Award Winning Digital & Social Media Campaign International Sherry Week 2015

Campaign Name: International Sherry Week 2015

Agency: ESOES Creative Digital Agency

Client: Sherry Wine Council

El Consejo Regulador Jerez-Xeres-Sherry

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Executive Summary Utilising a Digital Medium

International Sherry Week, organised under the auspices of El Consejo Regulador Jerez-Xeres-Sherry, is an international celebration of the unique wines from southern Spain – Jerez de la Frontera, El Puerto and Sanlucar to Barrameda.

Managed by Spanish based agency ESOES Digital Solutions, the campaign is promoted soley through digital channels, including the sherry.wine and isherryweek.com websites, along with the Sherry Wines social media accounts. The worldwide event brings thousands of wine lovers together to raise a glass of Sherry at promoted events at bars, restaurants and wine schools, as well as numerous spontaneous gatherings.

Creating a Viral PR Campaign

In the month leading up to the campaign a user generated interview series titled ‘The Sherry Sessions’ published more than 50 interviews on isherryweek.com, generating high volumes of shares via the interviewees own social networks.

Over the week of the campaign all the activity and excitement was captured through a large-scale online celebration driven by digital media, under the banner of International Sherry Week.

During the week 2 - 8 November 2015, Sherry Wine became a global talking-point, with news of the event garnering over 20 million hashtag impressions of #sherryweek (source: hashtagify.me and Twitter analytics). As a result industry influencers and media picked up on the excitement, running additional coverage and content specials related to Sherry Week.

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Executive Summary Sharing Content through Social Networks

Through Social Media, events around the world were shared virally, providing inspiration and guidance on menu pairings, Sherry cocktail recipes and tasting notes, with heavily increased activity on all platforms with Twitter – recording over 600 tweets per day referencing the hashtag #sherryweek.

More than 7000 pieces of unique content were posted on social networks including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram referencing the hashtag #sherryweek. This content is available to view live on the Sherry Week tagboard

In addition, two Twitter Tastings were coordinated, inviting 25 bloggers from all over Europe with a further 145 participants joining the online tastings. Together the two tastings generated more than 1000 Tweets referencing the hashtag #SherryTT, resulting in a potential impact of 1.6 million (source: TweetBinder).

Increase in website traffic

The campaign proved to be a great success online, with the sherry.wine website experiencing enormous traffic growth in comparison to the previous month, with an increase of 122% in page views. (source Google Analytics).

Around the world Over 1500 events took place in 25 countries across five continents to celebrate International Sherry Week 2015.

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Utilising Digital Media The first edition of International Sherry Week transpired in June 2014, managed by an independent group of Certified Sherry Educators & volunteers the campaign relied purely on social media to gather attention. The success of the worldwide campaign inspired the Sherry Wine Council to design a global digital strategy, integrating the campaign International Sherry Week into their worldwide digital portfolio.

A NEW DIGITAL STRATEGY

Research demonstrated that a common challenge faced by the Sherry Wine industry globally were the misunderstandings by consumers on how to enjoy Sherry Wines. By targeting Trade, a new digital strategy was designed to build awareness around the versatility of the wines through educational materials, gastronomy related content and social media tactics with the ultimate goal being to influence positive consumer behaviour towards the wines.

In September 2015, the online platform sherry.wine re-launched with 3 key objectives:

Sherry Wine Portal

Publish current and reputable content related to all areas of the Sherry Wine industry with a focus

on gastronomy.

International Promotion

Promote coherency across all international activities under the

Sherry Wine banner encouraging discovery of the wines by

professionals globally.

Community

Build an active local and global community through social media

and viral content.

A Digital & Social Media Campaign

In response to the new digital business objectives, International Sherry Week was re-designed to support the strategy, including:

•  isherryweek.com new website published as a micro-site within the sherry.org portal

www.sherry.wine/isherryweek

•  Sherry Wines social media accounts to present & own the campaign

•  Events, Articles and Gastronomy content cross promoted between sherry.org and isherryweek.com

#SherryWeek Campaign Objectives:

Provide wine & gastronomy profesionals with a reason to promote Sherry Wines to their customers & clients.

Connect the international #Sherrywine community, by activating them to participate in simultaneous events world-wide and share their celebrations through social media.

Re-inforce that Sherry is a food wine.

Target Audience: To Register Events

The campaign is primarily marketed to Trade, providing them with the tools and inspiration online to educate and influence consumers.

Hospitality & Trade Primary

•  Restaurants•  Bars•  Distributors

Professionals & Retail Secondary

•  Retail •  Wine Clubs •  Wine professionals & Sherry Educators

The Digital Campaign Strategy

•  Provide the hospitality industry & Sherry distributors with the tools and support via an online platform to promote Sherry Wines to their clients and customers

•  Promote the hashtag #sherryweek in every piece of communication across all Sherry Wine social media accounts

•  Encourage virility by publishing user generated content on sherry.wine including Sherry pairing tips, recipes, cocktails and the interview series with global participants “The Sherry Sessions”

Why register an event?

•  Free registration providing participants with the ability to Share & Promote the event to their database

•  Free promotion of events on the global Sherry Wines social media platforms

•  Free marketing materials for download: Posters, Tasting mats, Logos

The Results

#

1,517 Events 25 Countries

Increase in Website Traffic

www.sherry.wine/isherryweek Date Period: Oct 2nd – Nov 9th

49,004Page impressions

An increase of 106% in traffic to the sherry.wine website compared to the previous month.

Source : Google Analytics

17,682Unique visitors

Increase in Website Traffic

The below data demonstrates the increase in traffic to sherry.wine during the campaign in October, compared to the previous month of September.

Sharing Content through Social Networks

20,112,813impressions worldwide of the hashtag #sherryweek

7000+ posts via Twitter, Facebook, Instagram worldwide

5,058 Tweets

1,405 posts on Instagram

632 Tweets per day

Source; Twitter analytics, Iconosquare Analytics, Hashtagify.me Analtyics

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SharingContentThroughSocialNetworks7000+postsbypar?cipants

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Creating a Viral PR Campaign

AViralPRCampaign

SpainJapan

UnitedKingdomChina

UnitedStatesTheNetherlands

GermanyAustraliaGreeceBrazil

CanadaRussiaIrelandMexico

NewZealandFinland

PeruBelgium

SwitzerlandAustriaChileIsrael

PolandDominicanRepublic

Colombia

Par$cipa$ngCountries

Participant Testimonials

“Sherry Week is like a huge wave from the Atlantic Ocean, which we surf on and enjoy. We can tell people that Sherry is as popular as Champagne, Beaujolais, Malbec. Sherry has its own festival which is celebrated by all the world.” Monica Zhou Director, Talentum Trading Shanghai, China.

“So many new Sherry lovers – we had a brilliant week with a different event every day and with a huge variety of ages and types of customers – from young girls to rugby and football fans, and retired couples to hipsters - they all came along and enjoyed the Sherry experience.” Owen Morgan, Director Bar 44 Wales UK.

“We absolutely loved the event! We had many customers popping in the restaurant and experiencing the world of sherries! Certainly Sherry is a way of life! and its great to share and try and educate our customers. Its called "liquid gold" for a reason after all!” Barrica Tapas Bar – London United Kingdom

Contact:ChelseaAnthon,DirectorContent&[email protected]

esoes.co