Ep. 1310 Native Digital Content | wine2wine Business Forum 2021

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A wine to wine business forum twenty twenty one media partner is proud to present A series of sessions highlighting the key themes and ideas from the two day event held on October the eighteenth and nineteenth twenty twenty one. This hybrid edition of the business forum was jam packed with the most informed speakers discussing some of the hottest topics in the wine industry today. For more information, please visit wine to wine dot net and tune in every Thursday at two pm Central European time for more episodes recorded during this latest edition of wine to wine business forum. Hi, everybody. My name is Adam Teeter, and I am one of the co founders of Vine Air. And I'm joined today by Josh, who is my co founder in Vinepere. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Vinepere, Vinepere is the most read publication about wine, beer, and the spirits in the United States. We reach over thirty two million, people every single month, and we are a digitally native publication. So we don't do any print. Everything is digital, whether that's audio, video, or written. And so today, what we're gonna do is share why you should be investing in your marketing campaigns digitally with, digitally focused publishers. So there are lots of great publishers out there. We don't have access to their data. We only have access to ours. So that's what we're gonna share with you in order to present this case, these case studies. But, you know, there are lots of great partners you can work with. We're just presenting the data that we have, so that, you know, we can actually show you true scale. That's why you're just seeing campaigns that we've got in the past. So I'm gonna go ahead and share my screen and run start the presentation. This entire, presentation today is all about why you should be investing in native digital content. As I will explain, and, Josh will explain as we move forward, right, what we mean by native digital content is it's content that's been created specifically for the digital space. So whether that's articles, videos, audio, infographics, etcetera. This is content that really, exists digitally that you can access via your computer, your phone, your tablet, etcetera. While different marketing campaigns have different goals, right, they all share one thing in common. Right? And that's that that it runs. People did or didn't see it, and that's a route. What I mean by that is when it comes to campaigns, you might run on television or in print, right, once that campaign has run. So once your full page ad in in a magazine runs, maybe it winds up in the doctor's office, and and people can see it that way. But for the most part, after that campaign runs, it's over. You don't really know who saw it. There's not a lot of data there for you to be able to tell, was it seen by ten people? Is it seen by two thousand people? You only know if they took action after seeing that ad and there's no long term life of that ad. Right? The the magazine gets recycled. Hopefully, the, you know, the television ad is never seen again. Unless, I don't know if someone maybe D. V. R. Of the television program you're watching or the you you then just match that you were checking out because there was a great play in the middle of it. Right? And so maybe that I have a scene again, but for the most part, once those ads run, they're done. And so as a marketer, right, that's really frustrating because There's no way to really prove with that kind of with those kinds of ads if the ad really had any real value. Right? There's no way to know who saw it. We don't have a lot of data there in Nielsen reports when it comes to TV, but we don't really know deep down if the right people saw the ad that we were trying to use to target people to grow our brand, right? In this case, wine brands. Right? We don't know, you know, if people were motivated by the ad, etcetera, and that's really frustrating. But digital solves a lot of that. So when we come to native advertising in the form of content marketing, right, we see something different. And that is that although the campaign may have had a defined window, we have a benefit that that campaign actually can live on for a very long time. And so what do I mean by that? Well, first, during the window of that campaign, there is a possibility to be very active in the strategy of that campaign, and the optimization of that campaign. So headlines can be changed. Images can be changed. We can really look in real time to say, is the audience we want to reach on the digital publishing platform we're working with, reaching the right audience. Right? Are are calls to action working. If we're asking people to go to wine dot com to buy the wine, is that actually working? If we're asking people to sign up for a newsletter to learn more about our wine in the future, is that actually working? We can see all that in real time, which know, again, once a print ad is in print, you can't see that. But then the other really amazing added benefit which we're gonna get into today is that digital ads live on forever. And so what we mean by that is that, you know, as a digital publisher, most digital publishers do not delete. The ads once they've run. Now I wanna be very clear that I'm talking about native content. I'm not talking about display ads. So I'm not talking about the the banners you might see at the top and sides of the website when you go to visit that website, read an article. I'm talking about actually an ad that is an article or an ad that is an infographic or a video, etcetera. And publishers are not in the habit of deleting those articles. So what that means is that basically the ads can live on and continue to deliver a return for you in perpetuity. So as a marketer who's looking to make investments, they're really smart investments, especially if you're working with well respect publishers. Because if you work with a well respected publisher, you're able to take advantage of their position in the market, and that is respected by Google, social, etcetera, to continue to see return year after year after year. And we're gonna show you this by exploring two case studies. One is a case study that looks at. Aprilola centric made an advertising campaign. The fontan operator ran with us in two thousand sixteen It is still delivering returns. And the other is a campaign that we're currently running with E and J Gallow around an audio podcast. Again, to just continue to illustrate how much you're able to see continued return even after the campaign hasn't reached its life cycle. Right? So again, thank you, up, it's from a print ad. You might buy a print ad in a publication in July, and that's when the ad ran. Well, in this case, you might have you know, had some either trying to promote in July of two thousand sixteen, then that ad continues to deliver returns in August and September, in October, in November, etcetera, on and on and on. So I'm gonna explain a little bit about this campaign, and then I'm gonna let Josh actually go into the analysis of the data. So, if we look at case number one, right, we're gonna look at this campaign that Fonto ran with us in two thousand six team. So they came to, our partnerships team and said, hey, we want to raise awareness of Barolo for a younger generation wine additional. So we wanna use an article as a way to, you know, educate millennials who are the the vast majority of Vinepear readership about Bavola. So in order to solve this problem, we created an article that was really a guide to everything we need to know about Barolo as a as a young wine drinker, and we used fonts on Alfreda as the current as the example in every situation. Right? So who kept pushing Fontano famous wines throughout this article that was really an, you know, intro to borolo. Right? So they they paid for the intro to borolo, which leaves them through that entire intro. Right? So it continues to reinforce fontaine Alfreda is a really amazing wine for people who are interested in drinking borolo. But it also provided value. Right? So you did learn a lot. Because I just learned a name about fontaine Frrera. You learned a lot about borolo in general. Right? So it serves two purposes, and that's why this article continues to perform well today. So post campaign, right, because of our sort of position as a respected publisher, the article took a top position in Google search results on the first page when you search for Barolo, Josh and grab me for a moment, but it's either first or second at this point in time. So now throughout, you know, five years later, anytime someone in the United States is looking for a barolo and looking to learn about barolo, and searching for barolo, there's a huge possibility that they land on this article, which is, in fact, an ad where they learn about parole, but they also learn about Fontana Freda. So if you think about that in terms of an investment, the returns are insane. Right? Because you are continuing to gain returns on an article that you bought with a budget you had in two thousand sixteen. So that's why advertising digitally is so interesting because you can really think about the digital campaign you're running as much more long term investments than just this is the budget I have for this year. I need to spend, you know, with my beautiful photoshoot, etcetera. You can continue to see returns year after year after year. So I'm gonna let Josh jump into the the data around this to really illustrate the point I'm making. Yeah. So what this chart shows is the cumulative, number of people who've ever read this article. So as you can see back in, October of twenty sixteen, The article was published while, we were working on another part of the campaign with Fonton Alfreda as part of that campaign. We produced an event for them, in New York City to again bring in that demographic. And around then, that was the window. Sort of Adam was talking about of when it was published, pushed to an initial audience. And they should also stress we were, only, about two and a half years old at that point. We were a much smaller publisher back then. So what you see though over time is a very steady relentless rise month after month after month for almost five years of people continuing to find this article, read it, and go down, you know, get their introduction to Barolo in being framed by Fontana Frida. So to this day, the article ranks on the first page for dozens of really high value search queries you know, from barolo, barolo wine, like, learn about barolo, on and on and on. And as you can see on the chart, it is very, very steady. It just keeps rising. Thousands and thousands of people every month, for five years to continue to find, read this article. And as they begin their journey to drinking Barolo, Fontana Frida, is who's welcoming them in. Are you enjoying this podcast? Don't forget to visit our YouTube channel, mama jumbo shrimp for fascinating videos covering Stevie Kim and her travels across Italy and beyond, meeting winemakers, eating local food, and taking in the scenery. Now, back to the show. And so again, just to, you know, to stress here. This is this is results you're you'll see when you work with established publishers like us, like other people in the space that have, you know, this sort of editorial authority that, you know, is then recognized and allows these articles to continue to deliver value year after year after year. So, you know, cumulatively, what's really amazing, right, is that this has been read by almost two hundred fifty thousand people since this article was published. That's insane results. Those are specific numbers that we can give, but you can't you can't get from a print ad or from a commercial. Right? So we don't know how people actually watch a commercial that you might have read. You know, you might have paid for. Or Yeah. And it's a it's a good thing to sort of frame this number in that. Remember, these people aren't looking at a banner ad. This is a banner ad. We could've done it, you know, those are numbers you can deliver overnight if you have scale. But this is people who actually sat down and spent time minutes to read an article, much much higher impact. And much more difficult to see the kind of scale you're seeing here. Yeah. Versus again, a display ad, sure. You know, you can spend, you know, a really untargeted CPM a couple bucks and blast out a hundred thousand display impressions. I know it won't remember the next day. Whereas this, someone spent again the time to read this and really dig into the topic. So I think, you know, it's important for you as as marketers truly think about it as, and we'll I'll share this in the next example as well in the next case study. But, you know, if you look at this growth chart, this is what we see with the majority of campaigns that we run on behind there. We obviously want to do fonts on Alfredo because it is you know, it's a campaign that ran so long ago. We wanted to show that even since two thousand sixteen, it continues to deliver, results. But then also, you know, you can see that these really are investments. And I think as marketers as we were moving more digitally, it's important to start, like, thinking that way. I think, you know, we used to be taught that, like, everything was campaign focused. It was like, you know, we we have, like, year long campaign and then we strategize for the next year. And we scrap everything we've done, and we move on to something different. But what vigil allows you to do is really make long term bets and to take positions that are, you know, lucrative for you. So You know, funds on Alfredo welcoming a young generation of wine drinkers into the water polo is really impactful. Right? But there's now two hundred and fifty thousand people in the United States who have read this article deeply and now know the name of this wine. That is incredible results for the amount of money that you would have paid in two thousand sixteen. So you amortize that across what six years of the life of, you know, this article being live, and it sent pennies on the dollar compared to what you would spend. If you're taking out a print ad, that then is, you know, winds up on a doctor's office, you know, reception desk or indoor cycling event. So the second, case that we're gonna go through, and I'll sort of explain it and let Josh jump into the data again is a ongoing sponsorship we have with E and J Gallow. So together with E and J Gallow, we produce a podcast that's now about to be in our third season, called wine one zero one. And the entire purpose of this podcast is to educate American drinkers about wine and help serve Galla's mission of winning new friends to wine. So since it's inception, this is become the most listened to wine education podcast in America. And each season consists of thirty episodes that dive deep into specific subjects, whether that's how does taste line to everything you need to know about Pianti or, you know, everything you need to know about parole, things like that. And each episode is sponsored by Gallup. They have ads at the beginning and end of each episode, and their products are weaved throughout the episode. So if we're talking about, you know, Amaroni, then Allegrini, which is a, a wine that is brought into the United States by Gallo, is discussed as one of the examples during that episode. We're talking about napa Cabernet. We also talk about Lewis Martinez and the wires there on there, napa. So it's it's very seamless. It's very organic, but we're very upfront that this is a co production between us and Gallow when we released this podcast. And the podcast just continues to do better and better and better each year, each month. And what's amazing about this podcast, what Josh will explain, is that it is a podcast where, again, is evergreen. So the very beginning, episodes that aired in the first season are still some of the most listened to out of all the episodes because people discover the podcast and then go back and download everything else, listen to every single episode. So it continues to deliver returns for both us and Gallo month after month after month. Yeah. So this chart, yeah, we're gonna look at three charts. This one shows, the number of monthly listeners. And so this is a bit different than the previous chart. It's not a cumulative chart. It's showing the the monthly audience. And you can see it's a fairly straight line of the audience growing month after month after month. The only little dips you see in there is in January twenty twenty one. We took him, a break between the first and second season, but again, showing the power of how much people kept finding the first episodes and starting their journey. The dip was barely perceptible. And then in August, what we did, we took a a half month break, and you can't even see a dip because the podcast kept growing a larger and larger new audience. As again, people kept coming in starting their journey, and I'm gonna quantify that for you in the next slide. Yeah. So I think, you know, what's interesting to see here that's different than, the last example we gave the Fonton Alfred. Example is a one campaign purchase. Right? It's like you bought one house. That's it. And then it returns for you over the course of its life. This is like continuing to buy houses in a neighborhood. Right? So you're you're investing every single month in more and more and more content, which delivers a different kind of return that, you know, is also very advantageous. Yeah. So we have two charts here. For those of you who are not familiar with the podcast market in the US, it's evolved quite a bit over the past. Two years as Spotify has begun to focus a lot on podcasts. So what we wanted to do is break out the charts, illustratively from September of the most listened to episodes on Apple Podcasts and the rest of world of podcasts. And then Spotify because the platforms do have different dynamics, and it's something that, you know, we have deep insights into as a publisher of podcasts for many, many years. So you'll see, in the first chart, three three of the top ten most downloaded episodes, outside of Spotify were from the first season. They were episodes number one, two, and three. Spotify where you have, more algorithmic driven discovery process going on. You can see that those early episodes actually dominate the top ten as the podcast is accelerating the number of new people it's bringing in on spotify. It's doing that on the outside of Spotify as well, but on Spotify, the platform dynamics are making it even faster so that you have seven of the ten most listened to episodes, eight about eighteen months after it debuted. Are the first seven episodes. Those people are presumably gonna go on, and we've seen this behavior now for months and months and months to listen to the vast majority of other podcasts. In the series, which is closing in now on close to seventy episodes. So, I mean, I think, you know, we we wanted to try to drive home here from these examples that we've shown is that, you know, as we're continuing to become more of a digitally native society, it's really important that as marketers, you think more about digitally native content and think about them as lasting investments. Right? So while there are lots of ways to spend your marketing dollars. You know, we obviously would encourage you to think about digital content as a way to make deeper investments. So, you know, the the core here really is that you wanna buy something that appreciates instead of depreciates. Right? So the best example I can give is for all of you that, automobiles. Right? You know that the second you take that car off a lot, it begins to depreciate value. That's the same with a print ad or intelligent commercial. Right? Whereas with a digitally native ad, it actually can appreciate in the same way as a house, and it can, you know, deliver returns for you year after year after year, which is why we wanted to show you data. We never really show anyone. You know, again, it's very important that you just work with a respected publisher. That does not have to be lined there. That can be lots of other publishers in the United States. You know, the publishers that have authority and respect. And that you understand and are digitally native. So we would say that the best guarantee for your return in working in the United States digitally is we're gonna publish a who does digital first. Right? So a digital first publisher because they understand, you know, how to create content that then we'll deliver the kind of results that we're showing today. But I think, you know, it's really important to have in your arsenal when you think about, you know, what you plan to do in the US and how you plan to achieve goals and not just the US at this point, you know, in all of Europe and in most of Asia. Right? This has been dorm in terms of how you're able to market. But if you if you think about your marketing budget in this regard and that the stuff you're doing digitally can be seen more really as deep investments, like building, you know, an extension of your winery. As opposed to one off spends. I think you'll wind up getting a lot more for your dollar, and it'll make you think a lot differently about your marketing campaigns in the future. That is, our presentation. Thank you guys very much. It's been great, so we're not there this year. But we will, we will see everyone hopefully next year. Listen to the Italian wine podcast wherever you get your podcasts. We're on SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, HimalIFM, and more. Don't forget get to subscribe and rate the show. If you enjoy listening, please consider donating through Italian wine podcast dot com. Any amount helps cover equipment, production, and publication costs. Until next time, teaching.