Ep. 567 Will Blackmon | Wine Business Talk With Colangelo & Partners

Welcome to the Italian wine podcast's wine business talk series. Join us as we connect with our Italian wine podcast listeners all over the globe on all things wine and business. This podcast has been brought to you by Colangelo and partners, the leading fine wine and spirits agency in the US. Visit Colangelo and partners at w w w dot calangelo p r dot com. Hello. Welcome to wine business talk with Colangelo and Partners on the Italian wine podcast. I am your host, Juliana Colangelo. And today, we have the pleasure of speaking with Will Blackman, pro football player turned Winpro and founder of the wine MVP. Today will be tackling the topic of social media for wineries and how wineries can reach new audiences through Instagram. So, well, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for being here today. So tell us a little bit about yourself. Yeah. Like you mentioned, a professional football player, football, the Americano in Spanish. But, yeah, I I just always enjoyed wine, as an athlete. And it it's weird. Just like, okay. What do I wanna do after football? And I just wanted to get into a certain career where I would have a strong passion, and it's it sounds crazy. But, yeah, it wasn't coaching. It wasn't being a manager. It was it was wine. So that's that's kinda where I am today. I have a a beautiful family, my wife, Shauna, we've been together twelve years, married twelve years, and we have two wonderful children with rider and Jade, rider's ten, and our daughter is six. So, yeah, that that's that's me in a nutshell. Fantastic. Where are you joining us from today? Well, I'm in Southern California right now. I'm actually from Rhode Island, but I'm in California. Right now, it is, beautiful outside. And, yeah, I'm just excited. Once again, I'm I'm thankful to be on this podcast. I was so excited when you guys hit me up about this. So it could be for laughing a lot. Well, so were we. We're excited that you responded and and we're willing to be our guest on this series. So fantastic. But you already have been helping me a lot. Yeah. I mean, that's it's great to work with partners like you and, that's what makes this this job great. And, so we're thankful for for partnerships and friends like you will. I'm excited to chat with you today. But before we get in today's conversation, I'm going to start marketing wine. This is the Italian wine podcast. So let's daydream a little bit. You know, we've been in lockdown for almost a year. Describe for me your perfect vacation day in Italy. Where are you? What wine are you drinking? What does it look like? Let's just daydream a fur. Just a little bit before we dive in. Well, first of all, as you see, I have my who enters Jersey, Florida Zahueve. And so we've been, you know, I probably be at be at the game with a match with my wife, Shauna, And, you know, I'll definitely try to get in touch with Luca Kararo and get some VIP up in there, you know, and and then watch the match maybe versus, the rival AC Milan. And then afterwards, go on the vineyard. Hang out. Very cool. Very cool. Well, that sounds like a awesome day. Hopefully, it'll happen sometime soon. Last episode, we spoke with Mike Provence at three by three insights about how to use social media advertising to target new consumers. So today, we wanna dive into how people like yourself can influence consumers to get into wine and, you know, how you influence their wine selections with social media and Instagram more specifically being one of your primary platforms. So to start, can I call you one end of phone, sir? Are you okay with that? I know, that's a taboo term sometimes, but for the purpose of of today, is that okay? Yeah. You know what? That's fine. It's funny because it depends who I talk to. A lot of companies, they are They cringe at the influencer word, and they they prefer, I guess, brand ambassadors. Sounds more, mature. Or some people like to say, digital creator. So, I mean, I don't mind. I like I like to influence, you know, so sure. You could call me that for now. That sounds good. Okay. So what is being a wine influencer mean to you? What, you know, what inspired you to introduce other people to wine through your plot form the wine MVP and and you and the NFL wine guy. And also, who would you say is your particular audience? Yeah. So the way I chose to influence in the wine world is just more so I want everyone to have fun and enjoy wine, you know, the things that made me excited about wine was never so much about the lifestyle and the luxury. It was more so about the history and the education. And I feel like the more I learned about something the more I can respect it. A prime example is I love, soccer. And I didn't always like soccer, but when I got to see a play at a high level, when I got to learn more and more about it, I was like, gosh, this is actually a pretty cool game. And that's kinda how it is for me. For the wine, when I got to learn about the history and the video culture and all these stories, I'm like, man, wine is so cool. So a way to make it cool without talking over someone's head and and being pretentious and make it intimidating, I wanna find a way to make it less intimidating. And and the cry I wanna talk to are are is my demographic, you know, the the millennials, to really make it cool and fun for them. What, again, without intimidating them. You know, there's there's so much cool rich history that goes along with this. I mean, they're, I mean, they're buying, they're buying Gucci. You know, they're spending money on that stuff. You know, they they equate that to success. So Why can't we? Yeah. That's a great point. I think I look to fashion a lot to see what they're doing when it comes to marketing and advertising because I think they're they're always leading leading the trends and and what's out there. And I remember that Gucci belt popping up on Instagram, five or six years ago on everyone. Right? So they did something right there. For sure. But, no, I think that that's a great point while connecting with the younger audience by not making it intimidating. And Of course, when we're thinking about Italian wine specifically, you know, there's a lot of words on those labels. We can't pronounce and lots of different, meanings and different things going on on that label that can sometimes be hard for the average consumer to decipher. So I think it's important to bring it down sometimes to the layman terms and and talk more about what the what the wine tastes like and just some of the get back to basics a little to make it a little bit more. You know, it's just fermented grape juice. You know, we don't have to talk over someone or intimidate somebody or talk down to somebody about Wine. Like, it's it's fun. It's it's rich history. There's a lot of integrity, but let's not think we're better than somebody else. Totally. Great point. So, Will, how can an international winery, Italian winery here to be specific work with wine influencers like you to introduce their products to new audiences. Yeah. I think I think the best way is I I kinda look at it how the music music industry has done this, you know, in terms of crossover and collaborations, you know, you have, for example, take andres Bocelli, you know, he's done stuff with Celine Dion or recently, he's done stuff with ed sheeran, you know, to really cross over different demographics and and genres and what have you. So I feel in that space in terms of, like, influence internationally. That's how I think it could work. You know, you have, you know, you we have the point system with Jeb Dunick and Robert Parker and James Suckling, which, you know, they hold a lot of weight based on what their point systems are, but I think you know, where it's going kind of is, you know, is the influencers. You know, that's that's what companies are doing now. You see it on YouTube, all kinds of social media. Yeah. That's that's like advertising them to get these instant immediate eyes. So I think that's kinda where winery is internationally and domestically can do this. Definitely. So let's say a winery can't offer you the voice of Andrea Bachelli, what is most valuable in terms of what a winery partner can offer to you to collaborate and work together. Yeah. I think for me, it's just authenticity. If if it's about if you're really trying to stick to the root of what I care about and that is the history and that is that is the stories, that's really what your your brand is all about represents. Then that's that's how that's how I operate. You know, I just want I just want it all to be genuine because, right, I understand, like, I played, you know, in national football league. I won a Super Bowl. All these things, but I'm in this industry with no ego. My thing is I just wanna have fun. I just wanna help whoever and just have everyone enjoy wine. That's that's all it's about. It's there's there's enough. There's enough fun for everyone. There's enough money for everyone. You know, there's there's plenty to go around. So that's that's really how I am. It's like if if someone wants to work with me, And they just wanna have fun, and they just really wanna just add to this this community, then that's that's perfect enough for me. Yeah. No. Absolutely. And you mentioned authenticity. So how do you maintain a unique and original voice on a platform like Instagram And also, you know, how can a winery build a unique voice on Instagram? Yeah. So I I kind of I mean, the thing for me is I don't try to be something else. You know, all I do is I I am myself, but I also am able to find or create different versions of myself. You know, for example, if I'm on TV as an analyst or a sports broadcaster, I'm not gonna try to sound like somebody else, But I'll I'll understand, you know, what the consumer likes or what they don't like in terms of my analytics. And I will adjust how I am to make sure that I come across how I need to. And that's how I am on social media. You know, I see, you know, what works, what doesn't work. I'm like, okay. I can I can do it like this person, but I can at still add my own personality to it is is how, I'm able to maintain the app that our authenticity on something like social media? And for a winery, I mean, when you're, you know, you've I imagine you follow a lot of wineries on your page, like, what do you find to be the most authentic type of content when you're scrolling through Instagram at at midnight? Think the most authentic type of content is our our videos. Our videos and and tastings and educational stuff because everyone, I mean, you go through a lot of wineries. They're all posting their vineyard. They're all posting their wines. They're all posting, you know, influencers taking pictures at their places. But if they actually continue to create stories and really show you the process on on what they do, you know, something like what if, you know, what if a a winery and and beaujolais took us through some, you know, carbonic maceration, you know, like, that's different. That's something different. There's there's there are so many different kinds of winemaking techniques. There's so many different kinds of, like, soil and terroir and all that stuff. So I think if if winery starts really getting the of what they do. It's almost like watching food network. Right? You know, they they show you all their cool recipes. They might leave out the secret spice or something like that, but they they show you like, hey, this is what are that's why those channels do so well because they show you how to what the process is like. So I think if if winery's did that more. Show how the product is made and and everything that's going into it because it really is a a year round process from what happens at harvest to what's going on right now. Know, in the winter and the spring and the vineyards. So, yeah, that that's a great point. Because people think nothing people think nothing goes on during the dormant when that's not that's not the case. You know, there's a lot there's a lot of pruning. There's all kinds of, you know, budding. There's all kinds of things that's going on right now. People think like, okay, there's nothing on the vine so people just leave. It's like, no. There's there's an actual process going on as we speak. Right. Or bottling or what's happening in the cellar. There's there's always something going on. So, yeah, that's a that's a great point. So how about on your own page? What kind of content is most engaging to your followers? What do they respond best to? What's more engaging to me? Probably when I post like small producers, but What what's the most engaging our actual videos? That's that's what I need to start doing more, which I will eventually, but that really is what people engage and interact with. So I think that those are type of things that that people like And and again, I get a lot of I get a lot of positive feedback when I post my family. And why is that? Because it's authentic. That is true. That is it is my family. So when I post something that's do it wine, that's authentic or something that's fun, something that seems attainable and relatable. That's where I see a lot of engagement with those kind of things. Yeah. Definitely. I think the pictures I'm posting of my new puppy right now are by far highest engagement on my feed. People love to see the human side, right, of of a person's page. Now put your puppy next to Edna Rosa, and you'll be good. There we go. Two of my favorite things in one picture. Perfect. Now that's my perfect day in Italy. So video. Yeah. We talked about video a couple times. It's super engaging and important for social media. What what else is next on the horizon for social media and why? What do you see as maybe some lasting trends or some things that are new and and up and coming? Yeah. I think I kind of, touched on it a little bit earlier. It's, is the influencer space getting, probably getting more away from the ratings. You know, I don't think these these miners will submit for scores as much as opposed to, hey, let me get it in in front of this person and have them really share and celebrate my wine, you know, actually have a cool event coming up where I'm a be around a bunch of a list, you know, top celebrities. Actually, I'm a I'm a be around a couple of of guys from from mob movies, in the entire world. Yeah. So to to get the wine around them is kind of, you know, I'm pitching that to a couple companies like, hey, you know, would you wanna sponsor? Like, that'd be cool. Yeah. What about clubhouse? Have you gotten into the clubhouse game yet? Yeah. I did I did get into the clubhouse game. I did join a couple of of wine, club houses. And I think I I think I need to host my own. It should be well, because it I don't know. It's it's kind of the same stuff. There's only so much you could talk about when it comes into these club houses. So I need to find a way to make it, my own. But what I am gonna do, what I do have coming up is tomorrow. I'll be releasing the first episode of my own podcast, the one MVP podcast. Congratulations. That's exciting. No. Thank you. Yeah. On I'm watching it on National Wind Drinking Day. So that's it's kinda fitting. That's perfect. And tell us a little bit more about the wine MVP before we before we send off today. Yeah. So what exactly is the wine MVP? It's a it's a VIP wine concierge. I do everything from trips and tastings and a wine club sell curations, all kinds of things that has to do with wine. I'm the middle man, basically. So, you know, if someone's like, hey, we wanna go to Italy or I call up whoever I know out there and try to set it up for them. Somebody wants, you know, certain kind of they want this the shell stock with any kind of a county classical or or whatever, you know, a super tuscan or Bobaresco. I'm the person to make that happen. So I'm the I'm the bridge that I I mend the gap. I'm I'm I'm I get the party. I get the party going. That's basically what what the Y NavyP is. I love that. Right. And that's similar to what what, we do in YPR. It's bridging the gap. So can can totally relate to that. That's why we're friends. Exactly. Exactly. It's a fun position to be in. You know, you're kinda the key to the to the gate a lot of times and, the connector, and it it's a it's a fun place to be for sure. So thank you so much for joining us today, Will. And to our listeners, please give Will follow on Instagram at Will Blackman can check out the wine MVP, his new podcast, and everything that he's up to, including hanging out with, mob, movie stars and drinking wine. Also, this was our final episode in our wine business talk with Colangelo and Partner series on the Italian wine podcast. So thank you so much for tuning in and joining us. Follow what we're up to with all things wine and communications at calangelo PR on in Instagram, and you can find me at Jules with a Z collange on Instagram as well. And thank you again, Will, for being here. Thank you. And thanks everyone for tuning in. Thank you for listening to our final installment of one business talk brought to you by Colangelo and Partners. For more information on the show, you can visit w w w dot colangeloPR dot com. Join us again next week. As we keep the fresh content coming with narrations from the second jumbo shrimp guide to Italian wine book, international grape varieties in Italy. Remember to rate us wherever you listen to your podcasts. See you next time. Chinchin.