Gosh, 1 day to go… what an amazing experience… I think the 3 of us on this Stormhoek/Tesco “Love Tour” all feel the same …
It’s been exhausting, exhilirating, funny, sad, moving and i think we are all a bit sad to leave one another and have to go back to everyday life… it’s really been great talking to people about what’s important to them in life…
We all see this trip as the beginning of a conversation that we can’t wait to see continue and develop. We’ve learnt so much, rather than thinking we might only teach and we’ve all learnt some wonderful things from one another that have changed a lot of our internal thoughts and ideas.
Tesco and all who we met across the country have been absolutely fantastic and thanks to our friend, Edelman CEO, David Brain for the kind words:
They are hosting an admirable social experiment that is not without a little risk. Pilloried as many things, by many people, this little explosion of humanity, humour and existential angst (will Hugh get a date?) is helping to personalise their brand on a store by store basis.
We’ll see you tomorrow for an exciting Valentine’s Day, where Hugh will reveal the end of Chapter 1 and the “Evil part of his plan” as he likes to describe it…
Big Love and romantic sparks from all at Stormhoek!
Cath
xx
Feb 13, 2007Comments Off on Hugh’s Moment of Reckoning…
We were lucky enough to meet Jason Godley, Head of Wine at Tesco and Richard Mew, Wine Buyer for South Africa, Rose, USA and Spain, at the Cheshunt Tesco Extra, yesterday. We had great fun discussing our travels and all the people we’ve met along the way and Hugh was delighted to meet the Head Honchos!
The End of Chapter 1 of what Hugh calls his “Evil Plan” begins tomorrow evening, at 8pm…After Valentine’s is over, Chapter 2 begins and Hugh’s Masterplan revs up 5 gears…
Watch this space… and think Global… ;0)
Big Love
Cath
xx
Feb 12, 2007Comments Off on Hugh’s On The Up … ;0)
Well, we near our journey’s end and a lot of work has been done and much achieved. Temptation is to take the foot off the gas in a situation like this… and exactly the point where I disagree with Oscar Wilde when he said ‘the only way to deal with temptation is to yield to it’.
Without an ending to our story it means nothing, and the challenge is to secure something worthwhile that supports what we have done so far and subverts our audiences expectations. So whatever you’re expecting to happen I hope will not be the case. (Although I will admit that things are not looking good for Hugh’s evil plan being fruitful, although that may change with tonight’s edit.)
This has been the toughest job I’ve ever done by far, and that is almost definitely the reason for it being one of the most satisfying. There is of course far more on tape than on the internet, and by that I mean not only a ridiculous shooting ratio but also a lot of fantastic moments that are far from the cutting room floor, merely waiting for a little time and consideration that I can’t give them right now, from the road. But I will, that I promise you.
I have my fingers crossed for Hugh, such a generous, thoughtful and big hearted man deserves a good outcome from this. But he’s just evil enough to be pulling the wool over my eyes and no doubt already has what he wants… …I wonder.
Big Love – welcome to the beautiful nightmare
Colin x
Feb 11, 2007Comments Off on Support Wine Relief 2007
Jancis Robinson, MW OBE, one of the world’s most respected wine journalists, weekend wine columnist for the Financial Times and creator of Wine Relief, wrote a column on Wine Relief 2007 in the FT yesterday.
She wrote a nice piece about one of our Stormhoek wines supporting Wine Relief 2007:
Stormhoek Shiraz 2004 Western Cape at just £4.49 is another good wine – fragrant, extremely fruity and easy – and has the distinction of having been made by the company that has pioneered blogging as a wine marketing tool. It was Stormhoek that published online just before Christmas a 40 per cent discount voucher at Thresher, the country’s dominant chain of off-licences. (This was far from crippling for the company, which already prices their lines as though everyone will take advantage of their three-for-two offer, and resulted in a dramatic increase in sales.)
Wine Relief was born in 1999. For the past eight years they have spearheaded a biennial fundraising campaign that has seen most of the major wine retailers donate a proportion of the retail price of a selection of wines to Comic Relief. So far £2 million has been raised. This admirable sum is the equivalent, for example, of giving 4,000 African street children shelter, food, healthcare, skills and the training they need to get a good job and escape poverty, or 700,000 hot meals at an old people’s lunch club. While all the big high street names get involved, Tesco has a special part to play in the proceedings. Thirty-six wines and around 16 of their own branded wines are taking part in the campaign for 2007. “Tesco carries an invisible halo in the Comic Relief offices because it has raised so much money for the charity,” says Jancis.
Ten per cent of the retail price of the chosen Wine Relief wines, which should be clearly signalled on the shelf, goes directly to Comic Relief. Many of the retailers have already started their Wine Relief promotions, most of them culminating on Red Nose Day, Friday March 16, although the big two, Sainsbury’s and Tesco, concentrate their efforts on three weeks from the end of February.
At Stormhoek, we’re all big believers of “Change the World or Go Home”.
The Blue Monster, one of Hugh’s brainy ideas, has made it on to T-shirts for a Tech conference. Cool… If you want to download the original Blue Monster to print on your own T-shirt, go to this link.
If you look at Microsoft’s Values you find “Taking on big challenges and seeing them through.”. The PC – the Windows PC – has changed the world. So now what. Stop ? Or find ways to change the world again ? If we’re not prepared to do that what are we doing here ? So Change the world or go home is part mission statement, part call to arms,
“I chose the Monster image simply because I always thought there is something wonderfully demonic about wanting to change the world. It can be a force for the good, of course, if used wisely. It’s certainly a very loaded part of the human condition, but I suppose that’s what makes it compelling.
The headline works on a lot of different levels:
Microsoft telling its potential customers to change the world or go home.
Microsoft telling its employees to change the world or go home.
Microsoft employees telling their colleagues to change the world or go home.
Everybody else telling Microsoft to change the world or go home.
Everyone else telling their colleagues to change the world or go home.
And so forth.
A favourite cartoon of mine :0)
“Big Love”,
Cath
xx
Feb 11, 2007Comments Off on Filming, Marketing and Products
We were chatting at breakfast this morning about people and how important it is to communicate and engage with them. One of the best things about this trip has been the many wonderful people we have met, who were only too delighted to talk to us about love and special memories…
A great moment for us, was speaking to one of the Tesco duty managers, who told us that Stormhoek “Big Love” Rose bottles are selling like hotcakes and that she had set up an extra fixture for the wine on the gondola end near the fresh foods aisle – it looked fab! Thing is, we want our product to move and sell and we want people to have fun in the whole process, from the Tesco staff having a giggle at the outer cases, to the customers having a giggle at the labels and enjoying the wine. Whilst this was only one store, it was still great to hear considering the wine has only been on shelf a week.
We don’t feel this will end on Valentine’s Day…In fact we think the beginning starts at the end (if you get my drift)… We’ve absolutely loved making these films and we have the most amazing filmmaker who has been working flat out every day. We don’t know what we’d do without him! – Colin Kennedy
Good ol’ Hugh has also enjoyed seeing the Hughtrain working in action. As he says “real products in real stores, as opposed to just online & theoretical”.
We’re delighted – according to this chap, we’re the second best wine blog in the world! Not bad for a bunch of people who just love having fun, love wine, love meeting and speaking to people and well, love blogging as well!
Thanks to all our supporters and friends out there!
Big Love,
Jason, Graham, Hugh, Cath, Nick and everyone at Stormhoek!
xx
Feb 10, 2007Comments Off on Hugh’s Plan Takes a Knock!
