ARTICLE SHARE: Paul Mabray: The Battlegrounds That Wine Needs To Win On

Back in 2004, Paul Mabray hired me on as the first employee of Inertia Beverage Group ( its current iteration is WineDirect) after the then 5 founders. I was hired to train and manage the clients using the IBG software to run their winery websites. When I came on board, we had a dozen clients. Eventually grew, added more employees, and many more clients, and my role expanded into Biz Dev as social media came on the scene a few years later, I assisted wineries with email and social media efforts. I remember the client symposium we had every year and in 2005 we talked about this new "thing" out there called Facebook, Twitter, etc. The clients looked at us at this symposium like we were crazy. I could almost hear a collective "Wait, I have to tweet what and how many cases would that sell?"  That's NOT how this works, folks...we collectively thought back at them!

Paul was championing DTC for years before he founded IBG and it was a hard sell back then. Almost 20 years later, it is great to see so many wineries embracing this, but so many still only give it a half-hearted effort.  They build wine club and email lists, but don't send out regular emails (I STILL hear..." but I am afraid they will cancel their membership if we reach out other than sending their club shipment..arrrgghh! Yeah..but they will cancel eventually anyway..why lose those potential re-orders and orders beyond the few club shipments each year!!!

Of course, in 20 years, the market has changed. Demographics have changed. The younger generations that are now of drinking age have shifted focus. The pandemic hit and changed focus. Lots of changes in 20 years. I pulled this one paragraph from the article:

"What do you see as the big outstanding opportunities, and how do you see the industry capitalizing on them?

It’s no secret that I firmly believe both the digital and direct-to-consumer (DTC) approaches are essential for the future of our industry. It’s indisputable that we live in a digital age, where technology is the foundation for communicating, connecting, exploring, researching, and making purchases. Practically everyone in the industry now utilizes mobile devices, engages with social media, relies on search engines, and shops online. Yet, paradoxically, we underutilize these tools when promoting our brands, sharing our stories, and engaging with current and prospective customers."

There are so many great points Paul makes in this article as he prepared to go to Wine Future in Portugal in November about the future of the wine industry and his thoughts on the technology side of the industry. I just found this article. I can't wait to hear what he had to say at Wine Future!

Read the entire article:

Paul Mabray: The Battlegrounds That Wine Needs To Win On