By Dawn Dolan
The changing role of bloggers in the world of wine marketing has infiltrated into the wine industry at last. USBevX 2017’s directed session, The New Press Machine: Bloggers and their Increasing Influence in the Industry will explore the role of this newest mechanism in getting your brand known.
“I don’t think this is a regional issue. The role of bloggers has changed a lot during the last few years, so this is a subject wineries all over the country can relate to,” says Tina Caputo, wine and lifestyle writer, with a long history as editor for the top trade publications of the wine industry. She continues, “During the last five years, there has been a blurring of the lines between traditional media and bloggers; bloggers are writing for traditional media outlets, and traditional media folks are now blogging. It’s no longer an “us vs. them” situation in terms of media.” Caputo thinks this is an opportunity for the wine industry as bloggers expand their reach beyond the blog, “Also, social media platforms, i.e. Facebook and Instagram, are providing a place where wine bloggers can expand their reach, drive new readers to their blogs and engage in conversation.”
When asked about the pertinence to the East Coast wine industry, Caputo replied, “I don’t think this is necessarily a regional topic, but there are opportunities that the Eastern wine industry can take advantage of. For example, there are some very good bloggers, like Joe Roberts, who are based on the East Coast. This gives the wineries in the East easy access to these writers for tasting, sampling, etc. I don’t think enough wineries are taking advantage of this.”
Caputo feels the panel is representative of what is going on in the wine world now, and is excited about the representation on the panel, “We have an interesting mix of bloggers and PR pros that will make for a great conversation. For instance, we have Joe Roberts, who is one of the most established and influential wine bloggers on a national level, and Frank Morgan, another blogger who focuses mainly on Virginia wines. On the PR side, there’s Chris O’Gorman, a veteran in the business who will share his perspective and experience in dealing with wine bloggers, and Luiz Alberto, a wine communications expert who will bring a more international perspective to the discussion.”
Her idea is to head the discussion in the direction of collaboration, “The focus will be on changes in the wine blogger landscape during the last five years, and how wineries can best work with bloggers (and vice versa).” Wine Industry Network president, George Christie, feels this was an important subject to introduce at USBevX 2017, which is refining its conference focus and honing in on the Midwestern and East Coast wine industries, “This session is part of our overarching Quality Revolution theme. We want to give wineries in the region every possible opportunity to improve their brands and brand strategies. This session offers them another venue for getting their name out in the market.”
USBevX 2017 will take place at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Washington D.C., February 22-24, 2017. Registration and more information can be found by visiting www.usbevexpo.com.
