Social Marketing Insight

September, 2007

Social Marketing is quickly becoming the leading edge of Direct Marketing today. We thought you’d be interested in this case study about an up-and-coming winemaker in South Africa who has built an extremely effective marketing strategy around Social Marketing.

Stormhoek Winery is forecasting sales of an astounding 350,000 cases of wine this year internationally — up from 10,000 sold locally last year — and this increase is solidly due to the success of owner Graham Knox’s social marketing campaign. This article states that “Knox — a former advertising whiz — knew he wouldn’t sell wine in an already saturated market by putting pictures of the product on billboards or in magazines. ‘Wine is social, people like to talk about wine, so we needed to figure out how to get people talking,’ he says. ‘Since ancient times word of mouth has been the most powerful means of communication.’ “

So what was Knox’s strategy? He enlisted the help of Hugh McLeod (aka the most influential blogger in Britain), and used social marketing to build awareness. Here’s how he did it: “In between designing quirky cartoon-style labels for Sauvignon Blanc and Shiraz, McLeod began blogging about Stormhoek, realising how easy it could be to create a buzz in cyberspace, which would then translate into profit. He offered a free bottle of wine with a personalised label to the first 100 people in the UK, France and Ireland who would include Stormhoek in their blogs.” Brilliant! Simultaneously, the winery started sponsoring “geek dinners, providing free wine in the hope that people would go home and write about it. They did. The idea spread like a virus and soon Stormhoek was the drink of choice among the smartest, most tech-savvy crowd in the UK.”

Social Marketing is here to stay. By creating a buzz around our products and services, we can enlist the power of our most loyal customers to more effectively sell them. It’s an idea whose time has come and we predict that those who embrace it quickly have the opportunity to reap some great rewards. Consider Knox’s answer to the question, ‘Is this the future of marketing?’ ‘Absolutely,’ he said. ‘It’s interactive, it’s inexpensive and it has a more potential reach than anything else.’

RRW has written several posts in our Direct Marketing Blog on this topic. They may spark some good ideas.

Targeting Essential To Viral Marketing
Social Media: Will it Replace E-mail?
Why do you blog?
Making Social Marketing Mobile
Using Web 2.0 to Expand Reach
Using Mobile Marketing for Social Networking
Social Shopping: The Next In Thing

We welcome the opportunity to chat with you about your marketing strategy. Just call us at (503) 206-5255, or visit our website.