Right after Visa and Verizon Wireless on AdAge’s ‘Marketing 50‘ is the Stormhoek winery. I’ve been following their campaigns since the beginning in the summer of 2005 and interviewed marketer/blogger/cartoonist Hugh Macleod and Jason Korman from Stormhoek on Winecast 67. How did they build a brand from almost nothing to 100,000 cases sold across four continents in 16 months? Hire an A-list blogger/marketing guru, give samples outside of the wine press and convert their website to a blog. All of this cost only a few thousand dollars and has created an international conversation about Stormhoek the brand (and the wine, too).

My favorite part of the piece in AdAge is Hugh’s quote:

“There?s more to blog marketing than sales, he says. Blogs help marketers see consumers as people, not just abstract, dehumanized targets…”

All this proves that social media is a powerful force in marketing and it can be applied successfully in the wine industry. I’ll be tracking a few other wineries using similar tactics in future posts here.

Congrats Hugh and Jason!