Doyen of Australian wine James Halliday’s new Australian Wine Companion rated the ‘03 Hill of Grace ($660) 89 points. He also gave the ‘06 Angove’s Long Row Cabernet ($9.99) 89 points. He gave the ’03 Grange ($550) 95 points. He also gave the ‘06 Zilzie Shiraz ($15) 95 points…hmmm (stolen from the guys at WBM). Read into that what you will, what message are you sharing about your wine?
We are pleased to announce the addition of Charlotte O’Beirne to the team at Free The Wine. Charlotte’s area of expertise is in assisting clients to increase wine sales, devising marketing plans and budgets, promotions, launching new wines and working with distributors to develop new and established markets worldwide.
For the past 5 ½ years Charlotte was the Sales & Marketing Manager at Stella Bella Wines, one of Western Australia’s most recognised wine brands where she established new markets domestically and overseas, worked with distributors to grow sales and helped to establish the brands of Suckfizzle, Stella Bella and Skuttlebutt in the minds of the wine public.
Prior to that she organised the inaugural Margaret River Wine Show, which is now an established event and an important part of the local Margaret River wine industry.
Please contact Charlotte O’Beirne for further information >> 0447698822
We’ve just completed the website for Lost Lake Wines in Pemberton, a very popular cafe and cellar door for tourists and locals alike. Take a look.
We’ve just finished the design for That Margaret River Stuff - a range of local stuff including olive oil and dukkah. Nice. Read the rest of this entry »
We’ve just finished the Cape Mentelle website, take a look
A couple of great articles here on changes occurring to how wine is/could be marketed, well worth a read….
Marketing Wine in the 21st Century, read what Phil Sexton from Giant Steps and Mark Kehoe from Grays Online have to say….
and Australia’s UK Market Overdue for Review by Mike Paul
We’ve had a busy start to the new year, with new clients coming on board; Jerusalem Hollow Wines, the sparkling wine of Margaret River, Settlers Ridge Organic Wines, and Saracen Estates, one of the showcase cellar doors in the region. If we can help your business grow and find a market, drop us a line.
We’ve just completed the rebranding of Lost Lake Wines in Pemberton. The guys at Lost Lake wanted to keep the feel of the ammonite (a shell fossil) in their logo, yet increase the brand awareness and luxury feel of the label. Take a peek. Read the rest of this entry »
OK so its not wine related, but here’s an example of a website we’ve just completed for Explorus Adventure Learning: simple and and uncluttered.
Free The Wine is stoked to be a recipient of the Federal Government’s new Advancing Australia Fund (AgFund). Partnering with the Margaret River Wine Industry Association, our WineSMART initiative will help Margaret River wineries by providing podcasts on best practice in the local wine industry in areas of viticulture, wine making, water management and market development. Read the rest of this entry »
We’ve been a bit busy of late, with new additions to the family (little Archie) as well as flat out for clients on range of items from packaging development, brand creation, web site development, and newsletters.
Heres a couple of examples we created; Stella Bella’s newsletter and Lenton Brae’s newsletter to customers. Although quite different, they are still focussed on their target audience and engage customers to have a relationship with the winery.
Cam recently presented details on how wineries can take advantage of wine 2.0 at the Margaret River Wine Industry Marketing seminar series.
Have a look at the pdf of the discussion
We welcome the following to our list of current clients who listen to us carry on about the freeing the wine; Lost Lake Wines, Lenton Brae, Becketts Flat, Skuttlebutt Lifesaver and Deckchair Margaret River.
Oh, and olympic juggernaut Games Resource Directory for allowing us to drive their database from the back of a Datsun 180B.
Free The Wine was recently interviewed in the January edition of the Australian and New Zealand Grapegrower and Winemaker, the National Journal of the grape and wine industry. I talked about the niche for new and disruptive media in wine marketing and how it can complement traditional media channels.
I reckon that disruptive media is exactly what it says; it disrupts your usual media spoonfill, and allows people to talk directly to potential clients and customers by bypassing, cutting through, and killing traditional media as a third party delivery mechanism.
You can read more about the changing media scape at this nice blog: mashup media
A quick take on disruptive media and how the wine industry can use it. Charlotte O’Beirne talks with Brian Croser, respected Australian Wine Judge about the use of new media in selling wine.
Duration: about 2mins.
Download directly to your machine (right mouse click and save target/link)
Play in this browser
Dr Cam O’Beirne’s presentation at the recent World Wine & Travel Summit held in Margaret River talked about wine + travel podcast opportunities.
A PDF of the presentation is available.
Freethewine.com presents a chat with Brian Croser, chief judge at the 2006 Margaret River Wine Show. Located in the south west of Australia, Margaret River only crushes about 3 per cent of the national crush, however it contributes over 20 per cent of Australia’s fine wine market.
Brian Croser, Petaluma founder, mentor to winemaking students, and visionary winemaker, is one of the leaders of the Australian wine world. In 2004, he was Decanter’s Man of the Year.
Charlotte O’Beirne talks with Brian about the show results, viticulture, and the future of wine in Australia. Many thanks to Richard Rowe and the Margaret River Wine Industry Association for allowing us access to judges.
Duration: about 8mins.
Download directly to your machine (right mouse click and save target/link)
play in this browser
Free The Wine was recently listed by Australia’s Wine Business Magazine as one of the top 10 innovators in the wine industry, with our use of technology to reach trade and consumers. Using podcasts and e-marketing can certainly assist in reaching new markets and customers. Have a look through our site to find out more…
It might be foreign to you and me, but when exporting to a country where english is not the native tongue, explanatory details about your wine in people’s own language can improve your sales chances.
Aspects of language which impact upon marketing your wine include;
- labels: design and style. For example, in some cultures white represents purity and peace, whilst in others it means death and mourning.
- order forms: in the native language with prices in their currency.
- websites: in the native language, or at least one page with the wine description in their native lanaguage. This helps build trust and create a relationship with the customer.
Did you also know that the Australian Government provides grants for this type of service through the export market development grant system?
Free the Wine provides a range of language translating services through our global network. Email or call us with your required language.
We all know that wine is usually a shade of red or white, but what about the colours that go into the label? How are these chosen and what’s their relevance?
Well usually they’re picked because the winemaker or owner likes those colours, without much thought to customers and human behaviour. However, in Margaret River a small family owned boutique winery has used colour theory to redesign its labels to appeal to customers buying behaviour.
Olsen Wines has rebranded its wines, choosing a striking orange and yellow swirl pattern, with a strong gold foil to stand out amongst other wines.
We wanted to get the bottle of wine to jump off the shelf. Research has shown that if you can get the bottle in someone’s hand, then invariably it will end up being purchased.
We used orange which is an extremely vibrant and energetic colour for the main logo; to catch peoples eye, to say, oh what’s that?
This was a key strategy in differentiating the wine from others.The product is a premium Margaret River wine, so the label was completed with a strong white background with gold foiling above and below the Olsen name to denote sophistication and elegance.
