What is Colangelo & Partners and what do you do?
Colangelo & Partners (www.colangelopr.com) is a fine wine and spirits PR agency. We offer five basic services: 1) Press Relations, 2) Social Media / Influencer Relations, 3) Event Marketing, 4) Trade Relations and 5) Content Marketing. We have our main offices in New York and San Francisco, and we have key staff in the UK, France and Italy as well as other key cities in the US such as Miami. With a staff of 55 (representing 14 nationalities!), we’re relatively boutique-sized by US standards for a generalist agency. However, within the world of fine wine and spirts, we’re quite large. Our team is technically trained and certified in wine and spirits/cocktails as well as the disciplines of communications.
Who Does Colangelo & Partners work for?
We represent clients from all over the world as well as the US. Our clients are wine and spirits companies as well as trade marketing institutions. We’re very proud of our prestigious client list. On the institutional side, our clients include Wines from Spain, Wines of South Africa, the Prosecco DOC Consortium, the Chianti Classico Consortium, Trentodoc, Crus Bourgeois, Vinho Verde and many others. On the company side, we work for Charles Krug, Far Niente, Foley Estates, Frescobaldi, Jackson Family Wines, Larkmead, Louis Martini, Louis Roederer, Luce, Ornellaia and numerous others.
What are the chief challenges of the US market currently?
The Covid-19 pandemic has created challenges in the way our team works and communicates as well as the ways in which we support our clients’ efforts to build their brands and drive sales of their products. I’ve been incredibly impressed by the agility and adaptability of our team. Since March, when we went to (largely) remote working, we’ve hardly missed a beat in terms of the results we’ve been able to generate, thus keeping our clients in the news and helping to create direct selling opportunities.
Of course, tastings and events – which are fundamental to the world of fine wine and spirits marketing and are a big part of our business – are not possible now. But we’ve quickly pivoted to more retail-driven promotions and activations with key influencers (sommeliers, bartenders) on virtual tastings that often lead directly to sales. Our press relations, social media and content marketing is more important than ever in helping our clients compete during the pandemic.
What are some key trends you’re seeing?
I would point to three trends that are fundamental to the fine wine and spirits business:
The convergence of commerce and communications. Online retail and marketplace platforms, as well as brick & mortar retailers, are increasingly becoming a primary source of information and education for wine and spirits lovers. While a recommendation from a fine wine retailer has always been critical for brand development (and sales), digital communications are creating more opportunities for consistent communications to customers on a much larger, geographically diverse scale. Conversely, media companies are looking for new revenue streams in areas such as data analytics and events as well as selling stuff (wine, spirits and accessories).
Source: https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2020/10/qa-gino-colangelo-colangelo-partners/
