The beautiful Chateau de Mons, in the middle of a very wintery Gers, hosted a crowd of 140 Armagnac Gascogne Vinocampers. On December 6th, the participants met to kick off two days of discussions and discoveries.
The program featured foie gras, Armagnac, Floc and Côtes de Gascogne and other local specialties, along with great discussions. Among the themes was a focus on communication strategies, the barriers to wine tourism, the future of Internet sites and mobile applications.
The workshops bought together a diverse mix from the wine community: growers or traders, community managers, advertising agencies, bloggers, graphic and web designers, and students curious to discuss the future of communication. Among them, 60% were new participants.
Special thanks to the commitment of the Interprofessional Bureau of Armagnac and his adherents, Côtes de Gascogne, Floc de Gascogne and the Foie Gras Gers. Their joint collaboration lead to the wonderful success of this event.
Also thank you to the Chateau de Mons for the reception and our nine sponsors who helped to support the financing of the event, and also for their tasting contributions: Amorim, the Nicolas shops, the Castel group, Bordeaux wines, and 5 houses of Armagnac Armagnac Delord , the Pellehaut Domaine de Bas Armagnac Chateau de Laubade , Chiroulet Domain (Family Fezas ), Earl of Lauvia.
We also welcome the presence of the Bureau Interprofessionnel du Cognac, who was baptised with Armagnac and made their first step into the region. Nothing better to strengthen its relations with neighbours than to talk about wine … on the field!
- The story of the Vinocamp day
- The day before Vinocamp
- Wine tourism day
- The story of your Instagrams by the office of Armagnac
The Vinocampers were chatty about the event, despite the troubles caused by the Internet connection- thank you!
Follow Vinocamp’s board Vinocamp Armagnac Gascogne on Pinterest.
The role of the interprofesisonal is to talk about their product, represents all the producers and find a balance between these two entities. The workshop also discussed the advantages of Armagnac: diverse and numerous producers and very well established products in France, a force that gives it legitimacy. Today, the important thing is to create links, and to impact the consumer, a mission made possible thanks to social networks. This helps consumers to better understand the product and create a desire to return. But is it the role of the interprofessional to communicate to the consumer or to contact the prescriber only?
The Floc de Gascogne collective communicate between 200 and 250 000 people, and is an extremely powerful brand in the market.
When walking through and tasting product however, it is appreciated there is an image problem. Should they keep the traditional definition of the product, and will the consumer accepted this? Otherwise, can they shift communication in line with Cognac or Armagnac, with more aggressive packaging to rejuvenate the image of the product? It was found that consumers were older, and if a move towards a younger market were planned, the new image would not require huge budgets- but an idea and a plan of action.
This communication would be complementary to the approach of winemakers but could ramp up in volume.
Compensate for the depletion of the image Floc de Gascogne: To start, understand how brands are built, borrow from the spirit industry and find a communications channel to recreate a complete dynamic.
Local: begin by being strong locally and use the restaurant network, promoting its presence as an aperitif and win Toulouse.
The weight of brands facing the appellations
A crowded workshop to finally focus on the Côtes de Gascogne- a name and image 40 years in the building. Before the individualism and weight of the brands, Côtes de Gascogne starts with a transitional period in which the inter-professional must unite around a common goal. It encourages producers to highlight the Gascogne identity and symbols, while retaining essential communication pointsfor themselves. In a second step, the group proposes own product communication among professionals, to enable them to better connect their brands to the origin of Gascogne. The inter-profession will then work to consolidate and appropriate these brands to the region.
AOP (Appellation d’Origine Protégée) VS IGP (Indication Géographique Protégée): a provocative issue that lead directly to a simple conclusion, both reforms of 2009 are still poorly understood by the consumer. The old term AOC is still ingrained with fifty years of history as the “country wine”, and less well perceived. In this regard, IGP replacement term is more rewarding for the category.
Discussions revisited that the names are only regulatory tools to defend an origin, through the establishment of a specification. Oppose AOP and IGP was quickly dismissed: the problem is to defend the origin of wines in opposition to those who don’t, more generally, the “Wines of France”. Especially, since the reform of 2009, which allowed these categorisations, the grape is allowed in all product categories, wine from France to the IGP to AOP. The origin, therefore, is the only differentiator. To highlight the AOP and IGP, the solution is to promote an entire territory and therefore its products.
Gascogne has a rich history (Armagnac, 700 years), Floc and Côtes de Gascogne are from the diversification of Armagnac for over thirty years. The area is known for its festive lifestyle, an important point to emphasise in the discussion. Sharing and the ‘art of living’ together will be good positioning to highlight on social networks, along with the soils and territories.
Discussion of new social networks, additionally Instagram and Snapchat. These networks are still difficult for brands to use, but are favored by users who find them a more intimate type of exchange through simple and facilitated conversations. People come here to have fun, discover new trends or new horizons. The culture of the beautiful and the artistic are welcomed on these platforms. Instagram is a particularly powerful tool for brands that want to interact with their consumers.
Management of publications on Instagram: For multi- account management and the lists of subscribers by interest, tools like Iconosquare (formerly Statigram ) or a specific module on Chrome help professionals to better manage their community on Instagram (it has not yet been developed to facilitate multi- user accounts). Gramblr is another tool useful to test, as it also allows to post directly from a Mac or a PC. From your phone, you can also use Hipstamatic, an application that will appeal to artists who like to spend time thinking about the contrast of their photos.
Broadcast on several social networks? An old rule says that we should avoid posting the same content on multiple networks. It’s ok if certain content can be adapted to several networks and meet the rules for each (image size, hashtags, lengths of the posts, links …), however if you duplicate some information, be sure to have exclusive content. On Snapchat posts are ephemeral, and may serve the purpose of teasing (communication by the absence). Again, this network is difficult for brand use because it consists of a network of friends and can be rather intimate. On Instagram, the IGers: territorial communities, instagrammers are powerful to get a message out locally. Photo contests such as the tourism development agency of the Gironde (600 photos) also create content by mobilising communities. Finally, Vine, Instagram & co have their specialised uses, do not hesitate if these can be of interest to you. Is it necessary to create a website?
Everything depends on the level of content and functionality. If you have a blog with some news, management is easy. As soon as one goes on a shopping website, it is important to have a technical contractor to manage potential security issues. The support on maintenance does have a cost, but is essential to save time, be up to date and stay calm. With personal access, you can make changes independently and keep autonomy. An agency must also be able to act as a consultant and trainer.The business goals will define the type of complexity needed; a WordPress or WIX version can sometimes do the trick.
Site design should firstly consider mobile viewing, allowing for a short storyboard, which can then become more complex. With mobile use accounting for nearly 45% of visits to a site, this strategy appears even essential- a good start for rethinking a website!
We often have applications on our phones, however the phones in our pockets are blind to what we can see. The idea is to find and detect a mobile user to interact with and send specific/contextual content, depending on behavior and movements. For example, Eric Ecolan is in experimental mode: via in-store terminals or at tourist attractions, users can have specific information on their phones (provided you have the appropriate application). This workshop was mainly a reflection and exchange of thoughts regarding the next practice that will see the wine industry to enhance content.
To firstly avoid trolls, define an editorial line and then define a code of good conduct to know when the rules are broken with typical examples. Define the topics and avoid blocking angles of attack.
Is the best way to defuse bombs: act or let it flow?
How can we introduce wine around the table in all new sharing initiatives (Crocvoisin, Super Marmite Cookening etc.)? Innovation is on the rise, but there is still work to do in the algorithms or partnerships between food & wine.
Wine has always existed, but what is its place today? There are several types of ways to look at the place of wine, vertical (institutions) and horizontally (the producers of the territory of France). In France, more synergies between regions are needed to create a more efficient network, tourism must serve several angles including being family friendly. Other issues raised included the availability of weekend wine tourism and the language barrier in the vineyards. This discussion has gone further between Cognac and Armagnac in particular, to find common communication slots.
What is the future? Press relations are increasingly seen with more importance and represent increased investment. However, the benefits are less qualified, and certainly increasingly questioned. It was asked whether there had been a revolution in the world of the press and what the reaction was.
# 1 A major paradigm shift in the same profession, as 80% of journalists are freelancers who need to sell stories to newspapers.
# 2 Bloggers lead the way on topics of interest to a journalist, it is they who are marking time, and also challenges journalists who must also deal with blog content. To capture journalists, send personalised emails and consider the interests of readers.
# 3 Partnerships with inter-professional associations, brands and operators can be strong sources for press.
# 4 Create synergies with other products, including gourmet products.
In the end, successfully gather everyone around the table: journalists and influencers, producers, bloggers unions … as is done today.
Reflection begun around an analysis made by startup accelerator 33entrepreneurs around 500 startups in the wine technology industry- the top 10 startups in terms of investment. What were their success factors and what are the general elements that make the success of a startup?
A team, scalability and technology: what does it mean in France and outside of France?
The majority of investment comes from outside of Europe. The amounts made available for research and development in universities is more advanced in the United States and Australia compared to Europe. In the last 10 years, more than 4,000 research files have been posted on technology and wine that gave rise to a massive development of applications and new technologies.
Finally, more funds should be placed on research and development if we want to see more applications.
Congratulations to all the Talents of Armagnac winners and especially to Armagnac Salamens 1995, awarded the Vinocamp Jury Prize and the President of the Republic: Gérard Basset .
Les Talents de l’#Armagnac : découvrez le Palmarès ! http://t.co/N4HJqhHsOf cc @iArmagnac #vinocamp #Gers #TourismeGers — Tourisme du Gers (@GersTourisme) 8 Décembre 2014
Congratulations also to Startup Degust&Co for their winning pitch in the startup contest organised by 33entrepreneurs.
C’est parti pour la soirée de gala de @vinocamp avec @CotesdeGascogne et @iArmagnac #Flocmeup pic.twitter.com/Z3uWrpcOt7 — Floc de Gascogne (@FlocdeGascogne) December 5, 2014
Thanks to all and see you in Paris!
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