🍷 Uncorking DTC Wine Potential with Simon Solis-Cohen (Podcast)

Catch Highway 29 Creative founder Simon Solis-Cohen as he joins the crew from Pilothouse Media on their DTC Podcast.

Episode Notes:

In our latest pod, we chat with Simon Solis Cohen of Highway 29 Creative - an expert in DTC wine marketing. 

With a hospitality background and experience in the Napa wine scene, Simon took his passion for wine to the digital marketing space specializing in e-commerce, marketing, and DTC sales for the wine industry. 

We’ve decanted key takeaways from our chat to help you crush your DTC marketing goals.

Get it? Wine? Crushing grapes? No? You’ve stopped reading? Great. (or should I say, grape 🍇)

🍷 Build a one to one relationship 

Marketing in a restricted industry like alcohol, CBD, or cannabis presents a unique challenge, restricted by changing laws and regulations. As Simon put it, you have one hand tied behind your back. 

🍷 Be the star of your own story

With the wine industry at a crossroads seeing oversupply and increasing competition, it is essential to stand apart. Simon hones in on vision, mission, and values as critical to differentiation. This requires more than, “We make great wine!” - to be successful you have to dig a little deeper and connect with your audience through your values, doing something outside the box, or origin story. 

🍷 Lean into lifestyle 

Simon seeks to get into the mindset of people drinking wine and then paint that lifestyle through content. Too often, content is created focusing on the product rather than the lifestyle that surrounds that product. High-quality awareness content is not just about “here’s a bottle of wine,” in fact, Simon has found his worst performing content is bottle photography - it’s hard to connect to an object. The most effective imagery? People. 

🍷  Harnessing UGC reviews

People are always posting UGC in the form of reviews. This feedback is essential for growth, but also make great ad content! If you’re in an industry with scoring, point allotments, or any common language used amongst consumers, use that to your advantage! Advertise your rankings/ scores, especially if given by known reviewers. Find those 5-star reviews and share them (giving credit to the source, of course). This is premade high-quality copy - what’s not to love?

🍷  OG DTC & Subscription Sips

Wine clubs were one of the first subscription models out there, and have proved to be a great way to maximize LTV. In Simon’s experience, the high customer acquisition cost (usually looking at a $20-$30 spend) to acquire a subscription is worth the initial loss. Once secured, customers don’t usually fall off until the 11-month mark. If you can earn their loyalty over that first 1-year hump - you’ll most likely obtain a nice, long term, subscription. 

Wine Clubs are having a bit of a reckoning at the moment, reevaluating their legacy structure in light of new offerings in the DTC Market. Historically, wine subscriptions have held a more old school “you get what you get and you don’t get upset” mentality, offering 1-3 shipments a year, with predetermined options. Now, looking at other subscription models of have changed this - wine needs to evolve. Rather than forcing your client to take six bottles of whatever you decide, when you decide - now wine club members can choose their frequency, their quantity, and their product - give the customer choice to cater their experience to their needs/wants.