Effective wine business lifestyle event marketing

Joel Quigley is a marketing communications visionary who has shaped the contemporary wine business cultural lifestyle event landscape. His  ability to discover, analyze, adopt and then utilize emerging MarCom tools, ones that have now become a de rigueur part of any successful CMO’s or brand manager’s marketing tool kit, is a model to be studied and emulated.

I first met Joel in the 1990’s at a Wine Brats event at a hip restaurant/wine bar in San Francisco’s Hayes Valley. I’d received an email invite, then confirmed online and printed my event ticket and confirmation via my desktop printer. While receiving, responding and printing tickets is a common occurrence today, these actions were revolutionary in the mid-to-late 1990’s. By early 2000, Joel had developed  the Wine Brats into a national wine marketing power, utilizing what we now recognize as social media and by keying on the demographic group that’s the focus of every contemporary wine marketer – Millennials. Not only does Joel understand how to develop an effective, integrated wine marketing and communications vehicle, but he’s also a master at identifying the cues that resonate with targeted consumers, press and the wine trade.

In addition to a full slate of activities, for the last 7 years Joel has worked his magic on the Rosé category as ‘Director, Rosé Avengers & Producers. I had a chance to catch-up with the busy co-founder and President of Creative Furnace at the annual Pink Out! event at Butterfly Restaurant to talk about the viability and effectiveness of lifestyle events as part of integrated wine marketing tactics. Even though the trade portion of this high energy event was off to a quick start, Joel wanted to provide some perspective on what he considers key to the successful execution of wine centered lifestyle event marketing. Sitting on the set of that evening’s Taste Live broadcast, and with the cacophony of the energized crowd in the background, Joel shares his ideas and upcoming projects with the readers/viewers of the AoD vlog.

Wine Lifestyle Event Marketing

I had the chance to both work with and observe Joel in his various incarnations for more than a decade. It’s been one of my most enjoyable and enriching experiences. It’s also been a source of knowledge that’s contributed to my wine marketing skill set. Good marketers are curious. Top marketers incorporate the best marketing ideas from the innovators in a given space. Here are a few of my insights that I’ve gleamed from Joel:

• Identify and target specific wine affinity consumer groups, individuals and influencers
• Take the time to do the research to understand the key touch points
• Utilizing this knowledge, develop cultural lifestyle events that will engage this set of wine consumers in a memorable and meaningful way
• Wine is a key part of our cultural life experience that includes art, theater, music, movies, architecture and food. Incorporate some or all as part of the focus of your events to create long tail connections
• And, pay attention to every detail

Based on my prior interactions with Joel, I can say that he always throws a great party. He’s wired into the Southern California music and movie communities, and has produced the annual Musexpo, interfacing with the decision makers, artist and influencers from the major studios and labels. Joel has incorporated his deep music industry connections to produce a series of successful events for his clients. So, if you’re in Northern California on Saturday July 16th, and want to observe Joel live and inperson you should go to the Rootstock Festival in Santa Rosa. Knowing Joel, it’s going to be a rockin’ event.

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