DWCC 2015 call to action: start talking to consumers

By Jennifer Blanck

Published: 03 November, 2015

The annual Digital Wine Communications Conference held last month issued a call to action to the wine trade- stop talking to yourself and start talking to consumers.

Held in Plovdiv, Bulgaria this year, the 8th annual DWCC welcomed wine journalists and bloggers, wine producers, importers, and other trade professionals. Speakers emphasized the need for a greater connection with consumers and the lack of branding in the sector.

In his keynote, Ted Popov of Accolade Wines said the industry needs to make wine more approachable to consumers and highlighted steps Accolade is taking to engage them. He also shared details of the successful Echo Falls Fruit Fusion launch and discussed how it brings new people into the wine category.

Reka Haros of Sfriso Winery shared that the top 100 most valuable brands in the world today are worth $3.3 trillion. She noted that wine isn't represented in that list, but beer and spirits are. Along with other speakers, Haros called for the wine industry to help make people more comfortable with wine, highlighting the trade's tendency to present wine as something mystical and special. She said: "The name of the game is relevance. We need to be relevant to consumers."

Discussions also focused on the need to get people into the wine category, producing more comparisons to the current success of the beer and spirits industries, and the need for integrated communications strategies. Dr. Damien Wilson of Sonoma State University said, "The wine trade is too self-promotional via social media. We need to create value." He challenged the blogger community to see how its influence can be used in the distribution channel.

Martin Wiederkehr of La Cave de Genève said: "The wine business is too emotionally driven in its measurements." He called for more of a statistical approach. Along with other speakers, he advocated increased marketing budgets and predicted "marketing and communications will be more and more important in the future."

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