ONLINE WINE MARKETING & PR
How internet is re-shaping wine marketing and PR
Version 1.0
An eBook by VinoPR

SUMMARY
(4) A changing world
(6) Some data
(7) How internet re-shaped wine marketing and PR
(8) A brief guide on Social Media
(9) Tools
(10) Blogs
(11) Stormhoek’s blog
(12) Microblogs
(13) Vinography and Twitter
(14) Social networks
(15) Sacre Bleu Wine and Facebook
(16) Photo and Video sharing
(17) Casa Vinicola Zonin and Photo Sharing
(18) Wine Library TV and Video Sharing
(19) Podcasts
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SUMMARY
(20) Grape Radio Podcast
(21) Social Media Press Release
(22) The Social Media press release template
(23) A few examples of wineries using Social Media
(26) 5 REASONS WHY A WINERY SHOULD USE SOCIAL MEDIA
(27) Additional resources on Social Media
(31) VinoPR – Who we are
(33) The author - Fabio Ingrosso
(34) The translator – Alessandro Soldi
(35) Creative Commons Copyright
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re-shaping wine marketing and PR | By VinoPR 3

A CHANGING WORLD
• The economy is global
• New communication spaces have appeared: SOCIAL MEDIA (blogs, microblogs,
social networks, wikis, podcasts, …)
• A new type of consumer has appeared: the user/consumer (prosumer)
• Social media are empowering the consumer, giving him the opportunity to create
information and contents, and to spread opinions on products and brands
• Consumers have become extremely critical and active. Therefore they cannot be
addressed anymore with the traditional tools of communication (advertising, ...)
• Consumers look for information themselves, according to their interests. Consumers
connect, share and converse
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Imagine a group of people on
the street, talking about your
product. What would you do?
On the internet millions of
people connect. And they also
talk about your product. Are you
there?
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SOME DATA
The numbers of the internet:
. more than 133 MILLION BLOGS are indexed on
Technorati, the most famous blogs search engine (1)
. in 2008 about 560 MILLION PEOPLE worldwide watched
online videos, mainly on YouTube (2)
. more than 200 MILLION USERS use Facebook (3)
(1) http://technorati.com/blogging/state-of-the-blogosphere
(2) http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?id=1006805
(3) http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics
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How the internet changed marketing and PR
• Millions of consumers use the web to get information before a purchase.
• On the internet people participate, collaborate, share pictures and videos, create
contents. People are active.
• In this new context old marketing and PR rules (print, radio and TV advertising;
telemarketing; direct mailing; press releases, ...) don’t suffice.
• Within an extremely interconnected world new rules and tools are being developed:
blogs, wikis, podcasts, RSS, SEO, SEM, online viral videos, pictures sharing, …
• If you want to purchase something, the first thing you do is
google the product you’re after. Then you browse through
websites, forums and blogs to get a better idea of the offer. How
do companies meet the new needs of their customers?
SOLUTION: SOCIAL MEDIA
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A BRIEF GUIDE TO SOCIAL MEDIA
Applications, platforms and media that facilitate interaction, collaboration and sharing of contents.
Main features:
• PARTICIPATION
Social media encourage contribution and feedbacks
• OVERTURE
Social media encourage comments and information sharing
• CONVERSATION
The old communication model is mono-directional (contents are pushed to a passive audience).
Social media represent a multi-directional universe
• COMMUNITY
Social media facilitate the creation of communities of people who share an interest (wine lovers, …)
• RELATIONS
Social media link to other websites, resources and people
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shaping wine marketing and PR | By VinoPR 8

TOOLS
social media
video press release
sharing
social microblogging
photo networks
sharing
podcasting
blogs
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shaping wine marketing and PR | By VinoPR 9

A BLOG is an online journal,
containing posts that are
ordered chronologically.
Readers can interact:
commenting and giving a
feedback.
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STORMHOEK
Stormhoek is a South African
winery. In 2005 it started a blog
marketing campaign addressed to
British bloggers, sending them
bottles of their best production of
wine to taste and evaluate.
In about a year Stormhoek doubled
its sales in Britain and its brand
was strategically spread in blogs,
image sharing websites and social
media.
Since 2005 Stormhoek’s value has
increased from 1 to 10 million
dollars.
www.stormhoek.co.za
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A MICROBLOG is a type of blog
that allows users to publish short
messages. It is very useful to
start and maintain peer to peer
communication.
The most widely spread
microblogging service is Twitter.
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VINOGRAPHY
Vinography is one of the most followed wine
blogs in the world. It has recently opened a
Twitter account, entering the world of
microblogging.
Vinography communicates with short messages
to the contacts created: reviewing, tasting and
writing about wine.
Twitter is an appendix to the blog. The number
of wineries using this tool is currently in the
hundreds and they converse with the other users
of social media exchanging links, suggestions,
opinions, signaling events, ...
Microblogging is already widely used for
commercial reasons in many sectors and is a
useful platform to launch and promote new
products and offers.
http://twitter.com/vinography
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A SOCIAL NETWORK is a
platform that allows its users to
build and publish personal web
pages, connecting with friends
and sharing contents. The
largest social networks are
Facebook and MySpace.
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SACRE BLEU WINE
Sacre Bleu published a page on
Facebook that is contributing to the
creation of a network of hundreds of
people.
In the page the winery publishes pictures
and videos promoting its brand and its
products, posts links, and invites its
contacts to exclusive events.
Sacre Bleu’s communication activity is
mostly aimed at the millenial generation
(people born between 1980 and 1990). It
is very present and active on Facebook,
and it has a blog and accounts with
MySpace, Twitter and Youtube.
http://it-it.facebook.com/pages/Sacre-Bleu-
Wine/28719111490
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PHOTO & VIDEO SHARING are
services that allow users to
organize galleries of pictures and
videos, making them available to
friends and other internet users.
The most used services are Flickr
for photos and Youtube for
videos.
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CASA VINICOLA ZONIN
Casa Vinicola Zonin opened a Flickr
account and uploaded hundreds of
pictures of its wineries in Italy and in the
rest of the world.
The pictures are categorized by location
in several galleries. Each picture is
connected to one or more tags (key
words), and to a map showing its
geographical location.
Casa Vinicola Zonin used Flickr to enter
the world of photosharing and to start
conversations and relations with
thousands of passionate photographers.
During harvest season in 2008 Casa
Vinicola Zonin conducted some free
showings of its wineries to whoever
wanted to take pictures of them.
http://www.flickr.com/ photos/zonin
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WINE LIBRARY TV
“The ways a person can communicate have
exploded [...] Now you've got tens of
thousands following on Twitter, blogs read by
hundreds of thousands of people, texting,
StumbledUpon, Pownce, Jaiku, video blog
sites [...] If a million friends like what you do,
they're going to absolutely build your brand or
your business to a totally different degree than
what has ever been done before” - Gary
Vaynerchuk.
http://www.fastcompany.com/articles/2008/09/i
nterview-gary-vaynerchuk.html
Wine Library TV is on of the best examples of
how to use online videos in the wine industry,
with videos published and shared on Viddler
counting thousands of daily visitors. At the
moment there are about 600 videos, receiving
80 thousand visits a day. Wine Library TV’s
wine selling business has increased from 4 to
50 million dollars.
http://tv.winelibrary.com Wine Marketing & PR Online. How internet is
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A PODCAST is an audio or
video file available by
subscription through services
like Apple iTunes.
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GRAPE RADIO
GrapeRadio is a website offering wine
related podcasts. Every episode
contains: news, events, and interviews
with the main actors of the wine sector.
It was voted “Top Podcast of 2006” at
the 2006 Portable Media Expo. In 2008
it won the American Wine Blog Award
as best wine online video resource and
the James Beard Foundation Award
for its best practice in journalism.
Its podcasts are available on the
website or through iTunes.
http://www.graperadio.com
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The SOCIAL MEDIA PRESS
RELEASE is the new media
evolution of the traditional press
release. The SMPR adopts all
the communications tools of the
web 2.0 (1).
(1) http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0
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The Social Media Press Release Template
The Social Media Press Release is an evolved
approach to preparing press releases
characterized by a multimedia and facts-oriented
approach. The typical social media press release
integrates video clips, bookmarks, citations, blog
posts, multiple links and resources allowing the
news editor to pick and select individual info
items that may best serve his interest, editorial
style and audience.
“The SMPR is simply a way to both Web-ify the
content that you put in a news release, and also,
ideally to socialize it. So it’s about adding
multimedia, making sure these things are more
findable than they’ve ever been before in the age
of Google, but also giving some community and
context aspects to it as well. Letting people
potentially comment on the news, or take and
remix aspects of the news and put it on their own
blog…and discuss it and find it among their own
http://www.masternewmedia.org/news/2008/05/31/the_soc friends.”
ial_media_press_release.htm
The above image is the template for the Social Media Press Release
by Todd Defren (Shift Communications) To download a pdf version
click: http://www.shiftcomm.com/downloads/smr_v1.5.pdf
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A FEW EXAMPLES OF WINERIES USING SOCIAL
MEDIA
• Cantina di Castelnuovo del Garda
- Blog: http://www.cantinacastelnuovo.com
• Casa Vinicola Zonin
- Blog: http://www.wineislove.it
- Twitter: http://twitter.com/francescozonin
- Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zonin
- Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Casa-Vinicola-Zonin/26336907198
• Poggioargentiera
- Blog: http://poggioargentiera.com
- Twitter: http://twitter.com/pagliag
- Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/poggioargentiera
- Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/gianpaolopaglia
• Tenuta di San Leonardo
- Blog: http://blog.sanleonardo.it
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A FEW EXAMPLES OF WINERIES USING SOCIAL
MEDIA
• Villa Petriolo
- Blog: http://www.divinando.blogspot.com
- Youtube: http://it.youtube.com/user/Villapetriolo08
• Casavides
- Blog: http://casavides.com
- Twitter: http://twitter.com/casavides
- Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/casavides
- Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/casavides
• Crushpad
- Blog: http://www.crushpadwine.com/blog
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/crushpad
- Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/63801170@N00
- Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/crushpadvideo
- iTunes:
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=260134729
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A FEW EXAMPLES OF WINERIES USING SOCIAL
MEDIA
• Stormhoek
- Blog: http://www.stormhoek.co.za
- Twitter: http://twitter.com/Stormhoek
- Facebook: http://en-gb.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2388408693
• Tablas Creek
- Blog: http://tablascreek.typepad.com
• Twisted Oak Winery
- Blog: http://www.elbloggotorcido.com
- Twitter: http://twitter.com/eljefetwisted
• Vinexpo
- Blog: http://blog.vinexpo.com/en (it isnt’t properly a blog, but it shows a
commitment to a future use of social media)
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5 REASONS WHY A WINERY SHOULD USE
SOCIAL MEDIA
1. Listen: obtain key information on the market and on consumers
2. Stimulate: start a dialogue about your brand (viral, word of mouth, …)
3. Support: allow your customers to access all the relevant information about your
brand and your products
4. Identity: build your presence on the web (In Italy 10.2 million people use the
internet, 8 million read blogs and 5.6 post comments. Moreover, there are 3.4
million bloggers and 1.2 million of them post their opinions on brands and
products(1)).
5. Bypass traditional media: build messages that reach the consumer without filters.
(1) Data from the Universal MaCann – Wave 3 research dated March 2008 care of AdMaiora S.p.A.
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ADDITIONAL RESOURCES ON SOCIAL MEDIA
• Blogging Platforms
- Blogger: https://www.blogger.com/start
- Typepad: http://www.typepad.com
- Wordpress: http://wordpress.org
• Microblogging Services
- Jaiku: http://www.jaiku.com
- Twitter: http://twitter.com
• Social Networks
- Facebook: http://it-it.facebook.com
- MySpace: http://www.myspace.com
- Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com
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ADDITIONAL RESOURCES ON SOCIAL MEDIA
• Wine related Social Networks
- Adegga: http://www.adegga.com
- AmericanWinery: http://www.americanwinery.com
- Bottlenotes: http://www.bottlenotes.com
- Bottletalk: http://www.bottletalk.com
- Calwineries: http://www.calwineries.com
- CellarTracker: http://www.cellartracker.com/intro.asp
- Cork’d: http://corkd.com
- Guru Del Vino: http://www.gurudelvino.com
- Must Love Wine: http://www.mustlovewine.com/home.php
- OpenBottles: http://www.openbottles.com
- Open Wine Consortium: http://www.openwineconsortium.org
- Snooth: http://www.snooth.com
- Vinorati: http://www.vinorati.com
- WineLog: http://www.winelog.net
- Vinivino: http://www.vinivino.com
- Vinix: http://www.vinix.it
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ADDITIONAL RESOURCES ON SOCIAL MEDIA
• Photo sharing Services
- Flickr: http://www.flickr.com
- Fotki: http://www.fotki.com
- PBase: http://www.pbase.com
- Picasa: http://picasa.google.com
- Photobucket: http://photobucket.com
• Video sharing Services
- Youtube: http://photobucket.com
- Blip.tv: http://blip.tv
- DailyMotion: http://www.dailymotion.com
- Google Video: http://video.google.com
- Jump Cut: http://jumpcut.com
- Revver: http://revver.com
- Vimeo: http://www.vimeo.com
- Viddler: http://www.viddler.com
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Do you want to get 35
suggestions to start your
experience with social media?
And do you want to have access
to the 10 secrets of the web 2.0
gurus?
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VinoPR – Who we are
We put wineries in touch with
consumers. Through the internet.
We are an online communications and marketing agency specializing in wine. We use all the social
media tools to initiate contacts and relations between wineries and consumers: blogs, microblogs, social
networks, photo sharing, video sharing, podcasts, social media press release, …
In our website, www.vinopr.it, you will be able to follow our updates and read our posts on wine
communications and marketing, available in english.
Follow us also via Twitter @Vino_PR
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Did you know that there are 10
ways to monitor your
competitors online? And that you
can increase the readers of your
news feed following...
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The Author – FABIO INGROSSO
Hi, my name is Fabio Ingrosso, I am responsible for the first wine blog
networks in Italy: Vino24 (http://vino24.tv) e VinoGlocal
(http://www.vinoglocal.it). As a blogger and content manager I wrote on
Donna Moderna, one of the most important italian women magazine,
and on Blogo, the first italian nanopublishing network of information.
In June 2008 I created VinoPR with a partner. We use new marketing and communications internet tools to
establish and maintain conversations around wine brands, managing online content, building communities,
monitoring the competitors and starting online marketing operations.
Feel free to contact me at info@vinopr.it or drop me a line on the following number: +39 349.148.7212.
You can also follow my Twitter updates here http://twitter.com/fabioingrosso or my Friendfeed account here
http://friendfeed.com/fabioingrosso. Be my friend also on Linkedin http://www.linkedin.com/in/fabioingrosso for
professional relations.
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The Translator – ALESSANDRO SOLDI
Hi, my name is Alessandro Soldi, I am a junior consultant at
an international PR firm. My web expertise covers online PR,
community building and web ecology.
I launched my blog about Corporate Social Responsibility (http://fairadvantage.blogspot.com) in
February 2009 and I am part of the United Nations online volunteer program. I firmly believe social
media offer incredible opportunities to establish and conduct a profitable dialogue between companies
and their stakeholders.
Feel free to contact me at @alessandrosoldi on Twitter or connect with me on Linkedin
http://www.linkedin.com/in/asoldi
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Creative commons copyright
The ebook Wine Marketing & PR Online, How internet is re-
shaping wine marketing and PR, is licensed under a Creative
Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. For more information
click here:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
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