Mt. Beautiful Winery, Vineyard & Farms /
Mt. Beautiful USA
Marketing Manager & Associate Creative Director
April 2016 - May 2020
Mt. Beautiful USA is a wine importer based in the San Francisco Bay Area of California that imports Mt. Beautiful's New Zealand wine brand and other wine brands from New Zealand. Mt. Beautiful Winery, Farm, Vineyards and Cafe is based in South Island, New Zealand. My role supported both organizations' needs for marketing strategy (direct-to-consumer and trade) with exemplary results, significantly boosting social media metrics, brand awareness, PR reach and sales in the U.S. and globally.
Key Achievements:
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Delivered outstanding growth in digital presence, achieving a 300% increase in Facebook fan base, 900% rise in Instagram followers, and 130% growth in Twitter audience Implemented a cohesive communications editorial calendar, resulting in a 24% combined open rate
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Transitioned PR in-house, doubling PR contacts and attaining premium database access, with a YOY increase of 10-15% in PR reach and impressions
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Orchestrated comprehensive marketing and public relations operations including social media strategy, website development/management and Google Analytics
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Realized a 27.5% uptick in page views and overall site engagement, positioning Mt. Beautiful as an industry leader through global strategic partnerships
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Developed a catalog of professional images and produced six brand videos, affirming branding, increasing digital engagement and driving sales.
Marketing Strategy
The following examples demonstrate my thought process and approach to managing the planning and execution of an event, creating a trade marketing email campaign as well as the planning and production of brand videos.
Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay New Release Email Campaign Targeted to Trade. View this "new release" trade focused email campaign by clicking this link.
Mt. Beautiful Winery produces five different varietals of wine annually in addition to a Rosé wine blend. On occasion the winery also does a "barrel select" bottling of our Pinot Noir and Sauvignon Blanc varietals. When we release a new vintage of wine in a market (i.e. UK, US, New Zealand or Asia) we communicate with our trade partners in a variety of ways. In the US market typically our Sales Managers communicate with their Brand Managers in each market (or state) to let them know we've moved into a new vintage. Accompanying these communications are wine tasting notes, sell sheets (with accolades the wines have received) in addition to shelf talkers and updated sales presentations.
To bolster their efforts and reach a greater audience I will prepare an email communication targeted to our media and trade audience of distributor reps, brokers, wine retailers and restaurateurs. You can view an example of one B2B campaign by clicking here to view the hosted link to the email.
As Marketing Manager for the brand my responsibilities start far in advance to a new vintage entering the marketplace. Typically at the time of bottling I request winemaker notes from our Winemaker and then prepare formatted on-brand tasting notes. Additionally I reach out to wine media first in New Zealand (since the wine starts there) and submit samples for them to review. When the wine makes it here in the US, I do the same with prominent US wine media. When accolades start rolling in I coordinate the production of sell sheets which I distribute to our sales team and post to our Trade web page and other locations where trade engage our brand and can access these materials. Additional promotional activities take place such as social media sharing of accolades as well as the updating of other marketing materials.
All our beauty shots (i.e. stylized photographs) are ones I have personally taken since I joined the team in April 2016. Prior to this the company had none. I use these images as content for our marketing efforts across digital and print.
Brand Video
Production
Objective:
Produce short and long brand overview videos as well as 3-4 topical videos on Mt. Beautiful's winemaking, viticulture, tasting room / cafe and farms.
Note:
Everything with the exception of the onsite directing and auditing during the shoot was performed with me in the US which I regard as a testament to my mastery of written communication.
My Approach:
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identified a style of video that matches the brand's voice
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hired a videographer whose style and skill set were aligned with our needs
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developed a list of discussion topics and interview questions
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developed a shoot list of desired scenes
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identified key staff members with speaking parts; apprised them of their roles and prepped them
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coordinated shoot logistics with New Zealand based teammates
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attended the shoot; helped organize, direct and audit content
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reviewed and revised several versions before arriving to the final cuts
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shared final videos with the internal team, posted them to the Mt. Beautiful Vimeo and Youtube channels, uploaded to the winery's Facebook page and uploaded to the Trade pages of the winery's websites
Click here to view more Mt. Beautiful videos.
Communications Planning /
Email Content
Email Campaigns
Tasting Notes
Sell Sheets
Writing Sample — Editorial
Mt. Beautiful Photography
I served as the in-house photographer for Mt. Beautiful, photo documenting harvest in New Zealand, capturing beauty shots of the wines, environmental and food/drink shots at the cafe, events, landscapes of the properties and of the people behind the brand. These images have been used in email campaigns, sales presentations, social media posts, sell sheets, shelf talkers and recipe cards.
Samples of my Mt. Beautiful wine and cafe photography:
Samples of my Mt. Beautiful environmental photography to demonstrate the interior and exterior of Mt. Beautiful's cafe location in New Zealand.
Event Planning
Mt. Beautiful's 10th Anniversary Celebration
San Francisco, California
Together with our CEO I developed the focus of Mt. Beautiful's 10th anniversary celebration in San Francisco. The objective was to create a festive and celebratory event where we could capture the attention of distributor sales reps, key accounts, vendors and media to join us in an unprecedented opportunity to taste every varietal and vintage Mt. Beautiful has produced from Day 1.
I designed and led all efforts in creating and executing the event including:
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locating a venue within budget and negotiating terms with the organizer
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developing all event collateral (sales / marketing materials and commemorative promo items)
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assigning roles and delegating tasks to my teammates
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culling contact lists and calendaring event invitation communications
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creating and deploying pre and post event communications to attendees
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communicating the event agenda to teammates
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selecting an event invitation and ticketing platform
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communicating our needs with the venue's Organizer and supporting staff
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arranging necessary AV equipment
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serving as the event photographer
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decorating the venue on the day of with signage, flowers, etc
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coordinating the transportation of all event materials
It was so well organized that we had no surprises and the team was able to enjoy a seamless event experience and really engage with our guests which resulted in new placements of Mt. Beautiful wine on restaurant lists and our largest sales hit at a selection of Costcos.