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Unified Wine & Grape Symposium: Apparently Millennials Are Now A Big Deal!

Standing room only at the Unified "What Matters To Millennials" panel last week.
February 1, 2011 By In Adventures, Marketing, Presentations

After a pretty amazing week at the Unified Wine & Grape Symposium, things in LA are pretty tame in comparison – even with all the catch-up to be done. I want to thank everyone who attended the panel that I led on Tuesday (What Matters To Millennials) – I was blown away at the turn out! I also want to extend my apologies for not having a longer Q & A (my favorite part) – I totally would have gone over our allotted time with more Q & A  if I wasn’t too preoccupied with prep to check the schedule beforehand and realize we were the last presentation in the room. Oh well, next time. I’m sorry.

For readers and attendees not following the hashtag on twitter, here’s a quick pic that I took from the stage:

Standing room only at the Unified "What Matters To Millennials" panel last week.

I learned so much from the feedback that I received – I’m certainly looking forward to doing this again. (I’ll be sure to post future speaking engagements on this blog from now on.) My fellow panel members Adam Beaugh of Jackson Family Wines and Meagan Callahan of The Paso Robles Wine Country Alliance (both millennials) and I have been getting several requests for the presentation. Here’s the deal:

A link to download the presentation is available at http://millennier-inc.com/unified

I’ve made the decision to make it available as a .pdf download rather than a slideshare because, well, it was carefully created by the three of us to be presented face to face, and not as a stand-alone show. If you did not attend and really want to hear the audio that went with it, the fine folks at All Star Media have made an mp3 audio recording available for us, and is available for download at the millennier-inc.com link above (warning: the file is quite large).

So, now that I know the (surprising) demand for material like this, I’ve decided to create a few more distance-friendly decks available throughout the year. For free. I’ll be sure to post the links on this blog when I do so.

Additionally, I always felt that online seminars were kind of douche-y, but if there’s actually a demand for more panels like this (that don’t cost hundreds of $$ and a plane ride to attend), I’ll cough up the cash for a go-to-meeting seminar-thing and host one online. And do my best to make it NOT douche-y (but it would be an online seminar and it would cost SOMETHING to attend, so that might be kind of difficult…). Please let me know in the comments or by email if this is something that ANYONE would care about – if it is, I’ll work on putting one together.

Back to the grind now – getting ready for some serious posts. Looking forward to answering some questions in the weeks ahead. If anyone has something they would like me to magnanimously donate my two cents on, please feel free to leave a question in the comments.

WHY SO SERIOUS? Brands Today Need To Grow A Sense Of Humor

Why So Serious Joker
December 1, 2010 By In Branding, Marketing, Newsflash, Outreach, Tough Love

Why So Serious Joker

Stop taking yourself so seriously. It’s some advice that almost any brand could (and should) use. That being said, I don’t know if I can think of an entire industry that is in such dire need of a playful shot in the arm as wine is right now.

For decades, it has been an industry built on luxury, discerning tastes, and taking everything – even the scent of cat pee – seriously. And for decades that’s what consumers wanted and expected of the wine industry. That has changed.

Let me repeat myself. That HAS changed. Already. Past tense. This is because there’s already a valuable group of consumers out there – millennials – that have little interest in this serious attitude. Other industries have already recognized this, from car batteries to anti-virus software, but wine is playing catch-up.

Smart, creative humor is one of the quickest paths to millennial consumer’s hearts (and facebook news feeds). Don’t believe me? Then take it from MTV’s head of research, Nick Shore, whose mantra of late has been “smart and funny is the new rock ‘n’ roll.” Amen.

Fortunately, humor and wine make a fantastic pairing. We celebrate with wine. We share it with friends. We enjoy it. How can humor NOT factor in? Wine brands that are looking to reach millennials today must rethink their traditional approach and attitude and start having some fun.

If you want to reach millennials and you don’t have a funny bone, I suggest you find someone that does. Fast.

CRAVE: Is This The New Wine Event Trend For 2011?

CRAVE crowd
November 3, 2010 By In Marketing, Outreach

I had the opportunity a couple weeks ago to attend a very unique wine event, thanks to the folks at the Paso Robles Wine Country Alliance.

This is what it looked like:

CRAVE crowd

photo credit Ballesteros Photography

and this:

CRAVE group 1

photo credit Ballesteros Photography

And it was awesome.

CRAVE is a wine event specifically designed by the non-profit Paso Robles Wine Country Alliance to reach out to millennials and introduce them – glass in hand – to Paso Robles producers. At its core, it is a marketing event – the proceeds from each $45 dollar ticket go towards the event itself, which was built to generate exposure among this important demographic, not turn a profit. “Our producers understand that this event is an investment,” Says Meagan Callahan, 26, of Paso Robles Wine Country Alliance. “These are their future customers. They know that its important to reach out to them now.” And that future may not be too far off. According to some participating producers this year, the event yielded tasting room visits and sales the very next day.

So what makes CRAVE different from any other event, aside from a desire to reach 20-somethings? Located in San Luis Obispo, CRAVE chooses a venue convenient to the local university. The design inside is sleek and the lighting is sexy. During their first 2 years they had a DJ spinning, while this year they opted for a unique downtempo band complete with vocoder, violin, and laptops. The 40 or so participating Paso Robles wineries are grouped into areas called “wine bars” according to what they will be pouring with a food pairing featured at each bar.

Oh. And then there’s the sold-out crowd of mostly 20-somethings in their finest club attire. According to this year’s numbers, 81% of the 500 guests in attendance were between the ages of 21-29, with over half of these in the 21-25 age range.

According to Meagan Callahan, the priority among the CRAVE organizers is to create an atmosphere where millennials are comfortable. “We wanted wine tasting to come across as something fun to do with friends, not something intimidating or stuffy.” In my opinion, they completely succeeded. Though many of the attendees were shy and rather quiet when approaching wineries with their glasses, they were no less than ebullient when they returned to their friends. Groups of 3-7 people would gather after getting wine, and each of them would taste and compare favorites and flops in the same way they discussed what their other friends were wearing and who came with whom. Sometimes in the same breath.

CRAVE group 2

photo credit Ballesteros Photography

Young wine drinkers talking about wine with such ease and confidence is an incredibly rare occurrence at a wine-specific event. I saw this countless times. All night long.

After completing its third sold-out year, CRAVE is going stronger than ever. Will this event approach and in-person millennial focus this prove to be a trend in 2011? I hope so. I think it’s time that other organizations & wineries take notice.

And then invite me, because that s— was fun.

Follow Paso Robles Wine Country Alliance on Twitter: @PasoRoblesWine
Follow Millennier on Twitter: @Millennier

MILLENNIALS: WHY BOTHER? (The Short Answer)

Why Bother?
September 3, 2010 By In Basics, Marketing, Tough Love
Why Bother?

The question of the moment.

Summer’s over, September’s here, and it’s time for me to address something head on.

As Millennials become more of a focus in the wine industry, I’ve been getting more and more blowback both online and in person regarding the value of this demographic. Now if I’m getting this feedback – a person openly dedicated to establishing the value of this demographic within the wine industry – one can only imagine the general opinion at the moment. I feel it’s timely and appropriate to address this.

Most of the opposing feedback I’ve gotten can be summed up by the following question:

WHY BOTHER WITH MILLENNIALS?

Great question.

Here’s the answer:

TO MAKE MORE MONEY.

That’s it folks. If you want to make more money, cultivating millennial consumers is a no brainer.  The concept is basic – it’s a huge group of people that spends a lot of money on wine that you don’t currently have access to. Period. It’s the same reason folks are reaching out to the Chinese market – same reason, different scale.

THAT BEING SAID:

If you WANT to cultivate millennial consumers, you’re going to have to change the way you reach out to this group (marketing, advertising, branding, etc.), because we don’t respond to the same outreach tactics that our parents did.

Think about it: is this really surprising? Do you – personally – respond the same way to ads, marketing, branding , etc. that your parents did? Why would millennials be any different? This is a basic concept, but one that’s important to understand in an industry that’s been utilizing the same outreach tactics for the last 40 years.

If this is too much of a pain, or perhaps better said, too painful for companies to realize, then it’s a waste for these folks to go for millennials.

There are still SEVERAL companies and individuals out there who dismiss the 70 million millennial consumers as kids, as buying cheap, or in some other way completely irrelevant to the wine industry. To those people I say thanks for reading the blog and best of luck – clearly our money is no good to you, so I and my 70 million friends will buy someone else’s wine.

HOWEVER: If a company DOES want to reach the millennial market effectively, that company MUST change its tactics. The purpose of this blog is to help people do just that.

And This Is How You Do Creative Branding: Featuring Gary Numan and Cars

July 23, 2010 By In Basics, Branding, Marketing

As many readers of this blog know by now, I am a HUGE proponent of creative branding. I definitely touched on this on the Authenticity & Pop Culture post this Spring when I brought up a simple-yet-genius Pedigree internet ad. The time has come once again to talk about creativity.

Ok. Let’s say you have a product that, unlike wine, is completely un-sexy. Let’s say for example your product is a car battery.

die hard battery

I mean, your name is Die Hard – that’s cool – but you’re a car battery. There’s not a whole lot you can do with that.

Unless of course, you are a marketing genius. Then you might think about how you can combine the insane potential of a creative interned vid with the current DIY zeitgeist that is fascinating people today. In fact you might look at the following video and say “I want that for my car battery.”

This OK GO music video from March 1st of this year has over 15 MILLION views. And that’s just from the official posting.

And if you’re truly a marketing genius, you might call up the company that made that video for OK GO and say again, “I want that for my car battery.”

And if you did that, this is what you would get:

And then you would be my personal hero. I find this ad brilliant and awesome on about a ba-zillion different levels. I will not wax poetic here, but if you want to hear why I think this is such a big deal just call me and carve out about an hour of your time.

WARNING: I’m about to get cranky, so if you don’t want to hear me cranky on a Friday, I bid you a happy weekend.

<rant>If you’re still with me, here’s my beef. I’m SO TIRED of people in EVERY ASPECT of the wine industry automatically handcuffing wine to media and branding that has been used for the last 40 YEARS. If you want new consumers then you have to do something new. PERIOD. DONE. Don’t tell me that wine can’t be awesome and fun and hip and irreverent when a CAR BATTERY can.</rant>

Go be creative and awesome. If you’re not creative and awesome, find someone who is. A few months from now I want to be writing about a video like this for a wine. And you know what? I will. Maybe I’ll just make it myself. If you want in, let me know.

Good Wine, Ugly Sweater: Why Branding Matters

ugly sweater party
July 8, 2010 By In Basics, Marketing

Now that the world is wrapped up in the latest iPhone consumption epidemic it’s a perfect moment to discuss branding. I will not discuss Apple’s branding. You’re welcome.

What I WILL talk about is Barefoot. But first, a story:

A couple of weeks ago, as seen in the photos I posted last week, I participated in the Next Gen Wine Competition. After hours of tasting and despite the political ramifications of millennial judges choosing a sweet wine as Best in Show, the group overwhelmingly chose the dessert wine as the winner.

We were overall very confident in this decision. The atmosphere was relaxed and pretty jovial – until the name of the winning wine was announced.

This is the wine that won Best in Show:

Barefoot Moscato

Yep. Barefoot Moscato.

Barefoot Moscato. Personally I was MORTIFIED. And I knew I wasn’t alone. The room had EXPLODED in sound. Bitter laughter. Curses. Anguished cries of “oh my God.” Some were stricken silent with the news.

A thought flew into my head: “I will never tell anyone about this.” I was absolutely ashamed. As the minutes dragged on, however, I realized (duh) that although I’m a wine professional I am ALSO a millennial. And if I and the other millennial judges in the room were having such an emotional reaction to hearing the name of one brand, that it was THIS MOMENT that I needed to pay attention to in order to learn more about millennials and wine. The moment when I was least comfortable.

There were really two factors in play in the room’s reaction, in my opinion. 1) These are young professionals looking to prove their taste and worth in the industry, and they were embarrassed that they had chosen a $6 bottle. 2) It was a Barefoot wine.

I’m not so interested in #1, but I would be lying if I said it wasn’t a factor. What fascinates me is that we were all confident in the choice, until the brand was announced. What fascinates me is #2: Barefoot’s branding.

Barefoot’s Branding

The Barefoot brand is notoriously huge, corporate, tacky and “cheap” – at least to most young wine drinkers. But why? Millennials certainly don’t have these issues with other “value-based” brands – Yellowtail and 2 Buck Chuck are perennial 20-something faves from the bargain section. What’s the difference? Branding.

From its placement in the grocery store aisles (bottom shelves) to the 80′s elegance glamour portrait label, there’s nothing about the Barefoot brand that is appealing to young wine drinkers – not even in an ironic way. If I personally had a choice between bringing a bottle of Barefoot and a jug of Carlo Rossi White Zin to a party, I’d go with the jug of CR because at least that’s funny. Why is that, when Barefoot (Moscato, at least) is actually a good wine?

I’ve said this before but I’ll say it again: in these situations, I URGE wineries to look at their brand as an accessory or an article of clothing. Wine is a SOCIAL ACCESSORY. When we talk about wine, bring it to a party, open a bottle at our own table or order a glass at a restaurant, we are effectively showing off. We are telling the people around us a little bit about who we are just by what wine we choose. This is what I mean by a social accessory.

Now let’s look at sweaters (bear with me). The Carlo Rossi jug of White Zinfandel that I mentioned before would be a phenomenally terrible holiday sweater from the late 80s. This sweater is something that our target demographic would wear with irony because it is a perfect storm of ugly, tradition, poor taste and social courage. In fact, our target demo likes wearing these sweaters so much, they create holiday parties specifically for these sweaters.

ugly sweater party

Hideous Holiday Sweater Party

They are almost always awesome. But I digress.

If the jug of Carlo Rossi is a hideous holiday sweater, then in this situation our bottle of Barefoot Moscato would be a simple ugly sweater from the mid-90s. Nothing phenomenal, nothing over-the-top about it, just dated.  A sweater that was well-made and would have been pretty pimp in ’96 but today is just sad to see on a person.

If we were to throw Yellowtail into the mix, we’d be talking about an $8-$16 sweater just purchased from Old Navy or Forever 21. It’s not well made and it will fall apart in a month or two, but it’s in fashion, it fits well, and it looks good.

What do these sweaters say about the young person wearing them in public?

Hideous Holiday Sweater: I have a sense of humor, am very confident, and am creative enough to find this rare gem of an ugly sweater.

Old Navy/Fovever 21 Sweater: I may not have a lot of cash, but I’m in style and I look good.

Ugly Dated Sweater: I’m either completely clueless when it comes to fashion or I’m trying to do something and failing. Perhaps this is my favorite sweater and I really don’t care about fashion or what you think.

The same could be said of young people bringing the associated wines to a party. This is why wine is a social accessory. This is what branding does for a wine – it tells us what a wine says about us. Carlo Rossi’s jug branding is so bizarre and over-the-top that it’s funny at certain times. Yellow Tail is hip and always a safe bet. Barefoot is… dated?

Barefoot Moscato is a solid wine, and I’m pretty sure that Barefoot’s sales aren’t hurting too much; however, it’s interesting to think about what this brand would be capable of with interesting branding. It’s proven that millennials like it (and other demos too, it always seems to place well in competitions) – the product is solid. What would happen if Barefoot became a “hip and always a safe bet” social accessory for millennials instead of an embarrassing budget purchase?

The world may never know.

But not for lack of trying. Interestingly, Barefoot is trying to change this branding online with a blog, charitable works, and highlighting their young team-members. Unfortunately all of this work is foot-themed. Yes. Foot-themed. Also, despite having arguably the most successful facebook page in the wine industry, Barefoot does not take any of this offline to their labels – the one place where they can instantaneously affect a consumer’s decision to purchase. All this work looks to be for nothing since the most visible part of Barefoot’s branding (the actual bottles) run counter to all the work they are putting into the name.

Learn from this brand’s mistakes. Your most visible and vocal branding should make it easier for a person to purchase your bottle, not the other way around.

The One Thing You Need To Know About Millennial Brand Ambassadors

May 6, 2010 By In Basics, Marketing, Outreach, Tough Love

I discuss the concept of millennial “brand ambassadors” and “brand evangelists” with businesses all the time. All. The. Time. It’s an important conversation to have – brand ambassadors/evangelists (in this conversation) are regular consumers that “preach” the good word of a particular brand to their friends and family through everyday life. Millennial brand ambassadors are particularly important because so much of our daily lives are spend on sites like facebook where our thoughts can reach thousands of people instantly. Especially for businesses looking to reach out to millennials, getting us talking about your product in a positive way in front of a thousand of our closest friends is key.

Here is my most frequently asked question: “Which brands are doing it right?” Or within the wine industry, “Which wineries are doing it right?”

It’s not that it’s a bad question. It’s incredibly relevant. And those of you who have asked me this lately, don’t think that I’m hating on you, because I’m not. You’ve just inspired me to figure out a better way to answer your question. But first…

Accessories

Make your brand a valuable accessory.

The one thing you need to know about millennial brand ambassadors is: YOUR BRAND IS OUR SOCIAL ACCESSORY.

I don’t talk about your product on facebook because you deserve it, or because you worked really hard, or because you have a mortgage to pay or because you want a promotion. I talk about your product because it communicates something about me to people I want to impress/entertain/etc.

The brands that are “doing it right” are the best social accessories. The brands that say something about their millennial consumers. EXAMPLE: Tom’s Shoes – altruistic, socially conscious, environmentally friendly, and incredibly hip shoe company. When I talk about Tom’s Shoes (on facebook, on twitter, etc.) it says all of that ABOUT ME.

This is a very simple concept, but one that (at least) 90% of businesses reaching out to millennials today do not grasp. If you can keep this in mind while formulating your brilliant plan, it might just work. This is why we as millennials talk about businesses. If you want us to talk about your business, it better say something about us. It’s just how it works.

What does your brand say about your consumers? Think long and hard – and don’t just repeat what you say to your boss in meetings. What does it REALLY say? Because in order to have brand ambassadors, you must have a BRAND.

Get Serious About Mother’s Day, Wineries

April 13, 2010 By In Holiday, Marketing, Outreach, Tough Love

Well, wineries, it’s that time of year again and the countdown is on. So what are you doing for Mother’s Day? ANOTHER wine and cheese event in the ol’ tasting room? How innovative. And for direct sales? Nothing yet, eh? Planning on slapping the words “Mother’s Day” on a regular bottle special and sending something out to your mailing list about a week before the big day? Hm. How’d that work out last year?

Mama Fratelli for Mother's Day

Mama Fratelli loves Mother's Day.

All of this snark is coming from a place of love, wineries. It’s time to get creative if you want to start making money off of these mini-holidays. Take some time to look at what you have planned and incorporate your own genius – or just use some of the ideas below.

TASTING ROOM EVENTS

If you’ve got a tasting room, I’m praying that you’re doing SOMETHING for the holiday. Instead of the wine and cheese event that everybody whips out when they don’t know what else to do, think a bit outside the box. What is going to make a family get in the car and head out to your tasting room? And how can you execute it on a budget? Some ideas to get you thinking:

  • Pamper ‘em. Try hiring a masseuse for a few hours – have them set up a table and offer 15 minute mommy massages as a part of your event. You can also go nuts and offer manicures, but be sure to do so far enough away from the tasting room so that library Cab of yours doesn’t smell like Opi & nail polish remover.
  • Set up playtime for kids. Make it easy for families to attend by incorporating a supervised project for children as a part of the event. Mom and Dad can enjoy the tasting while Junior and Little Missy can create pictures, cork necklaces or the illustrious paper-plate bean-shakers that they can give to mom as a present when the tasting is over. Feel free to be creative and incorporate your branding into the project.
  • Take a hike. If your event is grown-ups only, and if you have the land, make it an adventurous escape. Set up a tasting in a romantic spot in the vineyard and give a guided tour to and from the tasting location. Make it special using your winery’s best features – do you have an amazing spot to view the sunset? On-site crush facilities? A little clearing in the woods or picnic tables in the vineyard? Use it. Feel free to make it a family event with extra supervision and an outside activity for the kids during the tasting.
  • Have a mom at the winery? Let the matriarch lead the tasting. Feel free to put family first – this can be your own celebration that you are inviting your valued customers to attend. If marketed right, there’s an element of “celebrity” that will appeal to some of your mailing list – just don’t let your heads get too big.
  • Look to the future. By the time you have your Mother’s Day event, know what you are doing for Father’s Day – or at least have an idea. If you can provide a wonderful and unique experience for Mom, odds are that Dad would be interested in coming back if you have something to offer him for his special day.  Depending on his or her situation, almost every guest at your event is a potential repeat for Father’s Day, so you best put it in their heads early.

DIRECT SALES

Throwing your white wines in a three-pack and calling it a Mother’s Day special a week before the big day is not the way to take advantage of this holiday for your direct sales. Odds are that the consumers of your direct sale items for Mother’s Day may not be the same people that would attend your event (if you have one), so take advantage of this by creating a DIY Mother’s Day kit for home. All you need to do is to pick some themes and price ranges. Whatever you do, do it now. Get it up on your website immediately.

  • Understand your direct sales consumer. I’m going to assume that any Mother’s Day special/gift item will be up on your website (because it should be if you want to make money). Yes, you’ll be blasting this out to your mailing list and wine club, but understand that if you want to get new customers out of this, it will be people searching online for Mother’s Day wine gifts. Be sure that you use appropriate key words (for SEO) when you are creating the product pages and publish it asap. Also, the people doing online searches for mother’s day gifts may skew younger – hello millennials. Yes, there are plenty of us with kids, but there are TONS of us with mothers – we all need to buy them gifts and will most likely look to the web at some point, if not first. Keep this in mind when you are putting together your kits.
  • Know your competition. No, I’m not talking about neighboring wineries, people. The big competition on Mother’s Day is flowers. Think about this when you are choosing your pricing and marketing strategies. People won’t even blink at spending $100 and up on a beautiful bouquet of flowers for mom – it’s the ultimate go-to long-distance Mother’s Day gift. This is your competition. You can put together a fabulous package for this price (and lower) no matter what the price points of your wines are. Make sure people know this. Make sure that long distance sons and daughters realize that they have a choice between flowers and wine for Mom this year – and make sure they know why your wine package is the right choice.
  • Talk to the moms. If you’ve got moms on board in your staff, reach out to them to see what their ideal DIY Mother’s Day Kit would include.
  • Go outside your own merchandise. Yes, you could put together the same tired gift basket of wine, glasses and corkscrews, but that doesn’t give a whole lot of reasons to buy your particular package, does it? You’ve got a resale license, so USE IT! Grab a wholesale lot of manicure kits, spa slippers, DVDs, gift cards, decor items, etc. and incorporate these into your theme. If your budget is tight, shop first and create your theme around the items that fit your budget.
  • Don’t be afraid to go novelty. Remember these orders will be gifts, which means that people want to say something with them. Making people laugh is a big part of gift-giving, particularly in my family. Don’t be afraid to embrace a novelty approach. If I were a winery, the first Mother’s Day Gift item I would put together would be the Mama Fratelli Gift Basket. (If you don’t know who Mama Fratelli is, go watch Goonies immediately.) I would include a black beret and some fake pearls, as well as perhaps a CD single from the band, The Fratellis. If I had Italian varietals in my wines, I would include those in the basket (remember Zin = Primitivo), or if not, I would find the best wines that fit with her thematically. Find something unique, have fun, be creative.
  • Get the word out. If you do have some creative product packages for your direct sales, find a few ways to tell the world. Contact the local paper, radio shows, the local news – if it’s touching/unique/funny/creative enough, you may get some much needed coverage.

There are many more ways to get the most out of your event and direct sales this Mother’s Day, so grab your team, get thinking, and get put ingenious plans into motion soon to get the best return.

For those wineries that DO put the work in, I invite you to email me at leah@millennier.com with your new, improved, unique and creative plans/press releases/invites/product links, etc. and I will post as many of your Mother’s Day marketing ideas as I can (most likely the week before Mother’s Day, depending on the response). Be sure to include the links to purchase/attend so I can post them.  If your winery is putting in the work on this, I would love to support you.

Now get to work and go be a genius!

Don’t Fear the Foursquare: Understanding Foursquare in 5 Links or Less

March 31, 2010 By In Basics, Growth, Marketing, Tech

Does the word(s) “foursquare” make you break out in a cold sweat? Is a “check-in” what you do with your boss on your “sick days?” Do you think LBS is a gastrointestinal medical condition? Then take a look at the following links* for a diy primer.

Be My Mayor Valentine Heart

Some Foursquare Valentine's humor.

As a note, I know many, many, MANY people who have been dismissing things like Foursquare because they “don’t get it.” Read on, and you will. No excuses. I also know about as many people who are dismissing this as what I can only describe as “kid stuff.” In case anyone reading is unfamiliar with this blog, I will say this. Those “kids” (those of age, anyway) are your current and future consumers. They are the future of your career, of the wine industry, and countless others. Not in a “Heal the World” way, but in a “look at the numbers” way. Please keep this in mind.

LBS – wikipedia – the basics on LBS: Location Based Service.

Foursquare: Why It May Be The Next Twitter – Mashable – A Mashable article from July 2009. A great primer on Foursquare as well as some background on other examples of LBS (at the time, anyway). Don’t skip this one.

Why You Should Care About Foursquare – NPR’s Marketplace – Transcript (or broadcast file) from March 2010 with Kai Ryssdal and Caroline McCarthy from CNET discussing the most basic concepts.

If You Use Foursquare, You Are An Annoying Jackass – Gawker – Some hate from the folks at Gawker. This and a caption on LATFH basically make Foursquare an institution. Still waiting for the latter.

Foursquare For Business – foursquare – The breakdown from the folks at Foursquare on how to set your biz up on Foursquare, along with a few examples of how to make the most of it.

The best way to learn more about Foursquare, of course, is to join as a user. Based on your own experiences, likes, dislikes, wishes, aspirations, and habits, you will be more able to create a great experience through your business for other users.

*No, none of these links has been archived and pimped out for subscription money as was the case with the original link in my last post (now fixed, no thanks to AdAge).

Fearless First, Then Leaders: Lesson for the Wine Industry

March 26, 2010 By In Basics, Growth, Marketing, Outreach, Tough Love

A little over a month ago, AdAge published an article* on 10 marketing ideas that changed the world – at least in their opinion.  From the 1984 Apple commercial to a certain iconic hosiery packaging, it’s fascinating to see these 10 ideas juxtaposed. For you marketing types, it’s incredibly inspiring. And for the rest of us, there’s an important common theme to notice among all of the companies mentioned. Each idea highlighted in the article resulted in catapulting its company to industry leader status, at times when these companies were only just fighting for their market share.

Apple's 1984 ad

Old meets new: an update to Apple's original 1984 ad.

As nonsensical as it sounds, it seems like that’s the state of wine companies today: everyone’s just competing. There’s no definitive leader. Sure there are the big guys. Sure there are the big brands. But do you see the wine equivalent to the iPhone anywhere? WHY NOT? The brass ring is just hanging there, people.

I highly recommend taking the 5 minutes to read the article. More than one of these campaigns has shaped a generation. While you read, take notice of the one thing (two things?) each of these companies had in common when they made these marketing choices: Balls.

I don’t mean to be crude, but it’s absolutely true. Some of these companies had everything to lose and they STILL made risky choices. AND THEY WORKED. It’s important to note that these Fearless Leaders were fearless BEFORE they were leaders.

There WILL be more underdog upsets in the coming years. There WILL be companies that chang their consumers’ worlds as well as their own industry landscape.

The real question is will wine be a part of it this time? A girl can only hope.

*UPDATE: It has been brought to my attention that AdAge has archived this story in the last few days and it is now available only to AdAge subscribers. This is very disappointing. I am in no way supporting or recommending that readers should subscribe to their services through the original link used in this post. The updated link that I have provided will take you to a blog that has reposted the article in its entirety. Apologies for the inconvenience.