CONVIVIUM
Table Talk with Food, Wine & Spirits Professionals
presented by Colangelo & Partners Public Relations
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This week the wine industry turns its attention to Bordeaux, where VINEXPO is taking place. Historically conducted each year in Bordeaux but now alternating between that cradle of wine culture and The Future (aka Hong Kong), VINEXPO completes the year’s trifecta of global, trend-setting wine industry events, together with Vinitaly and ProWein. An interesting study on wine e-commerce was announced this morning at VINEXPO. As reported by Harpers, online wine buyers spend as much as 14€ more per bottle on average than their store-dwelling counterparts. The Future of Online Wine Sales conference yielded several other interesting data points about online wine buyer behavior, for example: Complicated and evolving shipping and retail regulations aside, as integrated marketers we do well to closely watch such macro trends in the online wine retail landscape as it grows in fits and starts (new flash sale sites that seem to pop up each week) and in leaps and bounds (e.g. Amazon’s re-entry into the space, Facebook Gifts). From an agency perspective, online sales may present a real opportunity to measure and monetize media campaigns with far greater precision than was previously possible. They may create a niche specialty in e-commerce regulation. From a trade perspective, maybe online retail will expedite the consolidation trend and the spread of chain stores. Or maybe it will enable small, boutique and specialty shops to stay in business and thrive online with lower overhead and inventory costs. The full content of the Harpers article is available here: http://www.harpers.co.uk/news/industry-news/14001-wine-shoppers-will-spend-14-more-on-a-bottle-online-hears-vinexpo  Tags: e-commerce, Wine It was only a matter of time before another dessert phenomenon swept New York City and took the world by storm. Trademarked the Cronut by renowned Chef Dominique Ansel, the pastry hybrid of a croissant and doughnut is proclaimed to be the “most viral dessert item to date” and is a delicious example of remarkable marketing. For those who don’t know exactly what a Cronut is here’s how they’re made: laminated dough similar to a croissant is proofed and then fried in grape seed oil, rolled in sugar, filled with cream and then finally topped with glaze. Boom: The Cronut (Dominque Ansel’s Website)
When Dominique Ansel launched the Cronut on May 10, 2013, lines were out the bakery’s door four hours prior to opening and to this day the lines have not reduced. Ansel has a pre-order list that goes into next year that includes orders of 200 Cronuts or more per customer. Cronuts are even being scalped and sold at $40 a pop on Craigslist…. I will be going down to Dominique Ansel Bakery tomorrow morning (Saturday May 25th) to beat the line and pick up the max of 6 CRONUTS allowed per customer. If you would like one of these devine creations I am willing to pick up and deliver them to your door for the below prices. Of course the max you can have me deliver is 5 Cronuts as I will be eating one myself. Manhattan Delivery -$20 per Cronut ($25 above 59th Street)
Queens – $30 per Cronut Brooklyn – $40 per Cronut I will be picking up the Cronuts and delivering them promptly to your door step to enjoy with your Saturday breakfast!
 (Line outside the bakery courtesy of Instagram user dablesNYC)
But why are Cronuts so special? Although I’ve never had a Cronut myself, aren’t they kind of like a cruller?
New York City is no stranger to fad desserts. When the first shops providing frozen yogurt and mini-cupcakes emerged the hype was astonishing as well. However their success is hard to attribute to creativity in taste alone. A mini-cupcake is just a small cupcake isn’t it? The rarity of getting ones hands on a Cronut is the reason that they are so popular. Of course knockoffs of Cronuts have already been created, but Ansel’s necessary decision to trademark the term “Cronut” has been keeping the lines long enough to annoy neighbors of the SoHo bakery.
If you’re interested in braving the lines and trying a Cronut yourself Dominique Ansel’s Baker is located at 189 Spring Street in SoHo. Or you could pre-order through: http://dominiqueansel.com/
Posted in: Uncategorized | No Comments » Oreo’s social networks have been generating massive buzz over the past five months. No longer just a cookie, Oreo has become its own flavor category (Oreo milkshake, anyone?) and now a force to be reckoned with on social media. The numbers don’t lie: 33M fans on Facebook, 110K followers on Twitter and 85k followers on Instagram. Here are some of the key learning that can be applied to the any brand: 1. SPEED – Social is all about quick action and reaction. Oreo exemplified this with a tweet posted during the electricity outage during Superbowl. The tweet quickly became the most popular of the night and solidified Oreo in the following weeks round ups of best Superbowl promotions (with a fraction of the spend.) 2. FUN – Keeping in alignment with your brand messaging, a clever post will always go further than a run-of-the-mill message. Social is, after all, social and conversational. Post things that encourage response and interaction. Don’t be afraid to cause a little “funtroversy.” 3. PLATFORM – In the past month, Oreo launched a new campaign entitled “Wonderfilled.” Promoting the happiness and joy of eating an Oreo, the campaign was kicked off with several Vine videos. Vine, a new video sharing app (like Instagram, but with short videos instead of photos), is the current darling of the Social Media world with a quickly growing fan base. By choosing this emerging platform to launch the campaign from, Oreo solidified its rank at the top of the network. Expanding to a new platform can be scary but doing it earlier than your competition opens the opportunity for the first-mover advantage, just as Oreo did. To view the Vine launch, click here. Posted in: digital media | No Comments » We are pleased to announce our nomination for PR News’ Agency A-List Awards in the Integrated Communications category! For a list of all categories and nominees visit: http://www.prnewsonline.com/agency-a-list-luncheon-2013.
Tags: awards Every year, a festival honoring all things spirited takes place in July in New Orleans. Complete with seminars, parties, fundraising, pairing meals and more, Tales of the Cocktail is a cocktail connoisseur’s dream come true. From July 17th – 21st, thousands rush down to The Big Easy to get their fill of education, fun and some of the best cocktails made by the most notorious mixologists in the world. To cap off all the cocktail madness, the top players in the hospitality industry are honored at the Spirited Awards, which take place on July 20th at the Hyatt Regency New Orleans. Many are nominated, but only one will win in each of the 18 categories. With so many outstanding bars and restaurant programs in New York with renowned employees, the Big Apple has chance to take home first place in many of the categories. In fact, all nominees for the category of “World’s Best New Cocktail Bar” are right here in Manhattan. Headed down to Tales? Purchase tickets for the Spirited Awards here. Have you been to any of the nominated places or enjoyed a cocktail by a nominated bartender? Good luck to all! Cheers!
American Bartender of the Year Charles Joly The Aviary Chicago, Illinois Best American Brand Ambassador Elayne Duff Diageo Portfolio Best American Cocktail Bar Anvil Houston, Texas Best Bar Mentor Bridget Albert Chicago, Illinois Best Cocktail Writing – Author Gary Regan Best Cocktail Writing – Publication Australian Bartender Magazine Best High Volume Cocktail Bar Clover Club Brooklyn, New York Best International Brand Ambassador Claire Smith Belvedere Vodka Best New Book (Cocktail/Bartending) Drinks by Tony Conigliaro Best New Product Dale DeGroff’s Pimento Aromatic Bitters Best Restaurant Bar Island Creek Oyster Bar Boston, Massachusetts, USA International Bartender of the Year Hidetsugu Ueno Bar High Five Tokyo, Japan World’s Best Cocktail Bar Callooh Callay London, United Kingdom World’s Best Cocktail Menu World’s Best Drink Selection World’s Best Hotel Bar Clyde Common Portland, Oregon, USA World’s Best New Cocktail Bar Experimental Cocktail Club New York, New York, USA Sara’s article was originally published in her column on Examiner.com. To find the original article, click here.  Tags: Cocktails, Manhattan, New York, New York City, Spirits, Tales of the Cocktail On Monday, May 13th, the United States Bartenders’ Guild held its monthly meeting for the New York Chapter. The United States Bartenders’ Guild is a professional organization uniting the most skilled, knowledgeable, and dedicated bartenders in the industry. Chapter meetings occur at different restaurants and bars around New York once a month and are a chance for members to learn from each other, as well as hear from internationally recognized brand representatives in private seminars. This week, Broken Shed Vodka sponsored the USBGNY monthly meeting at the lovely Le Midi Bistro near Union Square. The seminar was led by Broken Shed co-founder, Mark O’Brien. Members simultaneously sipped delicious Broken Shed cocktails The Paradise Pom and The Broken Lychee and enjoyed delicious canapes from the kitchen of Le Midi. Following Mark’s presentation, the famed owner and beverage director of Manhattan’s Flatiron Lounge and Brooklyn’s Clover Club, Julie Reiner, was interviewed by Franky Marshall. Franky is the lead bartender at The Tippler, Tales of the Cocktail Cognac Competition winner, and was recently featured on the Spike TV series Bar Rescue (my personal favorite show!). Below is the recipe for The Broken Lychee but for The Paradise Pom you’ll just have to visit Le Midi yourself! The Broken Lychee: 2 parts Broken Shed Vodka 1 part apple juice 1 drop of Lychee liquor
 Posted in: Uncategorized | Comments Off Our president, Gino Colangelo, was recently quoted in this WineBusiness.com article “Building a Better Wine Event: Advice from Marketing and Event Planning Professionals” by Mort Hochstein:
Tags: Italian wine, New York City, PUBLIC RELATIONS, Wine, WINE EVENTS, WINE PR, wine tasting I’ve been working in the wine industry for a relatively short period of time but when my boss gave me the chance to be the agency “ambassador” at the largest wine trade in the world, I was thrilled. Even though I grew up in Italy and just recently moved to the States, I’ve never managed to go to Verona from Rimini in Romagna, where I am originally from. So I took a flight New York-Verona and, missing one night of sleep and a bit jet-lagged, I went straight to Palazzo della Gran Guardia where OperaWine took place. This is a wine tasting from the top 100 Italian producers, organized by Vinitaly in partnership with Wine Spectator. The event, at its second edition, is preliminary to the longer four day show, strongly supported by Stevie Kim, the managing director of Vinitaly. In such a small space you can taste beautiful wines from the most prestigious wineries in the country and have the chance to talk to producers and winemakers. You feel like there’s no other place in the world where you see a better wine selection. Then finally comes Vinitaly, a truly impressive show. Every region has its own space, this year there were 4.200 exhibitors from 20 countries. Thousands of people coming from all over the world are running from one stand to the other, swirling and tasting wines, then moving to next appointment. By talking to some producers, the feeling was this was a very positive edition, an impression that has then been confirmed by the affluence data, which registered +6% of total visitors. I personally couldn’t believe how many international trade were in attendance, a surprise shared by the exhibitors as well. An increase of 10% of foreign trade with a growing number of operators from new markets such as Russia and China and confirming the constant presence of people from US. And, fortunately some positive news for the Italian wine business. Since the economic recession hit the country, the domestic wine consumption has been steadily dropping and exports markets are becoming ever more critical. This strong and increasing interest in Italian wines around the world is promising for an industry that needs to be treated as primary focus for internal investments, an asset that Italians must take care of. Also, this is good news for wine marketers working in export markets such as ourselves.  OperaWine Tasting at Palazzo della Gran Guardia, April 6 Thought-Provoking Presentations and Panel Discussions Inform Digital Marketing Beverage Industry Conference ‘What Would You Do If You Weren’t Afraid?’ I had the pleasure of participating in the first-ever Bottlenotes iBev Digital & Social Media Conference in San Francisco on April 11th. Facebook’s Claire Mulhern keynoted the conference and led with this provocative statement (posted on the wall in Facebook’s office). Fear –of change, failure, embarrassment, etc. — factors into more decisions than we may be willing to admit. And often for good reason. But no business gets launched, no truly creative idea implemented, if we don’t overcome our fears and take a chance when we see the potential for achievement. The panel I served on, ‘The Role of Interactive Media in Building a Brand,’ wound up focusing more on the creativity and entrepreneurship of the presenters than actual digital tools and technologies. Paying attention to customers, moving quickly when opportunities arise (another favorite axiom, delivered by Bottlenotes’ co-founder and CEO Alyssa Rapp: ‘Move fast and break things’) and yes, leveraging the incredible potential of digital media to do just that, were the lessons learned and the experiences shared. I presented a case study on Tequila Partida, how we at Colangelo & Partners use digital media to: 1) Identify core consumers 2) Engage and reward them and 3) Gain long-term loyalty and expand the universe. The pay-off to drive trial and increase consumption was always integral to the examples presented. Click here to view the presentation.
A day spent at a conference with peers discussing and debating what we do every day in our work lives was a nice treat. Think I should try it more often. -Gino Colangelo, president, Colangelo & Partners Public Relations
 Tags: Bottlenotes, Digital media, Facebook, Gino Colangelo, ibev, Internet marketing, San Francisco, Social media, Tequila Partida Full disclosure: Many hours have disappeared dreamily perusing food sites and imagining a day when we will actually have the time to whip one of those culinary creations. Luckily for us, there is now a one stop shop for the reluctant, time-challenged gourmand in the form of a comprehensive new website dedicated to Chefs and Culinary Arts. An invaluable tool for anyone interested in the art of food, http://culinaryprograms.net/sites-for-chefs/, is a website featuring links to over 100 dedicated blogs from chefs, restaurateurs, recipe researchers and fabulous foodies. Check out Baked Alaska from Anne Burrell, take a part time patisserie course at the International Culinary Institute or imbibe in a late night curated cocktail from the savvy mixologists at Culintro. The world is most definitely your oyster with this website, shucking lessons optional.
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