March 5, 2007
cath and colin
Two of my favorite people, Catherine and Colin, in the Stormhoek London office today.
Hugh MacLeod
Hi, I'm Hugh.
My life is committed to drawing little illustrations that spread messages, inspire people, help businesses kick butt & support causes.
Gapingvoid is based upon the science of how these cartoons work.
If we can help you or your business, please email us here.
Prints |
Opening | Current |
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Archive for the ‘stormhoek’ Category
February 19, 2007
more thoughts on customer engagement
[The current favorite for our next Stormhoek cartoon label. Every person in the trade that I’ve shown it to has loved it. Very cool.]
After an extremely busy 2006, and an even busier 2007 [so far], I briefly harbored what now seems like an insane idea– that once I got back from my Stormhoek Road Trip, I would take some time off. You know, maybe go down to the South of France and visit Sigurd for a while, and just generally chill out by the pool or whatever.
No such luck. Looks like the next month is going to be a busy one. There’s SO MUCH left to do.
My new Stormhoek mantra is “Customer Engagement”. I’m in the wine business, and it seems to me that if I want to be able to afford rent next month, I need to figure out clever ways to ship wine cases. Stormhoek is an outstanding product, and we seem to have have good relationships with all the big supermarkets, which drive well over 60% of the UK wine trade. Where I see the opportunity to grow the business is in the intensity with which we engage with the average supermarket shopper. There’s many ways to skin this– everything from more road trips, sponsoring more blog dinner to yes, the label on the bottle. But at the end of the day, it all comes down to the ordinary Brit pushing a shopping trolley, and giving her what she wants. Everything else is secondary.
For all the fun and buzz of the road trip, what I personally got most from it was an amazing and deep first-hand experience of supermarkets. I sincerely believe that this will prove invaluable to me down the road.
February 14, 2007
colin editing
Colin editing a film in the hotel lounge. It’s been like this all month– a tremendous adventure, all done on the hoof, and yes, utterly exhausting.
There just the three of us on the road, doing what ordinarily would require five times that number. But the extremity of the circumstances is what gives the whole exercise its edge.
And edge is where the action is, these days…
February 8, 2007
vote for your favorite stormhoek label!!!!
We’ve added a wee voting machine on the Stormhoek blog.
We’re coming out with some new cartoon labels, so we’d like your feedback. Feel free to go vote for your favorite design. The cartoon with the most votes will end up as a new Stormhoek label, when we make our next production run. Very cool. Thanks!
January 30, 2007
commissioning gapingvoid cartoons
[A lithograph idea I currently have for Technorati.]
Over the last year, I’ve received DOZENS of commission requests to design people’s logos, business cards, illustrate their books etc etc. All of which I’ve pretty much turned down.
The main reasons for dragging my feet: I was busy. I wasn’t sure how much to charge. Should I charge a lot? A little? I could see it overwhelming me completely, at the expense of my other work. I never had any intention of becoming a professional illustrator. The business model does little for me.
Oh well, that is in the past. I am happy to announce I have talked to the folk at Stormhoek and we’ve come up with a solution.
If you fancy commissioning a gapingvoid drawing for your own use, I have developed a new business model that [A] works for me, [B] works for Stormhoek and [C] doesn’t cost you an arm and a leg.
Please e-mail me if you wish to know more. Thanks.
the stormhoek branding exercise
Over at Stormhoek, we’ve been messing around internally with what we call “Branding Exercises”. Basically, we’re trying to nail down in writing what the Stormhoek brand represents and stands for. It’s still very much a work in progress, but here are some initial, strictly non-definitive thoughts of mine. Anybody else have any ideas? Thanks.
1. We’re a small South African vineyard. We make the best South African wine for the money, end of story.
2. We believe in punching above our weight. In this regard, we’ve been pretty fortunate. We’re known for trying out relatively “out there” marketing ideas. We do that for a reason. When you are a small company in a relatively isolated part of the word, thousands of miles away from your main customer base, you frankly have no other choice.
3. We believe that even a small company like ours can change the world, even in a small way. Why shouldn’t a small wine company in South Africa see large international companies like Google and Microsoft as their competition? Why should the battle only be confined to other small South African vineyards? It makes no sense.
4. “It’s not what you do, it’s the way that you do it.” There’s more to life than wine. Sure, we love wine, we love making it, but it’s a big world out there. We try to make allies not just with other wine geeks, but with other interesting people trying to do amazing things. This is why we’re so drawn to the internet. That’s where passionate people invariably head for.
5. On one level, we take ourselves very seriously. On another level, we try to keep a sense of humor about it all. We try to “keep it real”, which is another way of saying, we try to keep it interesting, as much for ourselves as anyone else.
6. We believe the wine business can use a good kick in the pants. We certainly try to do our part. Burying oneself in the usual blanket of wine clichés to us is not a viable marketing strategy. With hundreds of thousands of vineyards out there, and only so many distribution channels available, you face two stark choices: Either rise above the clutter, or face a lifetime of misery and woe.
7. We live in extremely interesting times. The internet has changed everything. Our story is proof of that. Get with the program or reconcile yourself to entrepreneurial oblivion.
8. It’s just wine, People. Sure, we make excellent product. But let’s not get too carried away. At the end of the day, even the best Bordeaux is just fermented grape juice. What’s more interesting to us is the conversations people have over a bottle of wine. There’s a human element to all this we find utterly mysterious and fascinating.
9. You only live once, and not for very long. Try to make a difference while you’re here. It isn’t just about the money, and it sure as heck isn’t about making “a good product at a good price”. It’s about doing something that matters. It’s about doing something that resonates with both yourself and the people you care about.
10. We humans are incredible beings. Doing something that continually reminds us of this simple, basic truth is where the real fun is.
January 29, 2007
introducing: stormhoek valentine’s rosé
[The Stormhoek “Big Love” Valentine’s Rosé… with this gapingvoid cartoon as the main design. Click on image to enlarge etc.]
The good news is, the Stormhoek Valentine’s road trip seems to be coming together nicely. Looks like it’ll be an interesting time all round. Looks like there will be a lot of Rosé being drunk in February.
The bad news is, because of the tight schedule, I’ve had to cancel my appearance at LIFT in Geneva. I was hoping to be able to take a day off the road trip to sneak away to the conference, but with 35 stores to visit in 2 weeks, it simply wasn’t possible.
Dammit. I was looking forward to seeing Scoble et al again. But it’s the biggest two weeks in Stormhoek’s history, so you gotta do what you gotta do.
Yeah, I’m excited about the tour. But I’m more excited about the new cartoon label. That’ll shift far more cases of wine than any crazy-ass blogging cartoonist, stalking people in supermarkets with a microphone and video camera. Heh.
January 24, 2007
road trip dates confirmed
[Click on image to enlarge/download/print etc. Licensing terms here etc.]
My dates for my Stormhoek Valentine’s Roadtrip have been confirmed:
February 2nd: Inverness, Corstorphine [Edinburgh].
3rd: Newcastle, Durham, Tadcaster.
4th: Blackpool, Bidston Moss [Merseyside], Horwich, Warrington.
5th: Stockport [Manchester], Altrichham [Manchester], Redditch [Worcestershire], Cardiff [Wales].
6th: Yeovil [Somerset], Bournemouth.
7th: Purley, Gatwick, Chichester.
8th: Sandhurst, Bursledon, Cirencester.
9th: Reading, Newbury, Abingdon.
10th: Barr Hill, Royston, Watford.
11th: Aylesbury, Ipswitch.
12th: Cheshunt [Herts.], Colchester.
13th: Pitsea [Essex], Twickenham.
14th: Brooklands [Surrey], New Malden [Surrey].
[UPDATE: Tour Map is here.]
You can download a more detailed itinerary here: [Word Document].
Cut and paste the postcode in the Word doc into Google Maps or Mapquest to get super-precise directions. If any bloggers want to meet me in Tesco’s while I’m there, or maybe a drink in the evening, just phone me on my mobile on the day +44 (0) 770 309 9462.
We knocked down the final number of stores I’ll be visiting by about a third, sadly. In the end we decided we wanted to spend more than ten minutes in each store, so there was really nothing else to do.
If this goes well, there’s already talk of doing something similar in both Germany and the USA. The virus spreads.
January 22, 2007
monday report
[Click on image to enlarge/download/print etc. Licensing terms here etc.]
All my actions these days are centered around the Valentine’s Road Trip. 2 weeks driving up and down the country, visiting Tesco supermarkets, signing <a href=“Stormhoek lithographs. 50 individual stores in all. Ouch.
I don’t have the final schedule yet, but it’s roughly February 1st-14th. Pretty much the entire UK is being covered. Plymouth, Inverness, Bristol, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Manchester, Newcastle, Leeds, London… even looking at the list on paper leaves me feeling exhausted.
If it goes well, the potential payoff for Stormhoek is huge. Very nerve-wracking. But in a good way.
January 9, 2007
love reaches into far deeper places than trust ever could
As I’ve been mentioning for a while now, Stormhoek is launching a new series of cartoon wine labels, designed by myself.
We’re launching our first label at the end of this month, with a Valentine-related theme [the image above is not it, I’ll let y’all see it closer to the date etc]. It’ll be going into Tesco’s, the UK’s largest supermarket chain.
All very exciting. Two points:
1. Roadtrip
There will be a noteworthy promotion. Not being the type of folk to sit on our bottoms all day and wait for the results to magically happen elsewhere, we’re going on the road. Namely, I’m going on the road.
Think of it as a bit like a book tour. Except instead of visiting bookstores, I shall be visiting Tesco stores. And instead of signing books, I shall be signing this new commemorative edition of Stormhoek lithographs that I’m currently working on, to any shopper who wants one.
I am hoping to recruit Colin Kennedy of Get Your People fame to accompany me, as traveling companion, assistant, and the guy who holds the camera & mike during podcasts. We’re meeting next week or so to discuss.
We kick off the tour circa February 1st, and hope to visit 50 Tesco’s stores by Valentine’s Day. It’ll be busy, that’s for sure.
2. Love
We’re not just launching the new cartoon series around Valentine’s Day just for the usual holiday-promo reasons. Like I said earlier, in this brave new world of ours, LOVE is, or should be, at the center of marketing. My buddy, Tara Hunt once famously said that “Trust is the new currency”. A nice thought, but I disagree. Love is where it’s at. Love reaches into far deeper places than Trust ever could.
Of course, I don’t just mean romantic, sexual love. I mean human connection. “Agape”. If you don’t have that, like Saint Paul once said, you have nothing.
And why do people drink wine together? The same reason people write and read blogs. Connection. Human connection. That means “Love” on some level, whether you care to admit it or not.
Music may be food of love, but wine is the drink. Welcome to the heart of Stormhoek marketing.
We live in interesting times.
January 8, 2007
blue monster lithograph auction
Microsoft’s Steve Clayton has put 3 of the “Blue Monster” signed lithographs up for charity auction on e-Bay. All proceeds will go to Microsoft’s preferred charity, The NSPCC.
[The auction’s e-Bay link is here.] The record for a gapingvoid print on e-Bay is around $170 for one of the Techcrunch party prints from last August. It’ll be interesting to see what happens to this one etc.
Any MS employees or whoever reading this, please feel free to spread the word, Thanks.
January 2, 2007
stormhoek makes the national news [again]
Video Clip: Stormhoek makes the Channel 4 Lunchtime news.
A couple of weeks ago, I got a call from Channel 4 News, one of the big UK national TV news programs. They wanted me to come on the show and talk about the Thresher’s Virus, which was just ending in the run-up to Christmas.
Well, as I was out of town at the time, I couldn’t make it. But Jason over at Stormhoek went in my place. Within an hour a car picked him up at his office in London and drove him over to the TV studio.
It was interesting to watch. The interviewer wanted Jason to talk about whether this kind of viral was either a cynical marketing ploy or corporate screw-up. Jason wanted to talk about “The Power Of Web 2.0″ instead. So watch out for the little tug-of-war happening.
What’s interesting for me is the idea that you can start a blog in relative obscurity, and within 18 months you can be making the national news because of it.
Thanks to Mike Butcher for putting Channel 4 in touch with us.
December 29, 2006
blogging delivers five-fold increase in stormhoek sales in less than two years?
It’s been a busy year for Stormhoek.
December 29th, 2005 [one year ago exactly]: “Blogging Doubled Stormhoek Sales In Less Than Twelve Months.“
When I first started working with Stormhoek in May, 2005, they were tracking about 50,000 cases sold per year. By year’s end that figure had doubled to 100,000. Right now we’ve doubled again, to just over 200,000 cases a year. By Second Quarter 2007 we’re on schedule to be tracking around 250,000 cases shipped per year.
So that’s looking like a five-fold increase in sales in less than two years. And it wouldn’t have happened without the blogosphere, which is at the very epicenter of everything we do. Thanks, Everybody!
And on to 2006:
January 10th: “So what comes after The Cluetrain? Companies gladly and willingly allowing themselves to be actually changed by The Cluetrain. But don’t hold your breath.“
January 17th: Decanter Magazine picks up on the “Blogging Doubles Sales” story.
January 28th: An exec at one of our largest customers, a supermarket chain, refers to all this blogging stuff as “Chatroom Rubbish”. I believe he’s modified his opinions since then. Just a tad.
February 11th: Stormhoek launches the “100 Dinners” idea. Basically, we convince people to throw their own geek dinners all around the United States, and blog about it. Stormhoek supplied the wine. Though the story never really broke into the mainstream media [that would’ve been nice], it got a lot of attention within the US wine trade, which was very good for us.
February 26th: The Stormhoek blogging story makes it into The Daily Telegraph, one of the big national UK papers.
April 10th: I launch the gapingvoid widget, bandwidth sponsored by Stormhoek.
April 29: I announce the first Stormhoek cartoon labels, to be drawn by myself. You can see the results of my efforts here.
May 1st. The very first US Stormhoek Geek Dinner is held in San Antonio. I design my first set of limited edition prints for the occasion.
May 16th: Stormhoek gets a really nice write-up in wine.co.za, a very influential website in in the South African wine world.
May 17th: Stormhoek wins its first major trade award. The Drinks Business’ “Best Consumer Campaign 2006″.
June 5th: Spent the day in London, signing the first batch of Stormhoek “puppy” lithographs, which went on to become a very successful series.
June 27th: “The Stormhoek Guide to Wine Blogging”. This got printed up as wee booklets, as trade press inserts. I loved this project.
June 29th: Stormhoek has become “The Official Wine of Silicon Valley Alcoholics”, according to Valleywag.
July 7th: Jason and I make our first attempt at video podcasting, with a little help from Johnnie Moore and Lloyd Davis.
July 7th: Stormhoek makes a big appearance in Chicago.
July 19th: Stormhoek discovers “Ooze” aka “Objects of Sociability”.
July 25th. Rob Lane writes “The Stormhoek Song”.
August 5th: I publish my very first Stormhoek cartoon label.
August 10th: I sign my first batch of Techcrunch party lithographs.
August 15th: “It isn’t just about the marketing.” Stormhoek Pinotage wins a seriously major wine award.
August 18th: The lithographs make a huge splash at the big Techcrunch Party in Silicon Valley.
August 25th: Stormhoek is now available in SF and Silicon Valley.
August 31st: The Techcrunch prints start appearing on e-Bay. Prices start exceeding $175. Yowza.
September 27th: Stormhoek launches the “Siren” series, our more upmarket wine, conceived by crowdsourcing the blogosphere.
October 6th: Stormhoek Siren sponsors the Hallam Foe bloggers’ dinner. My favorite UK bloggers got see a rough cut of the movie and meet the director, my old pal, David Mackenzie.
October 18th: 1,000 lithographs were made for the Techcrunch UK launch party.
October 26th: Tom Raftery asks me all about Stormhoek, for the it@cork podcast.
October 30th: I create the “Blue Monster” design for Microsoft. This is probably my favorite Stormhoek project so far, especially as it seems to have gotten a lot of traction internally in Redmond.
November 17th: Stormhoek and myself make it on to AdAge.com’s “Marketing 50″. I know industry awards are usually a bit suspect, but this one meant the world to me.
November 24th: Stormhoek creates “The Thresher Virus”. Within a week it has made the national news.
December 13th: The Microsoft “Blue Monster” lithographs arrive. Microsoft’s Steve Clayton was well pleased.
[Update:] This post got a mention on Techmeme. Interesting…
December 27, 2006
stormhoek ad
Somehow I don’t think this will end up making the cut as one of the new Stormhoek labels [the first one is coming out late January 2007, by the way].
It could be the beginnings of a very rude ad campaign, though…
[Bonus Link:] Kathy Sierra [*sigh*] made a Scoble doll for his Christmas present. Scoble was delighted.
October 12, 2006
i got into the wine business
[Click on image to enlarge/download/print etc. Licensing terms here etc.]
