August 7, 2005
the main purpose of this exercise is to make stormhoek the first major wine brand to take the cluetrain seriously
Very Cool. Stormhoek gets a mention in Spittoon.Biz, the big UK wine blog:
Does writing this - my part in the first UK blog wine promo - make me a Buzz Agent? Gaping Void via Hugh Macleod, sent out a batch of pre-release samples of South African producer Stormhoek's wines in an attempt to utilise blogs as a marketing 'word of mouth tool'. Personally I think it is a little early; Blogs in the UK are under-developed when compared to America. The British either dont know exactly what they are or deride them; but then word of mouth is word of mouth and website link is a website link.Yes, it is early days. But you have to start somewhere.
But hey, look on the bright side- the meme does exist now. Now it's just a question of building on it. The UK blogosphere right now, Western Europe and the USA to follow soon.
Secondly, the point of the Stormhoek freebie promo is not to magically turn bloggers into wine pimps. The main purpose of this exercise is to make Stormhoek the first major wine brand to take the Cluetrain seriously. "Markets are conversations" etc. This freebie promo is hopefully not too bad a conversation starter. Time will tell.
Cheers to Andrew at Spittoon for the mention.
[LINK: You can go see what other UK bloggers have said about Stormhoek by visiting the wiki.]
Posted by hugh macleod at August 7, 2005 10:29 AM | TrackBackIn New Zealand, which is supposedly one of the most wired countries per capita, people still ask me what a blog is. I wonder just how advanced we are, or if it’s just a trick of the media. Would be interesting to see if the concept worked here …
Posted by: Jack Yan at August 7, 2005 2:43 PMsorry to be pedantic but there are two T's in spittoon.
Cheers for the wine!
Posted by: Andrew at August 7, 2005 6:23 PMDuly noted. Thanks, Andrew.
Posted by: hugh macleod at August 7, 2005 7:26 PMNice idea. Pity it's UK bloggers only :(
Posted by: Michele at August 7, 2005 9:22 PMMichele, I understand Ireland is to follw shortly. I hope you'll partake =)
Posted by: hugh macleod at August 7, 2005 10:26 PMIreland to follow eh? Michele, stop being a whore.
*cough* http://www.mulley.net/archives/000582.html *cough*
Posted by: Damien Mulley at August 8, 2005 3:11 AMHey, I had to look at the picture a number of times before I realized that it was a wine bottle.
(I thought it was a prescription label on a bottle of medicine.)
Come to think of it, it's a dandy prescription for what ails me!
Posted by: Laura Bergells at August 10, 2005 4:12 PM