July 22, 2005
“wine blogging as marketing disruption”
Paul Goodison notes his Stormhoek Wine Freebie has arrived:
And following Hugh’s promise of samples I can confirm today that I have a very exciting looking bottle sat besides me. I got bottle 24 of 75 — unfortunately not really a collectors item as the Stormhoek promise is about freshness and drinking the wine at the peak of its freshness (i.e. relatively soon!) The inserted leaflet from Hugh entitled “Wine Blogging as Marketing Disruption” however could well enter that category
Anyway thanks to Hugh, Orbital Wines and Stormhoek — will report back on how I found the wine, because I am of course a person whose wine recommendations you trust… aren’t I? What do you mean, ‘No!’?
The leaflet Paul speaks of reads like this:
“Wine Blogging as Marketing Disruption”
Hiya,
Thanks for signing up for your free bottle of Stormhoek. I hope you like it.
OK, so what’s the point of all this? Sure, I suppose giving out a few bottles to some bloggers could potentially be quite good PR, etc etc. Maybe a few of you will blog about it. Maybe not. You never know.
But in the back of my mind I’m thinking there might be something larger going on here.
What if, say, not one or two of you end up blogging about it, but a couple of dozen? What will be the rippling effect?
Will the idea-virus spread far enough that suddenly, instead of one or two people knowing about the wine, suddenly tens of thousands of smart connected people in the UK know about it, and are talking about it?
Is that enough to launch a national brand?
If it isn’t, well, no great loss. We will have gotten some PR out of it, and maybe a few long-term Stormhoek customers out of the blogosphere.
But if it is, then I’m thinking, Holy Shit, what we’re doing might put a lot of traditional ad agencies out of business. Seriously.
We’re talking serious marketing disruption.
But as a marketing blogger, I’m starting to believe that all marketing should be serious marketing disruption.
Of course I can’t do it by myself. I need your complicity if it’s going to work. No complicity, no idea-virus. I can’t just write a big media company a cheque and make the marketing problem go away. Those days are gone.
What do you get out of it? A free bottle of wine and a chance to play a part in screwing up the traditional marketing and advertising landscape forever. A chance to see how far we can stretch the power of the blogosphere.
This is only an experiment. Luckily we have a wine company crazy enough to have let me talk them into it. So we’ll see what happens. Rock on.
“FRESHNESS MATTERS.“
Those two words sum up the heart and soul of Stormhoek.
Contrary to popular belief, most wines do not improve with age. Sure, the great wines of Bordeaux and the Burgundies often do, as do certain others, but these are not the wines that most of us are buying most of the time.
A grape picked straight off the vine is one of the freshest taste experiences imaginable. It’s juicy, intensely fruity, often aromatic, and held in balance by a streak of zippy, bracing acidity. This abundant fruitiness is something that winemakers, over the last three decades, have worked hard to capture and preserve in their wines.
30 years ago, most white wines were dull, lacking in fruit, and low in alcohol. This was largely the result of a gaping void (heh) between what vineyard owners and wineries wanted
"Hugh's Daily Cartoon" Newsletter. A new cartoon sent out every weekday morning to your inbox [RSS version here.]. A wee chuckle to start your day off right etc.
13 Responses to ““wine blogging as marketing disruption””
I got number 37 — thanx hugh… will dive into it in the next couple of days!
No. 39 has arrived! Will be enjoying tonight or maybe over the weekend. Will blog thoughts later.
Cheers!
Dave.
not to be an ass. but “Sure, the great wines of Bordeaux and Burgundy often do”. that statement is pretty bad. bordeaux is the region in france-burgundy is not. they aren’t similar groupings, there’s overlap..
Thanks for spotting the grammatical error, Sloan. I have since flogged my young, nubile intern [“Bad Intern! Naughty!!”] and have made the necessary corrections (on the blog, at least).
I say we blog about the young nubile intern!
How about us yanks? Any hope for a bottle?
Best,
Jim
We’re working on seeing what we can do for the American market.
Meanwhile, we’re about to expand the freebie offer to Western Europe (and re-open it to the Brits). Will blog about it later.
Hugh:
That’s a damned good piece of copywriting. Kudos to you.
Blogging as market disruption? Maybe, until everyone else gets on the bandwagon, and then it’s just mainstream marketing. And I expect that to happen pretty quickly, myself.
Stormhoek — the verdict
Well, I see Hugh is ramping up the Stormhoek buzz and even quotes me verbatim… The moment of truth is upon us though, how was it for us (I let my wife have some too. Generous I thought!) — Jane…
I got mine too thanks (#45) and did write about it at the time but you perhaps didn’t see it or get the ping. Great stuff by the way. Crisp, refreshing andso popular at the party I had on friday night that I didn’t get much at all.
Free Wine
A man from DHL has just delivered a bottle of Stormhoek wine with a personalised label and everything — all part of Gapingvoid’s wine blogging campaign. It’s real modern marketing — albeit at a micro-level. Will it increase sales ?
I got no wine. I never get no free products. But what good would a blogging would be if no body visits a blog. I’ve a passion. I talk about my passion all the time. On blogs, in comments. One day people started visiting my blog. I thought I’m in business. alas. that was the only day people visited my blog.
Hugh! you are a good guy. I’ll blog about your products. you don’t have to give it to me free. That goes for other marketers too.
Online Viral Marketing for Wino Bloggers
Hugh MacLeod (no not a relation to me — Hold Fast!) has started an online marketing campaign using a bottle of wine. The great thing about this program is he is using the power of bloggers for the campaign. The…