. @TheWineWhore: I swallow so you don’t have to spit!
* Who could resist following someone called The Wine Whore? At least he’s upfront about it. He pens a blog, which he describes as “A tell-all wine blog revealing the affairs of Randy Watson as he funds his wine habits by ‘whoring’ himself to the wine industry.”

9. @Catavino: All you ever wanted to know about Spanish and Portuguese wine!
* American expats, Ryan and Gabriella Opaz live and blog together in Spain and are vocal supporters of wine social media, as evidenced by Ryan’s awesome speech at the Wine Future conference in Rioja, Spain.

10. @1WineDude: Musically inclined wine consultant , CSW, bass player, IT pro, and sometimes hiney shaker
* Joe Roberts is witty, smart and one of the most interesting wine writers in the industry. More importantly though, he’s funny.

11. @terroirNY: I’m Terroir Wine Bar And You’re Not
* Funny, tongue in cheek wine and food tweeters behind Terroir Wine Bar in NYC. They are as awesome as Terroir Wine Bar. Enough said.

12. @pmabray: Wine Revolutionary, Chief Strategy Officer
* Paul Mabray, head of the Digital Think Tank for the wine industry VinTank, unleashed a wine social media white paper last May. It’s definitely worth a read.

Top 5 Reasons These Wine Tweeters Made The List:

1. Keep it Simple Stupid – They use 140 characters to its max, offering up short but interesting sound bites to turn what can inherently be a very dorky, snobbish topic into something fun, functional and inclusive.
2. Funny as hell – Funny people make everything more entertaining, in the wine world, or any other world for that matter. Perfect example: @TishWine is a wine educator, writer/blogger and all around good guy, but what you might not know is that he’s also a budding stand up comic. His humor and irresistible quirkiness have found their perfect home within social media, and his tweets are just plain entertaining. When I asked him why he believes social media is the wave of the vinofuture, he said “It’s digital word of mouth. Social media is favored by mostly young people who don’t rely on traditional authorities to make their wine selections.” Smart guy, that Tish.
3. Sniff out the Story – The best wine tweeters have true journalistic spirits and keep their fingers on the heartbeat of the wine industry. They keep their ears and eyes open for interesting stories. @Drvino hit the big time by reporting on the fascinating ethics debate surrounding Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate writers accepting trips.
4. “Link it Up” – To quote @GaryVee, adding links to interesting blog posts, pictures, etc. brings tweets to life and makes what can be an inherently boring topic a lot more colorful.
5. “Find A Voice” – John Grisham just gave the UNC Chapel Hill commencement speech and offered up some good advice to the new graduates: “Find a Voice.” I believe this advice holds true for people of all ages, especially within the scope of social media. John said it more eloquently than I ever could, so I’ll leave you with his words:

A voice has three essential elements.

The first is clarity. When I was in high school, I discovered the novels of John Steinbeck. He was and is my favorite writer. The Grapes of Wrath is a book I’ve read more than all others. I admire his talent for telling a story, his compassion for the underdog, but what I really admire is his ability to write so clearly. His sentences are often rich in detail and complex, but they flow with a clarity that I still envy. His characters are flawed and tragic, often complicated, but you understand them because they have been so clearly presented.

In life, we tend to ignore those who talk in circles, saying much but saying nothing. We listen to and follow those whose words, and ideas and thoughts and intentions are clear.

The second element is authenticity. Few things I like better in life than getting lost in a good book written by an author who is in full command of his subject matter, either because he has lived the story, or so thoroughly researched it. I read a lot of books written by other lawyers – legal thrillers, as they are called – I read them because I enjoy them, also I have to keep an eye on the competition. I can usually tell by page 3 if the author has actually been in a fight in a courtroom, or whether he’s simply watched too much television.

In life, we tend to discredit those who claim to be what they are not. We respect those who know their subject matter. We long for, and respect credibility.

The third element is veracity. In the past few years, the publishing industry has been scandalized by a handful of writers who wrote very compelling stories of their real-life adventures.  These were good stories, they were well written, the voices were clear and seemingly authentic. They sold for big money, they were marketed aggressively, they were reviewed favorably, and then they were exposed for being what they really were – frauds fabrications, lies. The real-life adventures never happened. The books were pulled from the shelves. The publishers were embarrassed. Lawsuits were filed to retrieve the advances. And the writers’ voices have been forever silenced.

In life, finding a voice is speaking and living the truth.

John Grisham’s Commencement Address, “Find a Voice”
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
May 9, 2010