Putting Click Bait, 100 Points and Wine Critics to Good Use

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PR copyI can’t give a good rendering of the history of public relations in the wine industry. All I know is that for the past 30 years at least, there have been people and agencies largely dedicated to providing public and media relations services specifically for the wine industry. The fact that there were and are people and agencies dedicated to the task of telling wineries’ stories to the media and others doesn’t make wine different from other industries where PR is concerned. However, there is a body of knowledge which guides all publicists, regardless of industry, as well as there being a body of knowledge that guides wine publicists specifically. The intersection of these two bodies is what Julie Ann and I had in mind to explore here at SWIG.

Whether or not our posts and articles gain attention among that relatively small audience at which we are aiming will depend on a variety of things. Are we offering the kind of unique, interesting and actionable information you will want to here at SWIG? Will we discuss ratings and the 100 Point rating scale frequently enough? Will we investigate things like wine critics, Natural Wine, wine bloggers, counterfeiters, Robert Parker, gender issues, Top-10 lists, Napa Valley’s more pretentious oddities or other examples of rich, hearty click-bait?

At the very least, we can assure you that SWIG will be the place to go if you are interested in the those ideas, practices, tricks and knowledge base that are unique to wine public and media relations. We’ll take advantage of those unique “teaching moments” that seem to arrive in abundance from within and from outside the wine industry, particularly in the realm of appropriate and successful communications. If all goes well, we’ll be providing useful, well-read information that goes well beyond, “The Top Ten Napa Valley Wine Critics who read Robert Parker, but don’t read Wine Bloggers who write at length about gender Issues in the Wine Industry and how they impact the perception of natural wine.”

So with that explanation, I want to start off by offering for your contemplation The Number One Golden Truth of Wine Public and Media Relations: IF YOU ARE GOING TO COMMUNICATE TO THE PUBLIC, THE MEDIA, TO CUSTOMERS OR ANYONE ELSE YOU MUST ALWAYS TELL THE TRUTH.

There’s more to the practice of wine PR and media relations than that. But this is where it begins.

 

10 Ways to Use A Good Wine Review

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95pointsIt’s not the easiest thing, nor the least expensive thing, to have our wine reviewed positively by an authoritative wine critic or wine-related publication. So when it happens, it’s important for the producer and vendors of the wine to take full advantage of occasion; to extend the life and utility of the positive review.

But first, ignore anyone who tells you that the reviews published by wine critics are a useless, waning in marketing value, ignored by any particular generation of wine drinkers or meaningless. The difference between the impact of a rating and review of a wine by someone touting it on Twitter and a critic touting it in, say, Wine & Spirits Magazine is exponential: one is exposing your wine to probably 1000 people at most, some of whom may like wine and some of whom may have no interest in the tweeter’s opinion, while the other is exposing your wine to a highly engaged audience of tens of thousands of wine lovers who have already indicated they trust the opinion of the magazine by actually paying money to read it. Continue Reading →

Click Bait or What Winemakers Won’t Tell You

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CLICK BAIT

There’s ‘click bait’ and then there’s serious journalism. There’s been a fair amount of wine country water cooler discussion of an article on The Wall Street Journal’s Market Watch which appeared August 3, titled 10 Things Winemakers Won’t Tell You. Take a read: it’s instructive and may even get your heart racing: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/10-things-winemakers-wont-tell-you-2014-07-31

As of August 12, it’s attracted 110 comments online. Let’s deconstruct it wearing publicist goggles:

1)      The writer has selected controversial aspects and elements

2)      The writer has enriched each of the 10 “Things” with supporting statistics and quotes

3)      It’s easy to be negative and stay negative—that’s always more interesting than ‘platitudes’ about how wine might enhance meals or moments with family and friends.

Good news isn’t news—that might be another way to digest this article. You’re being taken advantage of! It isn’t what it seems. You’re paying too much. Wine is bad for you. Wine has terrible and unhealthy components….right?

In reality, although this seems to be an article about wine, it may really be a discussion about  marketing, with its numerous implications of how the public is easily fooled about wine. Wouldn’t we all love to sit down with this writer and taste the wines we’ve made and tell her their stories—notwithstanding the isinglass or Mega Purple….?!

Anybody home?

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ANYBODY HOME?

One of the biggest problems in our hyper-uber-over-connected world today is….getting connected. Making it easy and even ‘idiot’-proof for a journalist to find the publicist. How important is that, right? When a writer is on a deadline and urgently needs that last question answered or to find a photo to use: that’s what publicists live for—-being there when the writer needs you!

I surveyed a large number of winery websites and was truly surprised at how hard many wineries make it. There’s the ubiquitous one-email box option on a Contact page. It’s rare to find a winery where functions are differentiated and it’s crystal-clear how to find

  • Winery Tours & Tastings
  • PR & Marketing
  • National Sales/Trade
  • Wine Club
  • Special Events
  • Donations

What an easy fix. What a no-brainer way to insure that the channels are all open and flow smoothly. What a way to make sure that your door is always open to the media. Is your winery’s ‘door’ open?

 

A Publicist’s Guide to the Difference Between Wine Writers and Wine Blogger

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WinebloggerWineWriterThe recently completed 7th Annual Wine Bloggers Conference in Santa Barbara brought together wine bloggers from across the country. By all accounts, it was a rousing success. How do you know it was a success? Wine Publicists were there.

You can count on wine publicists showing up where the ink is. That’s a guarantee. But you can also bet that it hasn’t been lost on a single wine publicists both at the Conference and not at the conference that it was a “wine bloggers” conference and not a “wine writers” conference. This begs the question, what’s the difference?

So you don’t have to wait until the end of this post, let me proved the answer now: nothing.

If that’s satisfying enough, you can move along. But if you want to know why no wine publicists sees any difference between a wine blogger and a wine writer, stick around a little.

Here’s the bottom line: publicists are in the business of helping their clients tell their story, of finding media outlets that will communicate the uniqueness and their client’s brand and products, of seeking ways to tell a wider audience why their client is worth their time and consideration. We don’t care about the media outlet’s disposition: blogger or writer…it doesn’t matter. What matters is the the size, demographics and interests of their audience.

• A media outlet that serves 1,000,000 readers matters.A media outlet that serves

• 500,000 fifty-year old men with

A media outlet that serves 100,000 fifty year-old, wine drinking men will matter most

(Before we get into a sexism discussion, read who buys wine costing $50 or more)

Some wine bloggers have mused in a disappointed fashion that they and their peers don’t get the same attention as other writers; that the wine industry is missing the boat by not catering to the very enthusiast wine blogger community. The industry and publicists have nothing against wine bloggers. The problem is that very few of them have much of an audience to speak of size wise. It’s true that their audience happens to be very enthusiastic. Still, the publicist, having only so much time, will weigh the ROTI (Return on Time Invested) against the potential result. Do they pitch a writer at a 40,000 circulation daily or do they pitch the wine blogger with a much more wine centric audience of 500 readers per month?

Here’s the point. There is no Old Media. There is no New Media. There is only Media. And some of it offers a better return on the publicists (or winery’s) investment in time).