My Life in Wine PR: Settling In

So, I’ve settled into a certain rhythm with the new job. Well, at least as much of a rhythm as one can get given the vageries of public transit. I leave my apartment at 8:00 AM, rush across the street to catch the M60, disembark at 125th and Madison to meet up with the Metro North train, whereby upon arrival I board a shuttle bus, which takes to me to my final destination is a corporate park. Fingers crossed, the trip runs 1.5 hours, but the return has taken as long as 2.5 hours door to door — not fun. Consequently, I’ve been rather exhausted at the end of the day and have thus been lax at writing. I’m thinking about getting a Net ook to improve my productivity en route, but have at least mastered the art of Facebooking from my phone in the meantime.

Once at the office, things aren’t too bad. My colleagues are very nice and helpful as I start to get the hang of various projects. Among my responsibilities, I need to track ratings, reviews and other press received by the importer’s wines and brands and share them with the marketing team and others in the field. I also help with sending out press releases, invitations to events and samples. Overall, not surprisingly, the goal is get these wines into the hands of influential members of the media who, we hope, will enjoy the wine and communicate favorably about it.

The power of the press is particularly evident as we look to share these reviews with the wine-buying public. Almost as quickly as the reviews are printed, the company is designing shelf-talkers in an effort to get these ratings side by side the wines in retail shops across the country. Other opportunities to capitalize on these scores come when a publication advises the producer or importer that one’s wine(s) have been favorably reviewed in an upcoming issue. Many of these publications offer the option of doing a label insertion, whereby the wine’s label will appear in print (and/or one the web) alongside the printed score and review. Of course, in most cases, there is fee involved, blurring the line between editorial and advertising. However, the scores are printed regardless of whether the option of doing a label insertion is taken. Sometimes, the publication will print a label or bottle shot on their own volition without the wine company having to pay any money, but this approach seems to be done less frequently by the big scoring magazines than others. All in all, it is really not that big of a deal; magazines and other publications are, after all, in the business of making money. But, as seeing this side of the business was new to me, I found it somewhat interesting to learn the truth.

On a side note, my new-found employment has provided me with a new answer to the age-old question, “What’s in a name?” Apparently everything. When I arrived at the office on day one, the IT person was setting up my e-mail and signature file. As he typed, I noticed a spelling error and brought it to his attention that there was no “e” in my first name, but it was too late. My e-mail id had already been established as tracey.kamens@companyname.com and the id was also my login for the computer, server and all thing technological with this company. It’s been very weird to have to remind myself to purposely misspell my name on a daily basis.

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