Global Vintners has unbottled a national PR campaign to encourage a new generation of do-it-yourself winemakers.
The aim is “to encourage people to try custom-made wine again,” says Cathy Cowan, president of Toronto-based boutique PR firm Cowan & Company, which created the campaign. “A lot of people tried it at one point and then kind of veered away from it. Part of it was to encourage do-it-yourself winemakers to try it again.”
St. Catharines, Ont.-based Global Vintners manufactures and distributes wine kits through a network of independent retailers in Canada, the U.S., the U.K. and other countries.
In the first phase of the campaign, Global Vintners partnered with TV personality and trend watcher Anna Wallner to be the face of the campaign. Wallner starred in a TV media tour in Toronto, Hamilton, Ottawa and Winnipeg over the holiday season in which she talked about stress-free and affordable ways to entertain with the use of custom-made wine.
In addition, three holiday entertaining-focused matte stories featuring Wallner were developed by Cowan & Company and distributed by branded content marketing company Fifth Story. They ended up being published in more than 200 print and online media outlets throughout the holiday season.
Cowan & Company also developed a retailer marketing tool kit to help Global Vintner’s retailers across Canada with media relations. It included template articles for community newspapers and how-to media pitches.
The second phase of the campaign, now underway, is focusing on soon-to-be brides who are now planning summer weddings as part of a digital partnership with Weddingbells.ca. It seeks to get newer and younger consumers to try do-it-yourself wine, Cowan says.
Weddingbells.ca published two custom branded stories that show how custom-made wine and personalized labels can be used in weddings. The articles are being supported with Facebook posts, tweets and integration in two newsletters.
“It’s a great, affordable and fun option for brides planning weddings,” Cowan says of custom-made wine. Personalized labels, meanwhile, can make for ideal photo-ops for Pinterest and Instagram users, she says.
The Weddingbells.ca campaign runs until the end of February
As part of the program, Global Vintners has also launched the bride-focused website myweddingwine.ca.
The campaign has so far had an audience reach of more than 13 million “which is fantastic,” while the custom content on Weddingbells.ca is showing higher than average reading time. “It shows that it’s a great interest for that younger market that we’re trying to attract,” Cowan says.
Cowan & Company is currently planning a next phase for the campaign.
