DTC WINE SYMPOSIUM 2018: AN EVENT TO REMEMBER
The Scenario
The wine industry, as a whole, is hungry for effective online direct-to-consumer (DTC) marketing tactics. The tragic fires that affected so many lives also affected winery tourism in the most important time of the year - October, November, and December.
A sad lesson for all people who work in the wine industry is the universal reliance on an outdated thought process regarding wine tourism: “If you build it, they will come...” — meaning that the construction of multi-million dollar wineries on beautiful properties have and will continue to bring endless prosperity and customers in the front door has passed you by. With wine tourism down and the holiday season passed, the “slow season” in wine country is (and should be) the new busy season for ALL marketers who have a hand in digital DTC.
But where can a professional go to get best practices, effective tactics to use, and learn from successful case studies that are all custom-tailored for the wine industry? The Direct to Consumer Wine Symposium is where…
Not Your Average Wine Conference
As a regular attendee of wine conferences, it is fair to say that all wine conferences are not created equally. I have sat through a multitude of mind-numbing seminars that have you ask the question, “Did anyone vet this content before letting this person on stage?” Unfortunately, the stigma of low-quality investment of time hovers over many of the so-called elite seminar series offered to the wine industry is true.
The DTC Wine Symposium drastically breaks this mold and differentiates itself as a must-attend event.
The quality starts where it should: with the speakers. Content is not only vetted, it is vetted in stages months prior to the show by a qualified panel of industry experts. Presenters are expected to have relevant upgrades to their content to ensure digestibility for the audience, so attendees are ensured that the content they are spending their valuable time and money to hear is current and relevant.
As in most cases, if you have great content, people want to hear it. Thoughtful Q&A ensures that you leave with the answers you need. Speakers stay past the end of their session to answer questions from the people who remain to dive deeper into the session topic. Not a normal occurrence at many other shows!
The Astra Session
Astra was honored to host a sponsor session pertaining to tactics that are effectively driving wine sales in the social media space. Our CEO, Ron Scharman, and I offered actionable takeaways that can be implemented now to improve the outcome of your goals for 2018.
We all get busy executing our to-do lists on a daily basis, but how often do you take the time to strategize? Our mantra is that strategy should be at the heart of the matter and all of your actionable tactics in the digital space should be quantifiable. How do you know what works if you don’t track your tactics?
At the heart of effective social advertising are data segmentation, Facebook pixel utilization, and custom audience advertising. Do you do all of these things — or use them well? Take a look at our presentation and see for yourself.
Final Thoughts
The wine industry as a whole is in a transitional stage in the digital space. Investment in a comprehensive digital marketing strategy is no longer a luxury. It is strongly recommended from multiple sources including the recent annual Silicon Valley Bank Report for the wine industry. The time is now!
If I had to recommend one investment of your time and money in trade shows that focus on educating you on the DTC efforts, the DTC Symposium is it. All signs point to the fact that this show will only continue to be more relevant and provide cutting-edge content in the years to come. So if you missed it this year, make sure you don’t next year!
