Feature Post
Who Moved the Damn Cheese?
August
26
2008
So, this Rockaway wine blogging program has ignited some passion, er, some watercooler chatter. I guess it is politics season, might as well debate the issues … just the same, reading the posts and the comments you’d think somebody moved the cheese.
You can see a string of comments at the Winery Web Site Report, Steve Heimoff’s blog, Good Wine Under $20 and my post from last week.
Now, to be certain, it’s not all backlash, I think a lot of people dig the program, understand what we’re doing, recognize the transparency and see it for the genuine activity it is, and how legitimately groundbreaking it is for a large winery to engage in this sort of sampling program.
However, as the old management theory holds, if we all agree with each other than somebody isn’t needed. The gist of the dissension around the Rockaway wine blogging program can be summarized in a couple of bullet points:
• Wine bloggers were too easily manipulated into giving free publicity
• Wine bloggers did this with too much hyperbole it’s not that big of a deal
• Rodney Strong is lazy and didn’t do their own homework to do direct outreach to a wide net of bloggers
• Wine Bloggers are not that different from traditional media and some bloggers get samples all of the time … this isn’t a big deal
• Wine Bloggers are eager for their own fame and don’t ask the tough questions
Here are truisms as I know them:
• Wine bloggers are a smart bunch—technically savvy, professional, above-average income, sophisticated and jaded alpha-consumers. Manipulation is not likely. And, even if there is manipulation, it’s with full transparency, so, uh, not much manipulation in showing your cards.
• Rodney Strong releasing a new wine allocated wine brand and including bloggers in the sampling at the same time as traditional media is groundbreaking. New Brand from old winery. Allocated. Upon release. Price point. Yes, I get Stormhoek--$12 bucks a bottle and on end-cap display in the U.K. Yes, I get Twisted Oak, a revolutionary in their own right for being the first winery to embrace, engage, and execute successfully using social media. However, Stormhoek and Twisted Oak aren’t Rodney Strong. Not a slight, just a fact.
• Why would somebody fault Robert Larsen at Rodney Strong for leveraging his strengths and engaging some help to do a sampling program. Social media is forbidding. I’ve been doing this for a while and everyday I feel overwhelmed, confused and inundated with social media. Somebody not in it might feel the same way. Did I mention I’ve been doing this for a while? And, an ancillary point, if I’m doing a direct mail campaign, I don’t necessarily feel like I have to hand build the list myself, that’s just silly.
• Anybody who thinks wine bloggers are on par with traditional media has been sniffing their own exhaust for too long. And, there are a lot of wine bloggers like that. Get over yourself, accept that we are a pimple on the ass, and do something interesting. You’ll enjoy yourself a lot more and yield better results if you’re not so serious about it
• Wine blogging isn’t journalism proper. Sure I ask questions, but I also take a columnist approach. I have an opinion and I don’t have to be balanced. Newspapers are a dying medium and people scan the AP stories and read the columnists. That is just the way it is and blogging is no different. Being interesting is far more important than being balanced. That said, being interesting can also be being objective, which isn’t always balanced. As my blog as stated from day one, my goal is to be pragmatically idealistic. That is it.
Overall, an interesting week. There has been some good, there has been some ugly, but none of it has been bad, even if some folks act like their damn cheese has been moved.
As a side note, as I write this I’m polishing off my Rockaway, which has lasted 6 days in the refrigerator under a Vacu-Vin, over three drinking sessions. It’s a beauty on day six with no degradation in quality.
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