Banfi App Eases Wine Selection

Old Brookville, N.Y. — Banfi Vintners promoted several of its South American wine brands through an app that lets shoppers select wine by certain criteria such as occasion or type of food. Banfi targeted shoppers who may not be up to speed on varietals, vintage and vineyards and want that information while standing in the wine aisle.Available for both Android and iPhone smartphones, Hello Vino's app lets consumers select wines from different brands based on a variety of factors, including meal selection, special occasion, taste preference and price, says Jim Kopp, Hello Vino's vice president of strategic development."Wineries have been spending a lot of money on point-of-purchase materials," says Kopp. "[This program] is a modern way to reach people."For Banfi, the promotion was a way to reach technologically savvy Millennial consumers while taking advantage of the growing trend of people using the Internet to research purchases from within a store. "They're more educated than previous generations, and they're doing more research," says Ed Barden, Banfi's new world portfolio director. "The more we read about them, we discovered they really like to research the wines, and they do it online."Throughout December, Banfi promoted several of its South American wine varietals through the app, which operates much like Google's pay-per-click advertising system, pushing promoted brands to the top of its recommendations. As with Google, those results are clearly marked as part of a paid sponsorship, says Kopp. When a consumer got results showing specific types of wines – for instance, Chardonnay and Pinot Grigio – Banfi's wines appeared at the top of the list. According to Hello Vino, Banfi's Chardonnay saw a 526% increase in impressions and 443% increase in clicks, compared to non-sponsored spots within the app.Banfi distributed tags to be hung on bottles in retail outlets across the country (with store personnel placing the tags on the bottles). The bottle neck tags directed in-store customers to use the Hello Vino app. Through the partnership, Banfi's wines – including brands such as Bolla, Concha y Toro and Trivento – were likely to reach the top of the promotional list. Other promotions included mentioning the app in Facebook and other social media feeds, Barden says.The result: Banfi's brands experienced an average 245% increase in awareness and a 213% increase in consumer engagement. Those numbers were enough to merit another look at how the company can use the mobile app in other ways, Barden says."We see other ways to take what they're doing and add additional elements to prompt consumers to our brands," he says, declining to offer specifics. "With each generation, they like to adopt their own wines, and this whole new generation is going to be looking for their own products. It's a good time to seed our products with them."

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