US Drinks Conference

I'll be making a series of posts on the USDC, but thought I'd get some of the early pix up in the meantime. A big shout out of thanks to Denise Menefee for being the unrelenting driving force that made the conference a success. She's pictured here with husband Jeff who managed all the graphics for us.

Me and daughter Lindsay Raye

Carter Reum of VeeV Acai Spirit

Colleen Graham of cocktails.About.com

Tyler Colman, aka Dr. Vino

Jeff Grindrod, Gary Vaynerchuk, Steve Raye

Conf. Organizers: John Beaudette of MHW, Mike Ginely of Next Level, Denise Menefee of USDC, Steve Raye and Jeff Grindrod of Brand Action Team

Social media panel:  Tyler Colman, Christian McMahon of Heineken USA, Colleen Graham, Carter Reum, me

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Are We Engaged Yet?

I had just finished writing my presentation for the U.S. Drinks Conference and was reflecting on a few recent conversations I had on social media marketing and it dawned on me that we’ve turned a corner.

Within the past two days I’ve spoken to self-described Luddites or representatives thereof (guy has his secretary print out emails for him), expert practitioners of the craft, and a bunch of folks somewhere in the middle.

That whole spectrum will always be there, but what I realized is that I’m no longer an evangelist having to explain the new thing.  We’ve finally reached a point where at least everyone’s heard of social media. And while they might be a bit hazy on the definition and terminology (social media, social networks, word of mouth, viral marketing etc.) there’s pretty much universal recognition of its existence and importance.

That’s progress.  In spite of the few comments you still hear that “this Internet thing is gonna blow over” I think most people in the marketing business recognize that there’s been a sea change in the way we need to communicate with our customers, prospects and suspects. 

Simply stated, it’s no longer a situation where marketers are shouting at the multitudes and hoping someone hears and maybe even pays attention, but rather a conversation among and between people whose actions indicate they share an interest in a subject.  Whether they’ve become a Fan of a Facebook page, bookmark a forum or newsgroup, read or get an RSS feed from a blog, they…WE… all have one thing in common…we’re ENGAGED.

Engagement, however, is a two way street and has an implicit agreement that the commitment is mutual.  So it’s incumbent on marketers to recognize that at its very core, social media is personal.  Even a brand with a quarter million Facebook fans has to make each one of them feel an individual connection.

Coming back to my intro thought here, we have turned a corner, but we still have a long road in front of us.  The challenge now is how to scale personal communications within larger communities. 

That’s one of the subjects we’ll be hearing a lot about at the USDC…I’m psyched to hear what Gary Vaynerchuk has to say, as well as the folks on the panel I’m moderating on social media.  So Tyler Colman, Colleen Graham, Nora Favelukes and Carter Reum….what do you think?

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Upcoming Spirit and Wine Events and Tasting Competitions

We get asked for recommendations on which competitions and industry events our off-shore clients should participate in and attend, so I've compiled a list with some of the key dates and links. These are posted roughly in order of their deadlines or event dates.

-NY Wine Expo: Feb. 26-28 at the Jacob Javitz center (I'll be there)

-South Beach Wine and Food Festival Event Feb. 25-28, 2010

-San Francisco Wine and Spirits Competition
Event Mar 13-14. Deadline for entries Feb. 19

-Ultimate Spirit Challenge (judging takes place March 1-3 in NY, and Ultimate Cocktail Challenge (judging takes place April 12-14 at Astor Center in NY but entry deadline is Feb. 15. These are two new events which split from the SFWSC. They represent a new concept in spirit review methodologies and also a new contest specifically dedicated not just to spirits but the cocktails that are made with them.

-BTI Eastern European wines deadline March 25.

-Wine and Spirits Wholesaler Assn. WSWA takes place April 6-8 in Las Vegas Nevada. This used to be an "old boy networking" event but has evolved in the last few years to be more egalitarian. The exhibit floor used to be a minor adjuinct but now has become much more significant. It's not the answer for exporters looking to find importers in the U.S., but it's a good start.

-Winery and Wine Distribution Law: April 29,30, Inn on the Lake, Canandaigua, NY. This is the third of these beverage alcohol law seminars hosted by Nixon Peabody that I've spoken at. They attract a stellar list of attendees and speakers including Craig Wolf of WSWA, a senior staffer at TTB, Ted Jansen of Inertia Beverage, Bill Tomaszewski of Wine.com, Jason Eckenroth of Ship Compliant, and hosts Vince O'Brien of NP and Ron Fondiller General Counsel for Constellation Brands. A lot of what will be presented at this event will focus on the issues surrounding direct shipping.

-Manhattan Cocktail Classic: Takes place May 14-18 New York. This is also a new event backed by some major names in the US spirit business including Dale DeGroff, Simon Ford, Doug Frost, Allen Katz, Steven Olson, Paul Pacult, Sasha Petraske, Gary Regan, Julie Reiner, Audrey Saunders, Andy Seymour, Charlotte Voisey and the man with the Civil War-era beard David Wondrich. They had a “test” launch of the event in the fall that was well represented by spirits suppliers and the may event is eagerly awaited by the cocktail community.

-Ultimate Wine Challenge Deadline for entries May 25, Event June 7-11, New York

-Aspen Food and Wine Classic This event is an interesting blend of consumer and trade participants, but you have to be an advertiser in Food and Wine Magazine to be an exhibitor. Aspen, CO, June 18-10, 2010.

-US Wine Bloggers Conference June 25-27, Walla Walla WA. I'll be there this year, but was unable to attend the first two. I heard some very good things about the USWBC as well as its European Counterpart.

-Fancy Food Show Event dates for NY: June 27-29, 2010 and San Francisco, Jan 2011


-Tales of the Cocktail: Tales is the Grand-daddy of cocktail events and the one that defined and democratized spirits well before social media became cool. Unfortunately I've not been invited to speak this year (but I'm available!) and will be joined by my daughter Lindsay who's now a very successful Brand Ambassador for Mekhong, The spirit of Thailand working the Meatpacking district in New York for them.

-BTI World Value Wine Review for wines under $20 deadline is Aug. 6.

-US Drinks Conference Oct. 12/13, 2010 in NY. (Full transparency...we are the organizers of the USDC) This will be the fourth year of the conference and last year we attracted 160+ delegates from 11 countries...we're hoping for 250 next year, so please pass this on.

-European Wine Bloggers Conference Vienna Austria, Oct. 22-24 (and sponsored by our client the Austrian Wine Marketing Board! Thanks to Susanne Staggl and Willi Klinger for hosting the event.!) I plan to be there and look forward to meeting my blogger friends from Europe.

-NY Wine Experience (M.Shanken Publications)
NY: Oct. 28-30, 2010

-Miami International Wine Fair
Oct. 16-20, 2010

-BTI Wine Packaging Competition (takes place Dec. 29, 2010)

-BTI Spirits packaging contest takes place Dec. 30, 2010

-Boston Wine Expo Jan. 2011, Boston, MA

-BTI Spirit review schedule covers all categories which have various deadlines throughout the year.

-BTI Wine review schedule runs throughout the year for various regions, countries and wine types Sphere: Related Content

U.S. Drinks Conference Redux

We had the pleasure of reprising the U.S. Drinks Conference for a trade delegation from Eastern Europe this week. The U.S. Commerce Department's International Trade Administration invited us to present a distilled (or should I say fermented) version of the conference to winery representatives from Moldova, Ukraine, Georgia and Armenia under the SABIT program. And if you can't put your finger on just where Moldova is, this map may help.

Only a few of the delegates spoke English so we had two interpreters who do simultaneous translation. That's a pretty intense task so they needed two to pass the baton every 10 minutes.

It was pretty hard to tell how well the audience were absorbing the arcana of the U.S.'s "Three Tier System", but the feedback we got from Tanner Johnson who coordinated the event (and was behind the lens in this photo)was that it was well received.

Mike Ginley of Next Level and John Beaudette of MHW did their usually brilliant job of putting things in perspective and I covered allocating marketing resources and also an overview of social media marketing. It was fun trying to explain Twitter and Facebook to someone unfamiliar with them. But my intro slide talks about Social Media having replaced porn as the #1 activity on the web, and that if Facebook were a country it would be the fourth largest in the world. So they might not have gotten the concept of why anyone would "Tweet", they did understand the scale of impact social media is having on consumers.


For any of my readers who will be going to Vino 2010 next week in NY, I'll be on a panel discussion on marketing wine to millennials moderated by Anthony Dias Blue with fellow panelists Kevin Zraly, Alder Yarrow, Susannah York and Doug Cook. Sphere: Related Content

WSWA 2009

I’m at the airport ruminating on this year’s WSWA. It was mentioned that there were about 200 fewer attendees than in years past and that companies like Southern Wine and Spirits only brought one or two folks from each state. Add to that the recent wide scale layoffs at the big suppliers, and I expected more doom and gloom in the air. But in spite of that it was still a busy and lively affair and the general mood was upbeat. New brands, new growth, new relationships, new opportunities.

The traffic at the exhibition booths was pretty good. I saw a bunch of repeat brands, but not nearly as many new tequilas or vodkas as we’ve seen in years past. They had the wine section separated from the spirits and it was poorly signed and at the end of the hall, so traffic was very light. Were I an exhibitor I’d be asking for a refund.

Most of the business at WSWA gets conducted in the suites and in the hallways among folks who are already doing business together, so we often see a lot of newbie suppliers coming to the show thinking it’s like VinExpo or the London show. It’s not.

I asked most of the exhibitors why they were there, and uniformly the response was to find an importer and distributor. There is very little awareness that WSWA attendees are not at the show for the purpose of finding new brands. The good news is that each of them is a prospective attendee for the USDC…we put it on to help people just like them figure out the right way to crack the US Drinks market.

US Drinks Conference
We had a mini USDC session attended by about 20 folks with a few participants who had attended in the past. Our goal was to get feedback on our agenda and format for this year, and it was very successful. The conference will be held in NY on Oct. 13/14 this year and details are at www.usdrinksconference.com. I was pleased to get a commitment from Rob Cooper of St. Germain to participate in the spirits panel. And I got some positive feedback from Gary Vaynerchuk of www.WineLibraryTV.com fame that he might speak as well…I saw him at the Boston Wine Expo and he is a tsunami of fresh air in an industry that needs some shaking up.

We’re also doing well in sponsorships for this year’s event with almost all of last year’s sponsors reupping including Just-Drinks, Beverage Media, Nixon Peabody, and Western Carriers. Also coming on board as sponsors this year are JF Hillebrand and Drinks International Magazine.

Ecommerce
We’ve been working to develop ecommerce solutions for many of our clients and have been spending a lot of time analyzing the current options including Amazon.com. Tom Wark of SWRA and Fermentation recommended I talk to the folks at the Inertia Beverages (www.intertiabev.com) and I spent some time at their suite and think they have a great concept. I still have to do some digging to understand it better but it sounds like an interesting option for both direct to consumer sales and direct to trade (e.g. supplier to restaurant) .

Social Media Marketing

I spoke to a lot of folks about the work we’re doing in Social Media Marketing and while our industry might be a few years behind the times, it is catching on. Lots of interest in the subject coupled with an acknowledged lack of understanding of what it is, how to use it and what it can do. We now have two people working full time on SMM plus me, and are looking to hire and train a third as our business expands. I was telling folks about the US Wine Bloggers Conference and the European Wine Bloggers conference, and I think they’ll both become significant events. I’m bummed I can’t go to the former because I’ll be in Greece on vaca, but Laurie Tadayon, our new wine SMM manager will be representing us.

For those of you interested in some examples of social media marketing tools, you should pull up a stool at the bar and check out the Thursday Drink Night event at http://www.mixoloseum.com/barstool.html on Thursday, April 30 at 7PM

I also saw Ann Tuennerman who runs Tales of the Cocktail (who was seriously engaged in the tasting competition) and I’m looking forward to attending that in July where I’m on the blog panel discussion with Paul Clarke (www.cocktailchronicles.com) and Jeffrey Morgenthaler of the eponymous blog. Cyril Necker who produces Girl liqueur was also there…I think that product is a grand slam home run just waiting for the right entity to recognize it.

And to add a bit of “aren’t I cool” to this post, Bill Earle lf NABI invited me to join him on a U.S. government sponsored trade trip to Georgia (the country, not the state). The timing is lousy though…I’m going to be in Austria on a Wine Summit tour for the Austrian Wine Marketing Board the next week and can’t really justify being out of the country for that long. Sphere: Related Content

U.S. Drinks Conference 2008 An Outstanding Success

This was the second year that we’ve put on the event in London and this year we had a larger number of delegates from even more countries. The feedback we’ve gotten from attendees was overwhelmingly positive with frequent comments on the level of insight provided and comprehensiveness content.

The roster of speakers this year included some of the top executives in the American Drinks market including Rudy Ruiz, EVP of Southern Wine and Spirits, Vincent O’Brien, Senior Counsel at Nixon Peabody, John McDonnell, COO of Patrón Spirits, Bill Earle, President of the National Association of Beverage Importers, Roy Danis of AV Brands, and conference co-organizer John Beaudette, President of MHW Ltd. The subject matter included case histories and lessons learned by brands that have been successful in the U.S. and a wealth of data on the American market structure. Jeff Grindrod, Managing Partner at Brand Action Team, and Mike Ginley, President of Next Level presented results of “hot off the presses” research on consumer trends and preferences.

Several themes recurred through the conference including the impact of the global financial crisis on the Drinks industry, aligning distributor and supplier expectations, and the shift in marketing strategies toward more online and non-traditional spending.

Impact of Financial Crisis

“The economic crisis we’re going through is certainly having an impact on the business, but the research results clearly demonstrated that the U.S. beverage alcohol industry is recession-resilient,” commented Ginley of Next Level.
Grindrod added that “we see continued growth in volume and revenue, albeit slowing, and a shift in consumption from on premise to off premise. This is very timely data since much of the survey was completed in the two weeks preceding the conference.
Perhaps the most interesting thing we found is that for those folks going out to restaurants, the last thing they tend to cut out is the cocktail, wine or beer part of the meal,” he noted.

Aligning Expectations

Ruiz of Southern Wine and Spirits gave some well received advice to suppliers looking to export their brands to the U.S. “The key to a successful relationship between supplier and distributor is in aligning expectations,” he stressed. “When presenting new brands to Southern, expect to come in with a three year plan including a detailed one year operating plan with realistic expectations on case volume. It is more worthwhile to consider launching in smaller markets, proving your success with programming that demonstrates it’s repeatable.” According to Ruiz, the best demonstration of brand traction is when they see bars and retailers calling Southern and asking for the brand.

Evolution of Internet as Strategic Tool

Steve Raye of Brand Action Team brought home the importance of new online tools such as blogs and social media marketing for brand building. “It’s a noble goal to get visitors to your brand website, but at the end of the day, it’s more important to get your content out to where prospective customers already are spending their time…reading blogs, searching for recipes, reading comments on wines that other consumers have posted. Indeed, research shows that 65% of consumers read reviews online before purchasing a product.”

The US Continues As The Worlds Best Beverage Alcohol Market For New Brands

As John Beaudette summarized at day’s end, imports continue to drive growth across all beverage alcohol categories. “Considering the emergence of Eastern Europe, the Far East, and the rest of the world, we recognize that suppliers have many options in terms of investing behind new or existing brands. We hope we’ve clearly demonstrated that America is still the primary destination you should target”. Sphere: Related Content

Rudy Ruiz' comments at the US Drinks Conference 2008

I'm reprinting an edited version of Rudy Ruiz's extemporaneous presentation at the U.S. Drinks Conference. He's 100% "spot on" with most of his comments.
We highly recommend new brands do not target New York and FL in their initial launch plans. We believe it is better to be a big fish in a small pond where you'll have a much better chance of demonstrating success. Once you've generated a repeatable, scalable program and worked out the bugs, then you can move on to the bigger markets.
And we agree completely with the concept of alignment...retailers both on and off premise are not interested in building your brand. They're interested in building their business. And if your brand gets built in the process...then we all win. But their interest is in three primary things:
-Getting more customers
-Spending more money
-Coming back more often

Effective marketing programs are designed with the recognition of this alignment in goals...help them build their business first and you'll build your brand in the process.

So, here's what Rudy said:

The key to a successful relationship between supplier and distributor lies in ALIGNING EXPECTATIONS.

On the on-sales side, make enough use of the potential benefit from a strong relationship with the bartender. Win over the bar teams and you have on site ambassadors for your brand. The importance of getting your product on the drinks menu should also not be underestimated.

Product displays are more important that securing a good space on the main shelves, since without the brand recognition, consumers won't pick it up.

What SWS expects from brand owners.
I try to make time to see everyone, but I want to see a 3-year plan, including a 1 year operating plan including KPIs etc. It must be clear that the brand is relevant, and this won't happen just through distribution - all the effort of opening new accounts will be wasted if these are then lost by a lack of support from the supplier. It's amazing how often potential suppliers come to see me with very little insight into the type of consumer they wish to target, or research into the market and their category. So many plans are put together in a vacuum, with no reference to the competition.

A new product entering a crowded market needs to be different. I don't have time to work with them to put together a business plan, but in these situations I encourage them to seek professional (marketing) help. It's a question of applying some rigor to setting out the offer and then tightening it.

Testing to prove the concept.
Testing the market place on a smaller scale is a good idea, rather than trying to get into all 50 states at once. If successful, these tests should generate excitement from the GMs, which is more sustainable than having this enforced by HQ.
I generally recommend brands avoid testing in California - although it's a popular strategy, it will be very expensive. It may be more worthwhile to consider launching in a state that is less significant in the beverage alcohol market and building loyalty there before expanding.

The first step should be setting up bar tender focus groups, followed by maybe 20 accounts which will be supported by these bar staff. At this stage price and other parts of the plan can be tweaked according to feedback. I usually advise brands to avoid high end night clubs during the testing period. It's difficult to get a feel for the brand's potential once the exclusive period ends and consumers move on to the next month's promotion.

Hopefully after one year, the brand will be in 2 markets. If the brand has been pitched right with strong research, then demand should spread to other markets from here. We want bars and retailers contacting us to get hold of the brand. The key to achieving this result is the ability to show tremendous marketing discipline.
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U.S. Drinks Conference Next Week

Anticipation is rising for the U.S. Drinks Conference coming up next week on Oct. 14 in London. With the financial crisis roiling markets across the world, it's more important than ever to take a fresh look at brand strategies for the U.S. market. Jeff and Mike are working on the consumer trend information and just completing some surveys that will give us a look at sentiment and behavior as recently as last week. And I've put together a manifesto of sorts on the new realities of marketing in the America with tools (like this blog!) that reach and engage people on an individual level. And, we've got a boffo lineup of speakers from the U.S. including Rudy Ruiz, EVP of Southern Wine and Spirits, John McDonnell of Patron spirits and John Beaudette of MHW. And for the international perspective, we'll hear from Charlotte Hey, of The Drinks Business and Olly Wehring at Just-Drinks.com. So if you've been thinking about coming, get off the fence and go to http://www.usdrinksconference.com/ to register! Sphere: Related Content

Link to The Drinks Business article on distributor consolidation

Here's a link the article from the Sept. issue of The Drinks Business on distributor consolidation in America and my comments on options for exporters to the U.S. Market. Sphere: Related Content

WSWA observations: Don't Paint the States

I guess we owe an acknowledgement (or perhaps an apology) to Ron Lepow of Glazer’s. He used the metaphor of offshore suppliers thinking they can just “paint the states” at the US Drinks Conference in London last year, and evidently it really struck a chord…so much so that he told me he keeps hearing it come back to him third and fourth hand. By Don’t Paint the States he means don’t look at the US Bev Alc market as one market; it is really 51 different markets (don’t forget Montgomery County). One strategy will not fit all but it is a pretty good recipe for failure.

New suppliers trying to get in to the U.S. market need to recognize it’s far different than the EU. In fact our friends from the former Soviet Union countries tell us the US market is more complicated to navigate than the Communist bureaucracy, but they could at least manage their way through it with “gifts”. Sphere: Related Content