To overcome Covid-19 travel restrictions, South Australian wine producer, Eight at the Gate, is using digital wine labels, enabled by Cellr’s customer engagement platform using Near Field Communication (NFC), to connect directly with the US market via consumers’ smartphones.
Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, Eight at the Gate were set to export their wines to the US, but once international borders closed, they had to radically shift their approach.
Jane Richards, who co-owns the wine producer with her sister, Claire Davies, knew that she had to find another way to engage the US market while these restrictions were in place.
One day, while listening to the Aussie Wine Chats Podcast, which focuses on the current state of the country’s wine industry, Richards came across Cellr and learned more about its platform that provides connected packaging and customer engagement solutions, and that got the ball rolling for the company.
“We know how big a difference it makes when the actual wine producer is speaking directly to consumers or distributors. Cellr listened to what I needed and have helped me create a direct channel of communication through leveraging their platforms capabilities,“ says Richards.
Eight at the Gates will be using Cellr NFC stickers, which act as digital wine labels, to connect information from each label directly to a smartphone when tapped.
The wine producer plans to leverage this technology to create a human connection and leave the customer feeling as though “they have just shared a glass with them in their vineyard”.
“It is the stories behind the wines that leaves the consumer remembering who made that great wine,” Richards adds.
“The ability to communicate our stories, as well as information about the wine, without the dilution that happens when the message is passed through many hands, will help us to create that memorable consumer experience.”
In the coming months, Eight at the Gate will be rolling out its digitally enabled wines through the US, as well as domestically in Australia.
Aside from Eight at the Gate, Cellr has also been working closely with producers featured in the 2020 Halliday Top 100 and the Barossa Wine Auction, among other individual wineries, to deliver direct customer engagement through digital wine labels.
