Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/81015
MANAGEMENT UNCORKING PR Develop a Nose eep in your heart of hearts, I know you believe that if wine writers and bloggers knew more about your wine, winery or region, they would write more about you. So you devise a plan to reach out to the media, to stay in contact with them, and to give them reasons to write about you. All well and good. But as with most things in life, the devil is in the details, and prob- lems begin to arise when win- eries start thinking about what news they have to share. It can get pretty quiet around a confer- ence table when that topic of dis- cussion comes up at a winery. Yet the marketing team has already decided that it is important to send out a press release a month, even if there is no news worthy of a release. More spam is born. I am sure that spamming is not the goal of many winery PR cam- paigns, and yet it can be the result – because wineries often don't have a good idea of when they should talk, and when they should keep their spam to themselves. Here are some press releases that do a great job of telling the media that the winery doesn't have any real news, and that they will pester them with spam instead, or even offend them. These are the ones that create such a negative image for the winery or brand that they actually damage your chances of future success. "We have just released a new wine. It tastes really good, and here is more technical information than you could ever want on how it was made." WWW.VWM-ONLINE.COM PAUL WAGNER for News Press releases you should never write Please. There are 100,000 wines released in the United States every year. If you can't explain why yours is somehow spectacularly different from all the others, then you don't have news. Being one of 100,000 wines is not newsworthy. This is a perfect example of how a win- ery sees itself in the mirror without understanding the larger market for news. It may be exciting for you and your close relatives, but it is not going to get anyone in the larg- er market to do anything but yawn. And by the way, your winemaker is not a good judge of what is inter- esting to the general public. Paul Wagner formed Balzac Communica- tions & Marketing and is an instructor for Napa Valley College's Viticulture and Enol- ogy Department. opening them. The e-mail you just sent to the media is the first step in building this kind of relationship with them. Do you want to make this release actually counterproduc- tive? Then send out the information about a wine that has no distribu- tion and is not available in the market. What the heck is a writer supposed to do with this? Write about the wine, and then explain that nobody can buy it? I know. You are hoping that the writer will LOVE the wine, and write about it, and a distributor will see that story, and then call you up and ask to dis- tribute it. Your marketing will be complete! But it doesn't happen that way. Writers hate writing about wines that are not available for purchase, because their readers hate reading about them. What good does it do SHORT COURSE A new vintage release may seem news- worthy to you, but to the media, it's probably useless information. Photo: Thinkstock End result? The media glances at the release, realizes it doesn't have any useful information, and immediately hits the delete but- ton. And the next release you send to them will get less attention. We all receive e-mails from people we actually like, but never have time to read. And we eventually just learn to delete them without even Press releases should contain actual news. If it's not new, it's not news. Poorly conceived press releases can do more damage than good. Announcements of new vintage releases and unavailable wines are of no or little use to writers. Never quote wine writers in press releases that are sent to other writers. Don't use press releases to boast about personal, non-wine-related accomplishments. SEPT - OCT 2012 VINEYARD & WINERY MANAGEMENT 17