The Blog

As Fairtrade Fortnight 2010 drew to a close earlier this month, the Fairtrade Foundation hailed this year’s push a resounding success. But why should UK consumers be choosing Fairtrade wine?

The Australian wine industry has come in for some pretty stern criticism in the last 12 months both from within the trade and indeed indirectly from those consumers who have drifted to pastures new. But is it deserved and what can be done to re-build its position as the world’s leading wine producing country?

If you haven’t yet seen it, I’d recommend reading Jane Parkinson’s interview of Dan Jago in the October 2009 issue of The Drinks Business - http://bit.ly/2gQtNe The interview gives a very insightful take on the state of the UK wine industry - not an easy one to accept, but one that can’t be ignored. Firstly, the 80/20 situation – and I quote Dan directly;

We’re always keen to explore how best to use digital media to communicate our clients' wines. This was the driving force behind not only this experiment, but also the recent Drinks and Digital Media Summit (see blog post below). Our task was to make good use of Marcelo Papa, Casillero del Diablo’s winemaker, during his recent visit to the UK. So, in addition to putting him in front of key press and other opinion formers, we came up with the live web vid/twitter food and wine matching cook-off - #casillero on twitter, and for short.

OK, so the bottom line is ‘Did the DDM Summit provide any answers?’ The answer is yes and no. It answered some of the smaller questions, and uncluttered our minds, but it certainly left a lot hanging in the air. And I would suggest that is exactly as it should be. The aim of the Summit was to explore and enthuse, to spark interest and encourage participation. It is now up to all those of us who want to use digital media for drinks communications to push things forward. And since this is such a new medium for all of us, we will make better progress if we work together.

Today's the day we make our lastest drink and digital media project come to life. It’s an absolute corker and we want you to get involved – so put a fine line through your diary between 12.50-1.20pm and then from 7-8pm.

As we gear up for the first Drinks and Digital Media Summit tomorrow, here's a quick video from Rob touching on some of the questions we hope to cover.

WHAT DOES DIGITAL MEDIA MEAN TO YOUR COMPANY? Digital media is an area that Bibendum has invested a lot of time and energy into and we have found it to be a very welcome addition to the marketing mix. Our blog is well read and regarded and the great thing is that the tone and personality of our brand has been well suited to online communication methods. DOES DIGITAL MEDIA CHANGE THE RULES, OR IS IT JUST MORE OF THE SAME?

By way of an intro into the subject area covered by the Drinks and Digital Media Summit taking place next week, we thought it would good to answer a few teaser questions. Here goes from me then… WHAT DOES DIGITAL MEDIA MEAN TO YOUR COMPANY? It (they, really, but let’s call them it) is a great opportunity, and we are working really hard to fully understand how it can to harnessed to work for our clients – in terms of awareness, feedback and sales.

There have been a lot of opinions flying around recently about the validity of wine competitions. Surely it all depends on who you are trying to influence?