Atlantic Canada Wine Symposium - Recap Day 3
The day started with Matthew Speck from Henry of Pelham in Niagara. His presentation revolved around the winery and its origins. We have been to the winery and it is a beautiful spot with great wines. In fact, we had the Sibling Rivalry Red last weekend and it was great. Matthew runs the Vineyards at Henry of Pelham and his brothers Daniel and Paul manage the Sales, Marketing, and Government Relations respectively. He went through the history of the winery including the fact that the property has been in his family's hands in one way or another since the late 1700's. He also discussed their first vintage in 1988 and the learning that they had to do to get better and add quality to the wines. He discussed the loss of their father Paul Speck Sr. in 1993 and the impact that it had to not only their lives but the survival of the business. It is a fascinating story. They have 170 planted acres with more on the way and currently producing 90000+ cases. The wines are very interesting and they hang their hat on their Baco Noir which they first put out in 1991. They have recently done some re-branding which they call Modern Classic. They break their wines down into several categories and branded lines. The main Henry of Pelham has three tiers:
Varietal Tier $14 - $17
Estate $25
Speck Family Reserve $40 - $50
Then there is Sibling Rivalry which was created as a response to changing consumers – wanting a different style of wine. These are blends with quality focus and is a Premium Category leader across Canada at the $14 - $16 range.
They have some newer wines coming out, such as Speck Brothers – House Wine
Red House Wine Co – Cabernet Shiraz | Baco Cab Sauv
White House Wine Co – Riesling Pinot Grigio | Vidal Moscato
It retails for $12.95 and is VQA. All in all a great winery with big plans.
Up next was a discussion of the Finger Lakes Wine Region presented by Morgen McLaughlin, President & CEO of Finger Lakes Wine Country Tourism Marketing Association. Morgen was kind enough to give us copies of their Wine Region magazine which was great to review. She then got into the background of what their motivations were in creating an Association which was simple, they want to be the best wine country experience in the world. They feel they are the most beautiful wine region in the world (as they should - otherwise why bother?).
She gave ideas and examples of what it means to try and market a wine region. For them good marketing consists of:
Instincts
Market research
Target audience
Positive ROI
In order to meet those components you must use integrated marketing by leveraging:
Media Buy (video, radio, print, digital, web)
Media Relations
Consumer / Trade Events
Marketing Collateral (magazine, app)
Social Media (Facebook, Twitter, Blog, Foursquare, YouTube)
She encouraged everyone to leverage using desk side appointments with media in order to be proactive with generating Media interest. She gave some general ideas of things that can be done to improve interest in a region and then some specific things such as creating a better tasting room experiences with intimate settings and unique spaces. Great tips and anecdotes about the fun of trying to get attention to a smaller wine region.
The next session was of great interest to me personally as it was marketing to Millennials in a digital age. It was facilitated by Suresh Doss of Spotlight Toronto. Suresh gave us a breakdown of how consumers learn about wine in the pre-Social Media world where the focus was wine critics, wine writers, and publications (aka Controlled Media). In today's world with the integration of technology when it comes to wine content (such as ours) is readily accessible via tools like Twitter, Facebook, Corkbin (unknown to me prior to Suresh's chat), 4sq, and Pinterest (aka Open Media). He characterized it as the Democratization of wine by Generation ‘try-it-all’, which is a term I like a lot. For this new generation, they use tech at higher rates than people from other generations. They are Huge foodies, Twitter addicts, and his opinion are mostly women. They order more wine, attend more events, love the idea of local, and plan their trips around food & wine (as opposed to letting attractions drive where they eat).
According to research released this month by Harvard University, self-disclosure is extra rewarding and is as rewarding as the activity (wine tasting) itself. These new wine lovers are Ambassadors with influence and have reach that no other group has in such real time communications. Try calling all your friends to them you just had the best bottle of Tidal Bay ever, versus Tweeting about it or posting that to Facebook.
Other things Suresh noted:
Millennials do not enjoy large Wine Event but more Wine Events at Restaurants/Wineries (Toronto/LA/NYC) that are less structured and casual with a purely social agenda.
Wine meetups - Groups organized with one goal in mind; to learn about with people of similar interest, no pretension.
Social Media tracking - there is constant sharing of content across Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest.
Once Suresh finished his discussion of Millennials, we transitioned over to the Social Media Panel which included Suresh, Sandra Oldfield from Tinhorn Creek, Craig Pinhey, and Morgen McLaughlin. The Panel was moderated by Jeff Roach from Sociallogical a Social Media Strategy firm. Jeff kicked things off right with a fairly great message. In the Social Media world it is about building a Community and starting a Conversation. It is much more personal engagement than messaging and requires time and effort to be effective. The benefits of doing this far outweigh the costs as in the Social Media world, the conversation is happening and people are talking about you whether you like it or not and whether you are there or not. Isn't it better to try and shape and frame that conversation with your communications and message.
Over and over during the sessions we heard about telling your story as a winery. So, how do you tell a story? Well the response was to know who you are and be comfortable in your own skin. Know your brand. That will help you tell your story. Social Media is just the soapbox you can use to get that story out there.
After a great plated lunch of local dishes paired with local wines we were back in the Session rooms and guess what, I was back in front of Suresh. I liked his session so much I did a repeat. He did a great job keeping the material fresh but the message was the same. Millennials are sophisticated consumers who will be a force to be reckoned with if you don't do your job. There was a conversation about how these folks of the younger generation might not be the revenue generators that the older demographic might be but I responded that if you can hook them they will be your best brand Ambassadors as long as you are authentic. The best part is the cost of acquisition leveraging Social Media is a fraction of the cost of traditional media (think opening and maintaining a Twitter/Facebook account - time & effort versus the cost of 30 second radio spot or print ad). Once again, we had fresh conversation and great questions.
Once we wrapped up Hans Christian Jost of Jost Vineyards gave some final encouraging words and thanked everyone for their attendance and attention. He also thanks Chef Michael Howell, owner of Tempest Restaurant in Wolfville who was a great session host and kept us on time and on task.
With that the 2012 Atlantic Canada Wine Symposium was in the books. It was such a great event and had a personal impact on me and I met so many wonderfully friendly and open wine folks from across the country. I will certainly attend again in the future and as I Tweeted to the conference, next time I will bring friends.
Great job to the organizers and thanks again to everyone who took time to chat with me.
Keep on drinking!
Chris & Shannon
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