Altogether Unique

Read On

Kia ora,

It's been a great feeling to have finished the financial year having completed the activations of our refreshed brand platform, Altogether Unique, across our five key markets of the United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Australia and China. Hear about the most recent events and innovative approaches to telling our brand story with our inaugural Somewhat Sommit events in Melbourne and Brisbane and Bringing New Zealand to North America, targeting Canadian and US trade and media through one impactful event.

Also check out the impresisve stats from the Pour Yourself a Glass of New Zealand campaign, now in its second year, celebrating our most exported white wine varieties each May. The resulting equivalent media value of New Zealand Wine brand mentions doubled that of a year ago, reflecting that consistent, continued brand investment pays off.

In order to more accurately reflect the work of the New Zealand Winegrowers (NZW) marketing team, the name of this function will move to Brand. This has recently been endorsed by the NZW Board. Misha Wilkinson, chair of the brand committee, says the activities undertaken by NZW around the world are all about positioning te New Zealand wine brand so that it's seen as unique, premium and authentic, and represents diversity in terms of region and variety. "This work benefits our entire membership with the brand being one of the most critical factors in the premiumisation of New Zealand wine. It simply makes more sense to refer to this work under a Brand heading rather than Marketing."

Our focus on brand is reflected in the theme of our inaugural Wine Business Forum on 1 November, 'The Importance of Brand'. Please check out our events page for details - we hope to see you there.

Kia kaha, Charlotte

Charlotte Read is NZW General Manager Brand

Pour Yourself a Glass of New Zealand

For the second year, Pour Yourself a Glass of New Zealand, NZW's month-long celebration of New Zealand's white wine varieties, concluded at the end of May. The campaign not only shone a spotlight on the breadth of high-quality white wine that New Zealand produces but was also the drive behind the campaign for the white wine emoji, which once again was an attention-grabbing headline globally.

Category & Consumer Insights

Richard Lee, NZW Intel and Insights Specialist, recently presented an overview of New Zealand wine in the domestic market alongside three trade and research professionals across grocery (Haydyn Jones - Wine Category Manager, Countdown), online retail (Holly Brendling - General Manager, Black Market) and on-premise (James Phillips - Client Solutions Director, CGA by NielsenIQ). The session provided insights about New Zealand wine consumers in the domestic market, overlaid with insights from the guest speakers who interact with consumers and suppliers on a daily basis. A record number of members attended, reflecting the relevance of this topic. See the research, presentation and recording at nzwine.com/members/events/webinars/category-consumer-insights

Somewhat Sommit

NZW is focusing activity in the Australia market on influencers in the on-premise channel, targeting sommeliers, and conducted events in both Melbourne and Brisbane in June. The event format was an in-market adaption of the original Sommit concept, led by Cameron Douglas MS and Stephen Wong MW. Working in partnership with Sommeliers Australia, the 28 places for this application-only initiative were quickly snapped up. A trade tasting was held in the afternoon and attracted 80 attendees over the two cities, including key buyers from major retailers.