Case studies

Australian Portfolio Wines

Integrated marketing communications harvest results for wine investment specialist

Background
Australian Portfolio Wines (APW) is a leading international wine investment company supplying premium and rare or cult wines for collectors, connoisseurs or investors looking to diversify their portfolio through a high-performance niche investment vehicle. It also provides professional storage, portfolio management and assistance with exit storage through international auctions and tenders.

Most of the company’s marketing hinges on relationship-based direct sales. There is also a substantial educational and experiential component in the form of wine-tasting events and seminars.
We have been assisting APW with all areas of marketing communications since its launch in 2002.

Challenge
The fast-paced sales process which has underpinned APW’s rapid growth and success in a fast-moving and sometimes volatile niche investment market relies on the clever and flexible use of a range of communication media. Speed-to-market with individual campaigns is imperative to enable the company to take advantage of media placement opportunities that often arise at short notice.

Maintaining an integrated approach across a range of print and online media, while at the same time responding rapidly to short-turnaround requests, makes for challenging for creative and production deadlines.

To complement its extensive Internet and email-based lead-generation and sales activities, APW also requires high-quality printed and presentation materials, including brochures, corporate stationery and exhibition displays.

Frequent and often concurrent email campaigns require individual tracking.

Solution
From APW’s initial request for the writing of a sales letter for its inaugural marketing campaign, it quickly became apparent that a broader, concerted approach to its branding and marketing communications was needed.

Since then, we have worked closely with APW across a wide range of constantly evolving promotional materials to ensure consistent application and immediate recognition of its brand. At various times, the brand has been adapted and applied in contexts including:

HyperSphere consistently meets the challenge of ensuring both consistent brand identity and campaign-specific sales messages and imagery, so that every campaign is fresh and attractive.

Each email campaign also uses uniquely coded landing screens, which allow APW to track responses and its return on investment in different advertising media.

The APW brand elements have stood the test of time well, with a web redesign and minor makeover of branding and print materials only now being planned.