I thought long and hard before I put up my last post. It’s a little harsh (surprise) – but it’s honest. And it’s important for me to support that POV with some more information. Typed information. For those who don’t know what I’m talking about, feel free take the 30 seconds or so to get caught up.
Now do me a favor. Think about who your competitors are in the market place. Go ahead. Have a name or two in mind? Good. Now think again.
Image from the 6/27 Ad Age article, Bottom's Up! A Look at America's Drinking Habits
Your competitor isn’t that winery that’s doing better than you in sales, it’s not the winery down the road or the segment leader you get reports on. Your competition is beer. It’s liquor. Sure everyone’s striving for a bigger piece of the pie, but how about this: How about we get more pies? With the staggering number of millennials open to wine, the time to do it is NOW.
Sounds great, right? Sure. But it’s not going to be easy. We’ve dug ourselves into a lame little hole, wine industry. I’d like to use a little tech analogy to illustrate the competitive gap here: If beer is google, wine is the lost and found box in the local YMCA.
The wine industry as a whole must take a good, long look at itself as compared to other industries. We lack reach. We lack creativity. We CERTAINLY lack drive. We’re just floating around in our own juices, happy that no one has ever once demanded that we change. Do you know why no one has questioned the dismal way in which wine is marketed and generally “put out there?” Neither do I, but I have a few guesses.
1) People don’t care – they like wine and they’ll keep buying it regardless of how lazy the industry is. DAMN STRAIGHT. Why do you think wine has been skating along for years without making one major shift in marketing approach? It’s certainly not because our core consumers are energized by seeing another freaking vineyard with a photoshopped bottle or two in your Wine Spectator ads. Don’t you think that maybe – JUST MAYBE – that if we actually try as an industry to authentically reach our consumers (and potential consumers) that it MIGHT just pay off in the form of cash money?
2) Consumers have basically zero in the form of expectations for the wine industry. So we as an industry could either keep coasting along and pulling paychecks thanking the Good Lord that we’ve got this thing down blindfolded, OR we could actually try something different – something active – and blow everyone’s mind.
Now, you may be thinking “Leah, we ARE innovating. We’re using social media and making QR code hangtags.” And to you I say: starting facebook and twitter accounts and slapping QR codes on your bottles is not innovating. I’m talking about shifting the way in which we talk about wine. Changing the way we communicate. I’m talking about QUALITY people, not about “new outlets.”
Need some inspiration? Think about some of the most boring industries or products out there. Perhaps insurance comes to mind. Or maybe soap? Hell, carpet cleaning is so boring, I bet it never would have even popped into your mind. Now look at what these folks are doing:
INSURANCE:
Allstate “Mayhem”
Geico “Could Switching To Geico Really Save You…”
SOAP:
Old Spice “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like”
CARPET CLEANING:
Stanley Steemer “Carpet Guys”
I think you get what I mean. The product that we are selling is, I don’t know, about A BAJILLION times cooler than insurance. And carpet cleaning. And definitely more awesome than soap. Why is no one treating it that way? That has to change.
Get hungry people. Or thirsty.
What she said……
Leah Hennesey over at Millennier on the sad state of wine marketing. She forgot to mention The Most Interesting Man in the World. And he sells beer, for chrissake. Stay thirsty, my friends….
The only problem with the examples you cite is that they are all produced for large companies by agencies for mass market distribution.
I can count on one hand the number of brands that *could* incur that kind of spend, and can think of none that would *want* to.
The problem is structural. The rich vein in wine and spirits is spirits. In beer the big boys control the market and so can afford the marketing.
Selling wine is like selling your necklaces on etsy, not during a new ep of House.
Hi Josh,
Thank you very much for your comment. I don’t think you’ll be surprised that I hear this reaction a lot. I also don’t think you’ll be surprised to hear that I totally disagree with a couple of your points.
Rather than responding in the comments, I’d like to bring this out to the larger platform of a blog post so the discussion can get the exposure it deserves.
Keep an eye out, I’ll be posting early next week.
Thanks again.
Hey Leah! It seems to be a general consensus that the wine industry has some ground to make up when it comes to marketing and customer engagement, although I think there is definitely progress being made and have come across some brands that are doing a terrific job of engaging through social media and other channels. I know your post was referring to the wine industry as a whole, but I was wondering if there are any brands that you would consider an exception and would be willing to share here. It would be great to hear your thoughts.
Cheers!
Zoe Geddes-Soltess
Community Engagement, Radian6
@zodot
Hi Zoe!
I can honestly say that the brands that are doing this the best – changing people’s perception of wine AND making money in the process – are a handful of small brands.
Interestingly enough, I’m seeing more and more brands (big and small) that are doing a good job of engaging with consumers over social media – but they are not doing a damn thing to change their image or wine’s image as a whole. You go on facebook and see a lot of “here’s a great food pairing idea” or “no shipping sale this weekend” or my personal phone-it-in favorite “what’s your favorite wine?”
While they may be getting engagement, that back and forth is with their CURRENT CONSUMERS. And here I thought marketing and advertising were created to make new ones. If they want new consumers and more sales, they have to put in the effort. That’s more than just asking facebook fans what they are drinking this weekend or slapping up another shot of the vineyard.
These guys are getting the hang of social media and they’re getting the metrics of engagement, but missing the point of it all: new sales. It’s sad.
Thanks so much for your comment and for reading. You’re awesome.
Yeah…Carpet cleaning is definitely sexier than wine. It’s sad out there.
However, just like carpet cleaning marketing, it takes a long sustained effort to change consumers preferences/mind. In wine, EVERY SINGLE EVENT I meet people who buy the same wine every week in their price point. No matter how cool our wine is, how socialized it is, it takes a long sustained investment at the HIGH level to change perception.
I am thinking along the lines of Budwieser Frogs, and the ‘Wazzup’ commercials in beer in the late 90′s early 2000′s. They were on, and on, and on, for a WHILE and unique. No one in wine is big enough and can afford that type of ad when they are dropping 30k+ a month in WS.
It’s going to take a revolutionary to shape these idea’s, and I don’t see anyone on the horizon big enough to make that happen. Who is out there leah?
Ian
oh hell yes. love me this post. pardon me as I ramble a bit. as a recovering ad guy (heineken and dos equis amongst others, to be exact) on my way into the winemaking business, I can’t help but agree. I think something you may have overlooked (and could possibly be in the works to remedy judging from your response to the first comment) is by using television advertising, you’re most likely turning off everyones brain bulb. The fact is, what you’re asking of this business is just to work harder, to tell a better story using whatever makes sense. To give people a new way to EXPERIENCE your brand and they will share it and comeback. The fact of the matter is there’s no silver bullet. I struggled enough with these huge brands who had access to those House ad buys and they still often did what they always have done. What your asking for requires sheer force and effort. It’s trying more things than those that are a shoe-in for sales. Because ultimately what we’re selling isn’t the juice, but an experience.
For your consideration: the Paso Zin Fest ad. I think it’s very much ‘of a piece” with the other television ads you link to. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1R3EnZdhYok
Here’s a question– Old Spice gets, eh, 34M views and counting for that ad. Probably half from PR/Marketing folks linking to it (j/k). The Stanley Steamer ad is at the same level as the Zin Fest ad. Clearly the Old Spice example is an anomaly. But I’d say here in the Zin Fest ad, you have a highly analogous approach, characterized by an edginess, wacky humor, etc. and it has the same market presence.
Oddly, the Geico ad is only 215k views and the Allstate one is still under 1M. I would have expected more given that those ads get actual TV play.
Yeah, so I accidentally only implied my question–which was going to be “what do you think of the zin fest ad?”
Also, I came across this set of wine ad videos by gen y’ers: http://winestars.wordpress.com/2011/04/20/wine-commercials-by-millennials-%E2%80%93-which-is-your-favorite/
I like the ideas and I love the challenge of the project. However, none of these quite has the production values needed to be really considered acceptable by most brands, and the ideas are delivered in a little too ham-handed a way.