Millennial Marketing

Sacre Bleu Wine Home page

If you are looking for a model for marketing wine to Millennials, I recommend taking a look at what Galen Struwe is doing at Sacre Bleu Wine. A glance at the web site tells you this is no ordinary wine site. A rotating display of lifestyle articles, constantly updated, are front and center. Social media links are prominent. The wines? Oh they are there, but discreetly tucked away in the upper right corner.

When I talked to Struwe earlier this week, he explained that is by design:

“We wanted to create a platform that wasn’t an overt marketing onslaught of brand recommendations. – Bottles, vines, prices. We wanted content that would integrate into lifestyle, let consumer make decision on value of the content – the way Apple did with the ipod.”

Struwe, was new to the wine industry, which may explain his decision to take a different approach.  When he decided to create the brand, he listened to his Millennial stepdaughter who suggested creating a viral approach that leveraged music and myspace to create interest and avoid the traditional approach of advertising in wine related magazines. Listening to the target proved to be the right decision, according to Struwe:

“As mature adults, we regard ourselves as much more clever than we are. Presumptuous to think you know what that demographic is like and what it wants. She nudged me back to reality simply by rolling her eyes. We leveraged her understanding of the target when deciding how to go to market. She influenced labels and visual representations, as well as viral content. Once we did that, understood we didn’t need full page ads in Wine Spectator, we could achieve a viral brand presence with more credibility.”

And it’s working. Now in its third year, Sacre Bleu Wine has distribution in Florida, Texas and Minnesota with plans for 13 more states.  He expects 2010 to be “our break out year”, with plans to promote with select retail partners at point of sale with incentives like “Register to win a trip”.  The unique Millennial-friendly approach appeals to buyers as well as the target: “When a brand goes into talk to buyers, they have heard so many pitches, you have to go in with completely different story, something unique that they can offer their consumers.”

For contrast, check out this interview between wine blogger, Steve Heimoff and David Bowman, Social Media strategist at Gallo. While Sacre Bleu Wine has embraced social media as the way to reach wine-hungry Millennials, Gallo is playing it safe.  Here’s an excerpt:

SH: Does Gallo have a social media strategy?

DB: It’s all starting to develop. We’re in the early stages of trying to understand what role it should play in our media mix. We’ve taken a watch and wait role. Is it disruptive to something we’re already doing? It defies some of the characterizations we generally apply as marketers. What is the intent? What is the net result? But because social media is very democratic, it appeals to a broader audience than a Wine Enthusiast reader.

That’s all very theoretical, but what are you actually doing?

DB: From a public relations perspective, Michael Heintz [Gallo’s PR director] is actively spending time with bloggers. He does outreach to certain bloggers. We send wines to certain bloggers.

Barefoot is among Gallo’s most overtly Millennial wine brands, and it is doing a nice job with its web page and Barefoot Republic community with over 12,000 fans on Facebook. Yet it has just 227 Twitter followers http://www.twitter.com/barefootwine) and no link to Twitter on its home page or fan pages.  It also lacks the cultural connection of Sacre Bleu.