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At 12 Noon EDT (9 AM PDT, 5PM UK) Paul Mabray joins us to discuss a report that has made a big splash. You can download their 80-page PDF free.
Vintank’s presse release says:
When we first decided to publish this report, we had no real idea what a task this would be. Couple that with a brand new business and all the associated challenges, the interactivity with all the organizations, the legal reviews, and just doing our day jobs, we found that completing this report was more than we originally anticipated. Just as difficult is the speed of which things change – as fast as we’d review, there would be new changes (Facebook fan pages), new features, new companies and new ways to measure. This paper is by no means the ultimate answer in wine social media nor does it cover every possible strategy or tactic. However, we hope it offers one of the first real sign posts for our industry to begin to look at traveling down the road of wine social media. We hope it sparks ideas, conversations, and success for wine companies on the Internet.
We discuss Paul’s hair, but also online affinities, influencers, Gary Vaynerchuck the phenomenon and some of the strategies Vintank thinks are winning over consumers. Also chiming in, Hardy from DirtySouthWines, @jfouts, @daveac and many more names I’ll insert tomorrow as I am late for dinner!
#1 by Todd Havens - May 26th, 2009 at 20:07
Real quick support here for Paul’s comment about why they’re focusing almost exclusively on the iPhone. It’s true that the iPhone doesn’t have tremendous market saturation as of yet, but it does account for something close to 50% of all mobile browsing.
The company I work with, The Visionaire Group, has found that it’s important to have both an iPhone app AND an iPhone-geared mobile site since it’s easy to get lost in the App Store and a brand wants to be accessible for all that mobile browsing traffic as well.
Looking at a winery’s iPhone App itself, for example, of course one of the most relevant factors in its design should be adding value to a user’s experience…much like Paul’s example. You’re not just hawking wine, you start with value in mind for the consumer and go from there.
#2 by J. M. Berry - June 6th, 2009 at 07:46
I would love an iPhone. It is the future of all phones. ATT, on the other hand, does not get reception where I live, smack dab in the middle of Sonoma Valley and couple that with the atrocious customer service and I will get one when Verizon offers one. The sad truth is that I may need to get one just for the mobile apps.. a quandary for sure.
#3 by randulo - June 6th, 2009 at 11:48
My approach will be to get an iPod Touch for the apps. That way it’s a useful device in many ways. I have no need for a mediocre cellphone locked to a carrier.