Charting the Wine Media Landscape w/ Natalie MacLean, nataliemaclean.com

07/21/21 • 44 min

Natalie MacLean, a podcaster and writer based in Ottawa, Canada, has been bringing people into her wine world for over 20 years. With two books, a newsletter with over 300,000 subscribers, a mobile app, and the Unreserved Wine Talk podcast, Natalie’s main focus is on perfecting her food and wine pairing courses - The Wine Smart Course and an upcoming course on wine and cheese. Natalie tells us about how she built her personal brand, the most effective marketing channels she’s used, and where her primary revenue drivers are. If you’re interested in navigating how to be successful in the world of wine, Natalie’s journey provides key insights.

Detailed Show Notes:

Natalie’s background
- Has an MBA, did consumer packaged goods (“CPG”) marketing at P&G and tech
- She took a sommelier course and fell in love with wine, as a full-bodied experience
- Started as a writer - cold-called editors, then wrote books, and now publishes a podcast - Unreserved Wine Talk
- She didn’t drink alcohol until she was in her late 20’s
- Brunello was the wine that got her into wine
Current focus - online food and wine pairing courses
- Focused on 2 courses only - believes in doubling down on the Unique Selling Proposition (“USP”), wants to perfect courses vs. add more
- #1 - The Wine Smart Course
  - Lifetime access to materials
  - 5 modules
  - Pre-recorded videos (on-demand, all “snackable” - 7-9 minutes in length, 70-75 videos)
  - Live webinars via Zoom - bi-weekly tastings
- #2 - Beta: Wine & Cheese Pairing
- Appeals to both consumers and hospitality and trade professionals b/c of the focus on food and wine pairing
- It starts with food, then pairs the wine
- Leverages some research from Tim Hanni, MW
- Free wine and food pairing guide
Core audience - vast, similar to the general population
Newsletter / website
- 300k email subscribers - free to join, C$3/mo for access to wine reviews
- Has pairing tips (more depth in courses), a lot of free videos
- It started as an email to friends and family
- Uses LCBO pricing
Wine scores
- People use them as a shorthand for quality, to calculate the quality to price ratio (“QPR”)
- People requested it, and now it’s a service for readers
- Passion is writing
Mobile app
- Free to download
- Scans front label and bar codes
- Integrated liquor store pricing and inventory across the country (Canada) via API’s to provincial liquor control boards
- Features - virtual cellar, wishlist, buy lists
US wines in Canada
- CA, WA, OR, NY well represented
- #1 export market for US wines
- During Covid - premium wines (C$20+) have done well, benefiting US wines
Canadian wine palate - driven more towards cool climate wines, Canada’s heritage is beer and whiskey
Marketing Natalie’s brand
- Built over 20 years, started the website in 2000
- Started with the books (Red, White, and Drunk All Over; Unquenchable) - published by Randomhouse, book tour, Amazon’s bestseller list - led to broad reach and TV and other media appearances and “exploded” newsletter subscribers
- Podcast a core channel now
  - Podcast listeners stay with you, and most listen 80-100% through
  - Podcast listeners and paid online courses have the strongest overlap
- Leverage and cross-purpose content to broaden the reach to many channels
  - Podcast videos for FB Live
- Social media - gets people over to newsletter or free wine and food pairing guide, low commitment, usually not paying
- Nothing beats email
- Always strives to deliver value first - drive to something free (e.g., free class/webinar), then promotes paid courses
Main revenue drivers
- #1 - online courses
- #2 - wine review subscriptions
- #3 - online advertising

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Detailed Show Notes:

Natalie’s background
- Has an MBA, did consumer packaged goods (“CPG”) marketing at P&G and tech
- She took a sommelier course and fell in love with wine, as a full-bodied experience
- Started as a writer - cold-called editors, then wrote books, and now publishes a podcast - Unreserved Wine Talk
- She didn’t drink alcohol until she was in her late 20’s
- Brunello was the wine that got her into wine
Current focus - online food and wine pairing courses
- Focused on 2 courses only - believes in doubling down on the Unique Selling Proposition (“USP”), wants to perfect courses vs. add more
- #1 - The Wine Smart Course
  - Lifetime access to materials
  - 5 modules
  - Pre-recorded videos (on-demand, all “snackable” - 7-9 minutes in length, 70-75 videos)
  - Live webinars via Zoom - bi-weekly tastings
- #2 - Beta: Wine & Cheese Pairing
- Appeals to both consumers and hospitality and trade professionals b/c of the focus on food and wine pairing
- It starts with food, then pairs the wine
- Leverages some research from Tim Hanni, MW
- Free wine and food pairing guide
Core audience - vast, similar to the general population
Newsletter / website
- 300k email subscribers - free to join, C$3/mo for access to wine reviews
- Has pairing tips (more depth in courses), a lot of free videos
- It started as an email to friends and family
- Uses LCBO pricing
Wine scores
- People use them as a shorthand for quality, to calculate the quality to price ratio (“QPR”)
- People requested it, and now it’s a service for readers
- Passion is writing
Mobile app
- Free to download
- Scans front label and bar codes
- Integrated liquor store pricing and inventory across the country (Canada) via API’s to provincial liquor control boards
- Features - virtual cellar, wishlist, buy lists
US wines in Canada
- CA, WA, OR, NY well represented
- #1 export market for US wines
- During Covid - premium wines (C$20+) have done well, benefiting US wines
Canadian wine palate - driven more towards cool climate wines, Canada’s heritage is beer and whiskey
Marketing Natalie’s brand
- Built over 20 years, started the website in 2000
- Started with the books (Red, White, and Drunk All Over; Unquenchable) - published by Randomhouse, book tour, Amazon’s bestseller list - led to broad reach and TV and other media appearances and “exploded” newsletter subscribers
- Podcast a core channel now
  - Podcast listeners stay with you, and most listen 80-100% through
  - Podcast listeners and paid online courses have the strongest overlap
- Leverage and cross-purpose content to broaden the reach to many channels
  - Podcast videos for FB Live
- Social media - gets people over to newsletter or free wine and food pairing guide, low commitment, usually not paying
- Nothing beats email
- Always strives to deliver value first - drive to something free (e.g., free class/webinar), then promotes paid courses
Main revenue drivers
- #1 - online courses
- #2 - wine review subscriptions
- #3 - online advertising

Get access to library episodes

Hosted on Acast. Se...

Previous Episode

What People Want from Fine Wine w/ Pauline Vicard, ARENI Global

Getting at the heart of what consumers want is essential for any business, but a vastly understudied area in the world of fine wine. Pauline Vicard, Executive Director of ARENI Global, follows up her interview on Episode 28 and shares with us their latest research on the fine wine consumer - “The Future of Fine Wine Consumers 2021.” We explore the role of fine wine merchants, how and why consumers buy fine wine, and the key attributes of fine wine brands. The work covers the US, UK, China, and Hong Kong, and we discover the differences between consumers in each location. We even touch on diversity and inclusion in the fine wine world. An impactful, cornerstone interview to better understand the mindset of the fine wine consumer, a must listen!

Detailed Show Notes:

Pauline was the guest of Episode 28, where she shared findings from the 2019 research on the Fine Wine Consumer
ARENI Global background
- ARENI is a global research and action institute dedicated to the future of Fine Wine. Creating conversation platforms for the Fine Wine ecosystem, ARENI brings together critical thinkers, from iconic Fine Wine producers to leading academics and business leaders, resulting in a well-researched, global and multi-disciplinary approach to a world undergoing change.
- ARENI studies six main forces of change and regularly publishes on:
  - The Fine Wine Consumer: A Customer-Centric Approach
  - Changing Societies: Fine Wine Evolving Social framework
  - The Digital Economy and Transformative technology
  - Access to market: Towards new commercial routes
  - Sustainability 2.0: Acting now, thinking long term
  - Money: An Essential Force of Conflict
- Wants to break traditional silos to share information and collaborate, including with other industries
- Organizes think tank platforms and conducts research studies
- ARENI publishes a bi-monthly, free newsletter. To keep in touch with their research, publications, and events, sign up.
Fine Wine Consumer Research
- 2019 - was more qualitative research
- 2020 - “The Future of Fine Wine Consumers 2021”
  - more quantitative research
  - Studied fine wine consumers in the US, UK, China, and Hong Kong
Definition of Fine Wine
- Complex, balanced, potential to age
- Produces emotions, reflects the winemaker’s intentions
- Environmentally, socially, and financially sustainable (new part of the definition)
- Price is not in the definition but used price brackets from La Place de Bordeaux for quantitative studies (€30+, €150+, €450+)
Consumers perceptions of fine wine
- Perceive it more as brands/chateaux
- The average fine wine consumer can name 2.5 wineries, most common ones - Lafite, Latour, and Petrus
- Does not associate fine wine as much with country, grape variety, or type of wine
- US consumers >35 know more brands than those <35
Fine wine merchants
- Consumers very loyal to merchants, but not exclusive, tend to source from several
- Have high expectations of merchants, want them to bring a diversity of wines and recommend new things
- Key attributes: high customer service, pristine condition of wines, guarantee against fraud, want access to allocations and exclusive events, and easy delivery
- Want access to the merchant through diverse communication channels but still have the human/personal touch
How consumers choose a fine wine
- #1 - vintage (UK, China, Hong Kong)
- Burgundy buyers use both vintage and producer
- Scores are still important, but most people don’t follow specific critics or guide books, but they still use the scores as validation of the quality of the wine
- Price is not a key driver
- #3 factor - grape variety
- The reputation of the brand and winery important
- Least important factor - celebrity or influencer recommendations
Storytelling
- Not as important as was expected, the wine’s story is not relevant for every fine wine consumer
- Some want wines because of their status or what tastes the best
Why consumers buy fine wine
- Intimate consumption was bigger than expected - wine as a treat for self and/or partner (US, UK)
- Special occasions, formal social events (Hong Kong, China)
- Gifting (China)
- Formal wine tastings (UK)
- Business occasions (China)
- Food and wine pairing (particularly in China)

Next Episode

Bringing Wine to Life w/ Jacki Strum, Wine Enthusiast Media

Growing up around wine has not dimmed the passion Jacki Strum brings to her work as President of Wine Enthusiast Media. In the first of a series on the evolution of the wine critic, Jacki tells us about how Wine Enthusiast has expanded its platform from print into web, social media, podcasts, and even Tik Tok. As well as how they assess wines (blindly) as a wine critic and how those ratings are used to help people buy wine. We really get under the hood of the wine media business in this episode of XChateau!

Detailed Show Notes:

Jacki's background
- She grew up in wine (her parents founded Wine Enthusiast in the late 1970s)
- Studied wine through WSET Level 3
- Digital media in wine & spirits background
- Founded Thirsty Nest - a wine & spirits gift registry platform, media, and commerce hybrid that is part of Wine Enthusiast
Wine media in the late 1980s
- Wine Enthusiast (“WE”) magazine founded in 1988, Robert Parker wrote for WE for a while
- Wine Spectator was around, but not much else
- “French Paradox” on 60 Minutes (1991) about the health benefits of wine was the catalyst for the entire wine industry in the US, which helped the magazine take off as well
WE media platform
- Print publication - still successful
  - Did well during Covid as people were sick of screens and hard news
- Website - growing exponentially
  - Houses the entire database of wine reviews
  - Buying guide went “through the roof” during Covid due to an increase in online wine sales
  - 65% of visitors go to the website to buy wine
- Social media
  - Instagram - now the biggest platform, easy to shop, easy to comment
  - Facebook - still important, but fading vs. Instagram
  - Twitter
  - Testing Tik Tok - believes will be the future of educational content
  - Podcast - done well and testing a few other series
- Newsletter / email - still core
- Beverage Industry Enthusiast - trade/industry news grew a lot during Covid
WE company motto - “We bring wine to life”
- It plays into the journalism approach - including the lifestyle elements of wine
- Ratings help people buy wine
- Core demographic - “the curious wine consumer,” which is more of a mindset vs. an age or gender
Wine criticism and ratings
- Taste completely blind
- Taste w/in 1 region
- Advertisers have no say on ratings
- Do points still sell wine?
  - 100 points or Wine of the Year can still build a brand
  - Most ratings are a powerful tool in the marketing toolset, but just a piece of the puzzle
  - Certain critic/magazine names still carry more weight than others
  - More at the bottom of the marketing funnel - helps close the sale
  - At the top of the funnel - general brand awareness - WE builds partnerships with brands for marketing, including various content and social influencers
WE Buying Guide (ratings)
- It comes up 1st on Google, which gives it more credibility
- Review ~25,000 wines per year
Path to building a wine brand today
- Scores are still helpful and free
- Need to build out the marketing stack and figure out the storytelling - start with social media
The catalog did well during Covid - people needed wine storage, upgraded glassware, etc....
Return on ad spend with WE
- Partners wanted to get closer to the sale, have become more ROI driven
- Implemented digital shopping carts to track purchases
- Key metrics for ROAS (return on ad spend)
  - Email acquisition
  - Wine sales
  - Impressions
- Podcasts - can use discount codes to track the impact
  - The natural feeling of podcasts make an ad feel more real
- Webinars did well for email acquisition
- Any campaigns that boosted DTC sales or signups did well
- Digital advertising has grown a lot during Covid
- Lots of influencer marketing - leverage 40 Under 40 contacts, usually people WE has written about
- Often custom build ad partnership plans with clients
- WE Catalog provides the richest database in the industry to create good ad targeting