The brand used Facebook and blogs to position itself as the social networking wine leader, gaining 300 new fans on its Facebook page in August, which puts the fan base close to 900. Bivio states that these figures now puts Versus over 200 fans ahead of its nearest competitor.
The demographics of the Facebook fan page indicate that 69% of members are females between the ages of 18 and 44.
“This is great considering this represents a large portion of our target market for our easy-drinking brand,” says Chris O'Shea, director of sales and marketing at the company of wine people. He says that he attributes the rise in fans to the fact that that content is uploaded on a daily basis and is kept funky and active.
The blog contains quirky, offbeat articles, which interests its target market while the Facebook fan page keeps consumers abreast of activities such as exciting wine shows, special promotions and wine giveaways.
“In addition, content is connected to all other areas of advertising, PR and marketing for the brand. We have managed to drive a lot of potential fans to the page by constantly mentioning it in all of our other PR and marketing campaigns, which have been ramped up in the last couple of months.”
O'Shea says that Facebook should not be underestimated with regard to its use as an effective social networking tool in building brand loyalty and consumer buy-in.
