Black Box Wine Creates a Buzz

Victor, N.Y. — Constellation Brands knows that boxed wine doesn't have the best reputation, so the company has set out to change that perception through consumer outreach. The company is confident that "consumers will believe in Black Box through tasting," says Kimberly Moore, director of marketing for Constellation's Black Box brand.Past programs have included the Black Box Lounge, which featured an ambassador team that set up in-store demonstrations and traveled with its sampling set to wine, food and music festivals around the United States.Recently, Constellation enlisted Boston-based social marketing firm BzzAgent Inc., a dunnhumby company, to bring that sampling into consumers' homes. BzzAgent's typical method is to sign up BzzAgents – volunteer consumers who are experienced brand ambassadors – to try a client's product and share their experiences in person and online."We liked the idea of BzzAgent as a unique sampling program where an agent (vs. the Black Box brand) independently enjoyed their Black Box experience and in turn recommended it to a friend," Moore says. The sampling program offers "a comfortable, familiar and casual setting for sampling, a recommendation from a trusted friend or family member, a greater timeframe to engage with the product, and a platform that allowed us to track consumer opinions and behavior."BzzAgent senior vice president of marketing Malcolm Faulds says boxed wine has evolved to taste better and last longer, so the tasting program was perfect for BzzAgent's platform. "It gets folks over that barrier, and then once they've gone over that barrier and become knowledgeable about the product, they'll talk about it at predictable rates. We know when they do talk about it, that behavior drives sales. It increases awareness, it increases purchase intent and it measurably increases sales of products."Moore says insights sourced from Nielsen Homescan shopper data showed current Black Box consumers had high loyalty rates, and the premium boxed wine category is small (2% of the table wine category), giving the company "a great opportunity to influence wine drinkers not already familiar with the brand."BzzAgent first sent emails to brand advocates in their community who it thought would be interested in Black Box. Potential BzzAgents then have to complete screening, and if they answer the way BzzAgent requires, they join the group. Black Box wanted college-educated BzzAgents who averaged 38 years in age. "Once they're in, we will give them a series of activities," Faulds says, "designed to keep them engaged and interacting with peers."For this campaign, BzzAgent sent each of the 5,000 advocates a kit designed for use at a Black Box party. Hosts invited 11 people and were to hide the wine throughout the night, filling glasses in another room before serving, before revealing the product at the end of the night.Hosts then shared photos and videos of the parties, as well as product reviews, on Facebook, Twitter and/or blogs. Faulds says many BzzAgent clients also repurpose the advocates' content on their own websites.For tracking, BzzAgent is plugged into the application programming interfaces (APIs) of Facebook and Twitter and has a way to track offline conversation as well. BzzAgent tracks reach, and Faulds says this campaign for Black Box reached 175 people per advocate (for a total of 894,000 reached offline and online). The average reach is 106. Offline reach is estimated using a generational reach mode that Faulds says is an industry standard.Moore says the BzzAgent was successful because they reached new consumers through advocacy, and agents' online and offline conversations resulting from the sampling parties reached more than 800,000 people. "We were really able to drill down and get a good understanding of what brand properties consumers highlighted in their conversations, including value, wine quality, and duration of wine freshness after opening. In general, it was extremely beneficial to hear all angles of direct consumer feedback and see the big shift in consumer sentiment about Black Box pre-campaign and post-campaign."

Black Box Wine Creates a Buzz

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