The marketing power of blogs

Nick Dymoke-Marr bought 80ha of vineyards in the Doolhof valley in 2004 and established his new business, Stormhoek. Six months later, he sent a bottle of his sauvignon blanc to 150 of the UK's top bloggers with the message "Here's a nice wine, reasonably priced, tell us what you think." The bloggers, including Dr Andrew Jaffe, an astrophysicist at Imperial College London, and Robert Scoble, a senior executive at Microsoft, raved about the wine on their blogs. Monthly sales of Stormhoek's wine have doubled, and Nick won contracts with J Sainsbury and Majestic Wine. He has also seen a demand from retailers such as Asda and Threshers. Stormhoek now accounts for 20% of all South African wine sold at more than £5 a bottle in the UK. The blogging experience didn't end there. When Stormhoek decided to change the labelling on its bottles, they posted the idea on blogs first. Stormhoek also held wine tastings all over the UK co-ordinated through blogs. Its upcoming launch in the USA will be done in a similar campaign targeted at American bloggers.