Generics Wine Budgets – Time for a Change

Written by ryan opaz August 26, 2009

Having recently dealt with more than one Generic (wine promotional board at a country level), I came to a simple realization. While most are FAR from ready to call themselves “tech savy”, they are starting to consider the possibility of engaging online. One problem, however, is that most of the Generics split their budgets based on region and even country. While this made sense in a world where the only contact you had was with countries on a press trip by press trip basis, it does not consider one simple fact: your voice today can jump boundries. You may have  a kickass campaign for the people in the USA, but if you do it right, it can become a kickass campaign for the UK and Australia.  Now which budget do you reach into to pay for it?

Time for a change. Either find a way to share across budgets, or you need to consider setting up a “slush fund” of sorts to give it some grip . These online campaigns can increase a brand‘s recognition, and as a result of their ability to spread, can even open up new markets that weren’t available to Generic prior.

Till Soon,

Ryan Opaz

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  • http://www.winetravelguides.com Wink Lorch

    Spot on, Ryan.

    The more I’m on twitter for example, the more I find I’m following – just as an example – @ Wines of Argentina, but they are not @ Wines of Argentina UK, they are @ Wines of Argentina USA and I soon discover they are discussing events happening over there and not in the UK, so useless for me. On the other hand there IS useful generic info that filters through because the USA version will be more switched on with social media than the UK version. So, in the end it’s worth me following Wines of Argentina USA in the absence of a ‘world’ Wines of Argentina.

    The difficulty will be convincing the winery members (and their existing importers) who finance each generic body. They are entrenched in allocating budgets on a country by country basis according to where they want to focus their export drive.

    Can’t see it changing soon, but I’m glad you are shouting about it. It should be said.