Wine marketing goes social media route

“There is a fragmented approach to wine tourism and we believe that a total solution, creating a single point of entry where visitors can discover and explore the true beauty and wide range of facilities, events and activities on offer, would solve the long overdue problem and enable an entire wine region to position itself as destination of choice,” explains Henre Rossouw, social media strategist at Media in Africa.

“The SA Winelands still only gets a fraction of the international wine tourism market and most related web portals focus on single value propositions like wine, travel, accommodation or weddings. By understanding the fundamentals of Web 2.0 and providing a means for web visitors to create their own virtual experience with wine as focal point, we want to put the brand back into their hands to guide us onto the future of the portal.

“Classic examples of social media marketing such as the success story of Stormhoek wines and the recent online networking article on Business Day featuring Perdeberg Wines serves as proof that the wine industry's marketing tactics [are changing] to represent a more trendy and community-oriented approach,” comments Rossouw.

Harnessing the popularity

To publicise www.winecountry.co.za, harnessing the popularity of social networking sites such as Facebook, Youtube and Flickr was an obvious route for establishing an online footprint among wine lovers across the world.

A Facebook fan page was created and, through constant communications and interactive elements such as quizzes and competitions, the page forms an integral part of the viral strategy.

With thousands of images of the Paarl Wine Region as a unique selling point and RSS functionality to distribute and position these images to various locations, a strong visual experience has been created on image-sharing site Flickr.

“However, in terms of keeping an audience engaged, the benchmark has been raised considerably and it is imperative that we keep producing innovative elements to satisfy their needs,” says Rossouw.

One such element is the WineCountry blog. A persona has been created in the form of Plonk, an aspiring but ill-informed wine connoisseur whose venture into the world of wine and associated events will provide guests with first hand commentary on his experiences.

“The strategy behind creating the Plonk was to be able to associate with the majority of wine lovers across the world that share his passion for wine and to serve content that would encourage them to participate in an informal and conversational manner.”

Second phase of implementation

The second phase of implementation will greatly hinge on input from users. “Video especially is gaining huge popularity and during phase two we'll be looking at interactive ways in which we can use this technology and reward our guests for their contributions,” concludes Rossouw.