Blogs Help Stormhoek Double Wine Sales in 12 Months

Posted on January 16, 2006

Decanter reports that Stormhoek, a South African wine producer, doubled its wine sales in twelve months by reaching out to the blogosphere. Macleod also explains the campaign on his Gaping Void blog. Earlier this year Macleod gave away 100 complimentary bottles of Stormhoek wine to bloggers to see what would happen. Macloed says, "As it turned out, a lot of them ended up writing about it. A meme of sorts was created, and it spread."

Stormhoek wine also became more popular after a Microsoft connection was made according to the Decanter article.

It has also come to the notice of Robert Scoble of Microsoft's internal innovations division, after arch-blogger Macleod cannily namechecked Scoble. This prompted a reply from the Microsoft staffer, meaning that Stormhoek's blog campaign is now associated in bloggers' minds with Microsoft, which has done nothing to harm its cause.

Microsoft's internal innovations division? Maybe Microsoft really does have such a division. Stormhoek wine was also served at a Geek Dinner in London last December -- the Robert Scoble and Microsoft connection that the paragraph above was trying to explain. The PR downside to this story is that it would be difficult for a second wine producer to duplicate this campaign.