Wine on TV comes to a Second Screen

February 5, 2013 in Consumer marketing with 4 Comments

 

Ever wondered what they were drinking on a TV show and wanted to know more? Maybe even try it yourself?

We know that product placement in TV and film is very effective if nothing else because of the amount of money that is charged for the privilege. It isn’t just films either, as the experience of Vin de Constance from South Africa attests when it was included in the second in the “50 Shades” series of books.

That Wine on TV - found

That Wine on TV – found

Last night, the BBC relaunched their Food & Drink TV brand that was instrumental to growing wine consumption in the UK in the 1980s and 1990s, but while the original series with Oz Clarke and Jilly Goolden recommended specific wines from exotic new locations such as Australia and Chile, the new programme only talks in general terms about the wine’s regional provenance and avoids showing the label.

Will that have an effect on wine? Maybe not directly, but indirectly it might:

  • help to widen the benefit of the profile to a category of wine instead of a single bottle
  • start a conversation about new regions
  • encourage exploration and a bit of fun ‘detective work’
  • allow producers to source more interesting wines from smaller regions and producers not on supermarket shelves

An appearance on TV or in a national newspaper used to guarantee sales, but this is no longer true as audiences dwindle and get fragmented.

Consumers today are not *that* interested in wine that they will suddenly jump up from their TVs and flood google’s servers with queries about wines from these new regions. Many will still want a bit more help in locating relevant wines. How do we connect interested consumers with willing suppliers?

What the world needs today is a more integrated information solution to information in the places consumers go to look for it.

The BBC is bound not to endorse any commercial brands, so there is a BIG opportunity for others to step in and provide this information alongside the TV show in what is known as “Second Screen” solutions.

Second Screen means that consumers are interacting with TV programmes on their main screen via a second device such as a computer, smartphone or tablet. They are commenting on appearances of their favourite celebrities via twitter or facebook while they watch it simultaneously. They are also searching for related information for holidays or ingredients.

What if someone were to help identify those ‘mystery’ wines, tell you where you could buy them, offer you similar alternatives that might be more attractively priced or conveniently stocked, and finally link to retailers (and monetise this through affiliate links)?

Just because the BBC can’t do this, doesn’t mean others could not.

To show what I mean, I set up That Wine on TV in a couple of hours last night (most of the time spent trying to identify the Dao red on the programme) which I will try to maintain for a while for fun.

There is a great deal of NEW opportunity in wine retail if we use social media not simply as a communication tool, but to create the sort of immediate, relevant and convenient tools that today’s wine consumers are looking for.

Deos anyone else have a good example of Second Screen solutions in action for wine?

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About Robert: Robert McIntosh is a wine blogger and online communicator on WineConversation.com, a prolific twitterer (@thirstforwine) and an occasional contributor to wine magazines as well as speaking at wine events. Robert is co-organiser of the annual European Wine Bloggers Conference and Born Digital Wine Awards, promotes international online wine communication, and advises companies about how to engage through social media. Robert also has some trouble communicating in the third person.

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  • http://arnoldwaldstein.com/ awaldstein

    Hi Robert

    Building merchandising connections between products on the screen and online connections to retail has been a funded direction for startups and big brand catalogs here in the states for the last 3-5 years.

    None took off and most were fashion or branded goods. Too complex an integration and for whatever reason a good idea that the market just didn’t want. Then at least.

    With wine and in your market I’ll be interested to watch. Too many factors including whether the show itself has enough connection.

    Did GaryV’s show sell? Yup different circumstance.

    What we are doing here at the street level is beginning to attach a layered approach where bloggers/journalists move and write independently about regions or wines and retailers supported by distributors create mini tasting ‘festivals’ at retail.

    Spot tests show interesting promise. Will become more formal later in the year. Organizationally challenging but a different slant to creating a similar new opportunity for all.

  • Adrian

    Absolutely, 33% of GB Adults watch TV and use another internet connected devise. 20% of GB adults are heavy dual users and do it daily. The Sainsbury’s Carlton TV JV and the supporting Oddbins JS wine JV was all about this, just 10 years too early. Jamie Oliver cooking on a travel show in Australia on the banks of Jacob’s Creek was the idea – press red/click here/wave your hand/say buy to order the wine, recipe, ingredients and book the holiday

    • http://thirstforwine.co.uk thirstforwine

      interesting, time is only becoming right now with more integrated devices and content, so I am not surprised it failed before. Thanks for this, and lets see what other interesting projects might now arise (and succeed)

  • BruceMcGechan

    I found this article on my laptop while looking at a HK wine twitter account, I then decided the blog was a great find so I put it into my RSS reader on my iPad, & I often catch up on interesting blogs while watching a TV with my iPad on my knee. Which makes me two things 1) a geek and 2) absolutely normal…

    Google released this study:
    http://services.google.com/fh/files/misc/multiscreenworld_final.pdf
    on how people use multiple devices (phone, tablet, laptop) while doing various things in various places – including shopping. Sometimes it simultaneous (your TV example) and sometimes sequential.

    The shopping one is interesting because often people will start out on a mobile (regardless of being at home or not) and move on to the laptop. TV is the sexiest example of this second screen phenomenon but the more mundane smaller second screens, mobile and iPad, are perhaps more important.