Wine Influencer Overview: Juliana Colangelo, Colangelo & Partners

XChateau is a podcast about all things wine, from vine to your glass. We tackle the business of wine and keep you up to date with new and exciting developments in the wine industry.

In this episode, Robert Vernick and Peter Yeung interview Juliana Colangelo, Vice President of Colangelo & Partners’ San Francisco Office.  Colangelo & Partners is an integrated communications agency for food, wine, and spirits brands.  Robert and Peter discuss how wine brands should plan, execute, and measure the results of social media influencer campaigns, covering details like budget, how to find the right influencers, and what to expect from the campaign.  

Other topics covered in this episode include:

• Why use influencers? 
  • 74% of people use social networks for purchasing decisions
  • Reach younger audience - 44% of Gen Z drinking more during COVID
  • Build brand awareness
  • Influencer marketing a convergence of earned (journalist driven) and paid media advertising
• Influencer platforms
  • Mostly Instagram - IG reels (new) are like TikTok
  • TikTok and YouTube a little
  • Web blogs
• Content - what are you trying to say about your brand? 
  • Get real-life situations with brand
  • Own the content and can incorporate into brand social and web strategies
• Outcomes - brand awareness, build a social following, email signups, sales
  • Based on the brand business model - availability of DTC, etc
• Tracking - UTM codes in links with story swipes, follower counts around a campaign
• Budget - based on the size of influencers and campaign
  • By influencer following
    • Nano - 1.5-2.5k followers
    • Micro - 2.5-15k followers; ~$250/post
    • Mid-tier - 20-100k followers; ~$750-1,000/post
    • Macro - 200k+ 
    • Celebrities - start at $250k
  • Some influencers post organically (just for the product)
  • Some influencers have media kits with pricing
  • Other costs
    • Agency to manage campaign - find target influencers, negotiate influencer contracts
    • Product and shipping
    • Optional: Advertising behind social media strategy
  • Normally at least 5 influencer partners, around the same time to create buzz
• Goals - smaller wineries target general brand awareness, larger wineries often want to promote a specific wine or new campaign
• Types of influencers - 50/50 on non-beverage vs beverage influencers, depending on the audience the brand is trying to reach
• Types of content
  • Posts
  • Stories - usually 3-4 frames, usually cheaper than posts since they are less produced and more casual
  • Video (YouTube, other) - more expensive
  • Web blog - more permanent, hits SEO
• Finding influencers - Colangelo uses DoveTale
  • Look at the following and engagement rate
  • Content subject (e.g. - have they posted about wine before?)
  • Tone of content
  • Production quality
• Longer-term relationships - can be like a brand ambassador, multiple touchpoints for consumers
• The brand direction of content
  • If only sending product - no control
  • Paid contract - can have brand guidelines (hashtags, tone of voice, keywords, can ask to see content before posted)
• Calls to action: follow the brand page, swipe up, promote events/ticket link, donate for fundraising/auctions
• Best campaign: Prosecco DOC for Prosecco week - did video content, food pairings, partnered with ~350 retailers and 15-20 influencers

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