June 9, 2006
geek dinners galore etc
The Stormhoek Geek Dinnery Goodness continues:
1. An mp4 video clip of everyone at the Miami geek dinner holding up their gapingvoid fine art prints.
2. Looks like the Cork geek dinner in Ireland was a huge success. Microsoft’s Rob Burke also blogged about it.
3. There was our largest-so-far geek dinner in Redwood City, organised by the very talented Kai Chang. 140 people turned up, including of Keith Ferrazzi of “Never Eat Alone” fame, and Charles Siegel of Charles Chocolates, a global microbrand if ever there was one.
4. Andy and his friends had the geek dinner in Tuscon, Arizona. They also put a lovely 20-second film short of the event up on YouTube. Very cool.
I have three thoughts on all this:
1. It’s turning out to be a lot more fun, interesting and successful than I predicted. This is a good thing.
2. I don’t really feel I have any new “Marketing 2.0″ theories to explain what’s going on. I just think it’s really cool to meet like-minded people, and open a dialogue of sorts with them. If they like the wine, great. If not, no big deal. At least we’re trying to have fun with it. I really don’t think it needs to be any more complicated than that.
3. I’m wondering if, how and when this thing is going to scale outside of the blogosphere, into the mainstream, where it needs to eventually end up. Or will it just get stuck in the “Echo Chamber Of Death”, like so many other blog-related enterprises?
What do you think?
"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.
Maybe this isn’t such a new concept, like minded people getting together sponsored in some way by a product. Tupperware party anyone?
Gene DeRose (ex ceo of jupiter back in the day), started up a thing called http://houseparty.com , which is more directed at kids, and around the launch of games, shows etc. Nickelodeon has been a big participant.
I guess geek dinners is like that, but you get to drink, and I assume there is some possibility of getting laid
Karl
It seems like it is growing out of the blogosphere in an organic fashion. That is wonderful. You began talking about Geek Dinner’s and people found out about them. The attendance is going up and, to me, it seems like these are happening very rapidly. It all seems like a very good, and obvious, way to further the idea / agenda / world domination
People are now talking about this as an event, so word-of-mouth ought to be helping (unless these are all ‘invite only’ in which case my thoughts are done). After the fact, people will tell their friends about what they did and the word will travel.
Blog > Party > People
It seems like that is the transition.
BTW: Your blog is wonderful. It solely inspired me to get my own going. While the topics are different, I saw how you could mix many interests into one piece and make is cohesive. You are the glue and not a niche idea / technology / political stance. My site is now up, though still an infant, and is no longer just a ‘portfolio’ site. Truthfully, my portfolio is the least developed aspect at this moment. Who’da thunk?
Great question — could go either way. I guess you can either credit or blame Stormhoek for not being more aggressive in following up. They didn’t ask for contact info on the signup sheets — and they’re not even after the folks who hosted the geek dinners to send the sheets and photos in (I know — I’m one of the lazy bastards who haven’t done so yet).
I can’t talk about the US in general, but I can talk about the SW Pennsylvania market.
There are a lot more factors that would affect sales here than than just WOM. At $10/bottle (which would probably mean $13 in Pennsylvania), the wines we tasted at our geek dinner were good, but most not clearly outstanding in comparison with others in the same price neighborhood. Plus you’ve got some naming issues.
Here in Pittsburgh, the term “Pinotage” is relatively meaningless — might as well just put the component grapes on the label. People who tasted it liked the wine well enough, but didn’t know what to serve it with. Is it a pinot noir or not? Do I serve it with steak or turkey?
Pinot Gris (which around here implies “French sophistication” and “quality”) might have been a better naming choice for this market than Pinot Grigio (which in this market implies “less expensive” and “less flavorful” and “I’ll only buy Italian-made because California makes crappy pinot grigio”) — but I do think this is probably the wine with most potential in the PA regional market — it’s clearly different from most PGs in taste and even color. There’s an upside here that may deserve it’s own campaign separate from the other wines.
The Sauv Blanc is also OK, but again, up against good Aussies and Chileans at same price points. That it’s not grassy like so many Californians is a good marketing point.
We didn’t get to taste the Shiraz, which would also be up against stiff competition.
The other thing you’re up against is that in PA (as in some other states) the wines would be buried in the South African/South American section of the state stores — where mostly bargain hunters look.
Perhaps your puppy cartoons on endcaps would help sales once the wine is available here. And some traditional advertising/promo alluding to “the wine everyone’s been blogging about” would be helpful, even if it’s just POP.
It’s probably too late to add a permission marketing component to the back end of the campaign, but that might’ve been something worth deploying. If I got an email from Stormhoek announcing that the wine is (or would be available) on suchandsuch date, that would be something I’d read and probably act upon. As it is, unless I see it mentioned on your blog or stumble across it in the liquor store, I won’t know when Stormhoek wines have arrived here.
Still, what you’ve done has been extremely interesting on many levels. I hope at the end of the day it’s wildly successful.
To me that depends greatly on the experience of the people that take part in the dinners because when its all said and done, those people are the ones that will go out and spread the word. From the sound of it, people are recieving it enthusiasticly.
That is exciting because the velocity of the word of mouth will only increase as more dinners are held and more people experience it.
Cheers!
There’s a danger that it will get caught in the geekosphere but some of them must turn out to be sociable people with friends in the real world. Moreover some of them will turn out to have an inordinate appetite. The combination of these two effects will enhance scalability. Or not.
But in terms of bang for your buck, it’s worked already.
Hugh…
There is something much bigger going on here than these light party discussions can glean.
Sure, maybe as O’Reilly put it, we were in a culture of participation…but where we are moving is much more significant and ties in nicely to your global microbrands…
We are in a culture of collaboration.
Look to my Pinko Marketing group for the answers to the questions on ‘Marketing 2.0′ (although that limits where it can go…I would say the future of marketing in general). There are some really smart people working on the idea that to effectively market in the future you have to be part of the community you serve. Not merely converse with it.
Thanks for all the great insights, Everybody.…
Yes, Tara, I certainly feel part of the community I’m marketing to.
Rich W, I think we do OK with the “Quality” angle. We make no claim to be the best in the world, but we like to think we punch above our weight.
The fact is, there’s a lot of good wines out there, so one has to remain vigilant.
The Stormhoek events combine the old drinks business promotion of ‘encouragaging trial’ — an obvious step in building new customers — with the new ‘citizen-centric’ media of blogs, which best targets those people well tuned into todays conversational media.
The result is an online experience (blog media) that engergises the physical product; the wine has been introduced in a respectful and savvy way to a wide set of readers who like to find out about new things in this ‘blog referral’ way.
So that’s already a powerful mix — nice, smart referral (good experience no. 1) followed by even better ‘trial’ environment with the readers kind of people (good experience no. 2) where no doubt other networking and meeting benefits can also take place. So the brand experience is so far pretty spot on and relevant to the people who turn up. The buzz is good and real and nobody is pushing a creative marketing story that cannot be 100% relied on (like big budget drinks brands).
The result is absolutley first class product introduction; the memory is first rate because the experience all the way along is convivial, appropriate and not pushy.
Lets not forget either — that this has been handled by a proven and top class blogging act; how could it do anything but deliver ?
Rock on Stormhoek — Watch out big players whose “brands continue to dominate global sales. Intellectually and culturally, the result is boredom.” (quote courtesy of FT.com — whisky.co.uk/news/ft.html — excuse the plug)
James