What a cork up!

Anyone who watched episode 9 of The Apprentice last night, will probably feel in need of a stiff drink this morning. The candidates had the task of devising a strategy and producing a digital campaign to raise awareness of English Sparkling Wine. (Hopefully, Silver Bay isn't anything to go by...)


The result from both teams was nothing less than cringe-worthy, with both of them completely missing the mark in the video advert. One was duller than a wine cellar in the middle of winter (liking the references?) , and the other was reminiscent of a 'Carry On' film. 


There were some positive aspects from both teams. Gabriella's logo of a rose in the shape of a wine glass was clever, and I liked the idea of creating a forum for wine drinkers, included as a social media icon along with the usual suspects (Facebook, Twitter etc...)


I can't help but think that the candidates missed the boat a little, with the raft of potential ideas they could have used to help raise awareness of the wine, especially as all things British are very trendy right now. For example, the Queen's Jubilee, the William and Kate frenzy,  'Keep Calm...', the crown icon, red white and blue everywhere, and I can't go into a shop without noticing a plethora of products with union jacks emblazoned across them. 


Instead of shouting at the telly, I decided to jot down some of my ideas for the task. The main aim of the task should have been to make the general public realise that England produces fizzy wine, make them talk about it and intrigue them to try it.


Here are some of my ideas:

• Play on the theme of things that are usually associated with being made in England (Marmite, Hovis etc...) displaying a selection of them throughout the advert, with short clips of them being made, as well as a clip of vineyards + sparking wine,  then a sort of 'Which one do you think is the odd one out?' visit _______ to guess + find out! This will lead to a microsite where they will find out that in fact there is no 'odd one out', they are all made in England! ( with a link for the user to then post on their facebook/twitter...'I guessed, Can you?...' with links to the wines website / social media channels)

• A campaign which encourages consumers to create cocktails with the sparkling wine. Recipes can be provided with suitably British names such as 'The Duchess', which sounds quite refreshing if I say so myself! Although it isn't quite cocktails, this method of using the product seems to have worked very well for jaagermeister - a particularly rancid drink on it's own, which is now extremely popular due to the infamous 'jaager bomb'

• Twitter campaign - tweet us your pictures of what it means to you to be English (win a case of fizzy english wine yay!)

• 'Host your dinner party' competition - campaign to get people to tell us who their top 5 dinner party guests would be and why (alive or dead) and win a dinner party package, - English fizzy wine, chef for the night etc. 

• Advertisements before and during the ad breaks of 'Come dine with me', 'Loose Women' and other daytime programmes aimed at the target market.

• Jump on the discount offer bandwagon that has exploded over the past couple of months! Host a Groupon offer for a 'Wine tasting Experience' to visit an English Vineyard.

• Perhaps a high expectation, but some sort of endorsement from William and Kate (who women are going mad to emulate recently!) Imagine the product placement in a nice double spread in OK Magazine or Tatler of the couple sipping on some English fizzy wine, celebrating their first anniversary! 

Thanks for reading, bottoms up!

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Melissa x