Educational project The Wine Guide

Project summary

Assignment from the client: to create a new communication for the VITIS brand with regard to the long-term effect, to strengthen brand awareness and to strengthen the knowledge and positioning of the producer of this wine brand. We have designed the educational concept of the Wine Guide – a guide where we dispel myths about wine drinking and making, history, varieties, the pairing of food and wine, and we do not omit controversial topics. Thanks to this campaign, the VITIS brand has become a quantitative and qualitative leader in the category.

Goal

Wine is perceived as a “higher science”. Not everyone can have the knowledge and skills of a sommelier. It is difficult for the average customer to choose a suitable wine for certain occasions or for selected dishes “on the shelf”. Therefore, consumers often slip to a stereotypical choice, look for the same varieties and brands, often orient themselves only by price. Therefore, we have decided to provide such information to customers in a suitable and easy form and to make the VITIS brand the role of guide and advisor. The aim of the campaign was to make the VITIS brand visible to the general public and in the media with a long-term vision.

Strategy and plan

The Agency decided to create a unique advice: education of basic concepts and differences, consumer orientation in a wide range of wine varieties, explanation of the role of wine in gastronomy. To make information about wine, its history, drinking culture more attractive… The VITIS brand will thus gain the position of a consumer adviser in the selection of their favourite wines, in a fun way. If the customer is looking for help with the selection and orientation in the topic of wine – they will first turn to VITIS and find the right info and answers through its various communication tools.

Realization

Project 2019 was divided into three separate phases:
Online survey: How do Slovaks choose and buy wine, what varieties do they know and like? We obtained a number of interesting and inspiring facts about the consumer, which allowed us to prepare a series of interesting articles on wine buying behaviour and Slovaks’ knowledge of wine.
Media event: We published the results of the survey in front of media representatives and at the same time officially launched the educational project VITIS – Wine Guide and introduced a young professional sommelier, ambassador.
Series the Wine Guide with 3 topics: Clearing myths about wine, pairing food with suitable wine, presenting varieties and their history. We have prepared a unique series of articles and infographics.
The media mix consists of a targeted combination of lifestyle, professional and food media online and print so that the widest possible public can regularly follow the information and learn about wine topics. Simultaneously with spontaneous media coverage, we created a regular column – counselling in media such as FOOD, Rytmus života, topky.sk, INBAR and others. The wine guide has become a central communication project also on the Client’s social networks and website.

Results

The Wine Guide in all its phases brought a comprehensive communication in the form of year-round media coverage. The number of 397 mostly unpaid media publications far exceeded the number of PR outputs of the competition (the nearest competitor has less than 120 PR publications; source: Newton Media 2019). It is also positive that the media representatives appreciated the quality of the  articles with an educational dimension and, thanks to it, provided an above-standard space for the creation of separate regular sections. The Client himself appreciates the quality of the project and counts on its long-term potential.