Drive Recognition of a Sparkling Wine Brand Worthy of Discovery

The Challenge

Generate earned media coverage for South African sparkling wine brand during the most competitive time of year for the category (OND).

Drive awareness for lesser-known sparkling wine style and region.

To begin, we worked with the Graham Beck team to develop and refine key messaging to be used with press and consumers alike. Introducing sparkling wines from a lesser-known area of the wine world required careful consideration of the language to be used in explaining how Cap Classique sparkling wines stand apart from the rest.

Graham Beck’s background and prestige within the South African wine community was unparalleled. Cellar master Pieter Ferreira has been at the helm since 1991 and was also the head of the Cap Classique association. The challenge was to make the US market as aware of this and demonstrate the company’s dedication to premium sparkling wines. The time was right to strike, with consumption of sparkling wines climbing every year, and not just at the end of year holiday season. There was also growth in interest from wine lovers to find new discoveries in the wines on offer.

So how do you introduce a new category of sparkling wines, from a less familiar wine area to US press and wine lovers?

The Solution

Creating a messaging strategy that would drive brand awareness and recognition.

Leveraging the immense expertise of Graham Beck’s cellar master, as well as current market and wine drinking trends, Benson developed tools through which to share key messaging. Targeted story angles were deployed with key publications and writers, and an educational press webinar was developed to create a personal connection between the brand and spokesperson, Pieter Ferreira. From 2020 through 2022, these actions paid dividends in the way of exceptional earned media coverage in a wide variety of top outlets, especially during the October, November, December time frame which is a key selling season for any sparkling wines.

• Messaging Focus: Create a Brand Messaging Plan to refine brand’s story and core messages.
• Media Outreach: Highly targeted PR Pitching Campaign with story angle development.
• Educational Press Webinar: Hosted virtual event in fall 2020 to introduce wines to a broad group of 34 writers resulting in coverage well into the following year.

Results

• 11M+

  Impressions in 2020

• National Placements

  The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg.com, Worth.com, Saveur.com, Good Housekeeping, Food & Wine

“What a pleasant surprise this juicy, citrusy sparkler from South Africa’s Graham Beck is.”
– Ray Isle, Food & Wine

Graham Beck sparkling wines reached a significant in brand recognition at the end of 2020, when placements and recommendations for the wines appeared in an avalanche of coverage. Writers at The Wall Street Journal, Good Housekeeping, Worth.com and others all included the wines in their sparkling wine coverage for the holiday season. Benson continued to work the story angles and opportunities and points of contact produced by the webinar to drive further placements in similarly impressive and nationally reaching outlets, such as Country Living, Saveur.com, Food & Wine, etc. Proof that getting in front of the press with the right messaging and getting product in hand for trial will yield results.