TINY Wellington wine brand Stormhoek defeated South Africa’s biggest brands to win the Grand Prix at the Sunday Times Marketing Excellence Awards on Sunday, November 25.
Stormhoek is one of the world leaders in the commercial application of blogging on the internet.
The Stormhoek blog www.stormhoek.com is a continuous, regularly updated log of events that happen in the lives of the small team of people who make and sell Stormhoek in various markets, worldwide.
From tiny beginnings in 2005, when the only visitors to the blog were the writers themselves, interest in how a vineyard and winery operate and how the business world of wine is run, has grown in explosive fashion.
Today this single website averages over a million hits a day.
This type of ever-changing and interactive website (you can write on this site) creates interest, loyalty and comment.
Because the readers are stimulated, they write about Stormhoek in their own online publications.
And this has made tiny little Stormhoek, up in the mountains, without even casual visitors, the most written-about and talked about winery in the world.
And in addition, this is why South Africa’s top panel of marketing judges have given Graham Knox and the little team the top prize in marketing in the nation.
Last year, Stormhoek Pinotage 2005 won the International Wine and Spirits Trophy for Best Pinotage in the world’s biggest wine show.
In addition, Stormhoek picked up the trophy for Best Consumer Campaign in Liquor in the UK and was chosen as one of the 50 Best Marketers in the World by the American Marketing Association in 2006.
In 2007, Stormhoek Guava Pinotage 2004 was chosen by the SAA judges to serve to Premium Class
