For more than a decade, Wine Market Council’s ongoing consumer public relations outreach initiatives have paid dividends to the industry in growing the consumer base of the wine market and in better positioning wine as a more common, casual, everyday enjoyment for millions of adults who drink wine.

By targeting national and major metropolitan electronic and print media, Wine Market Council's key messages reach consumers with credibility through the lifestyle, business, food, fashion and entertainment press. Taking wine beyond the wine columns and into the mainstream media has, in the course of the program, generated hundreds of millions of consumer impressions in media outlets such as USA Today, CNN, ABC TV, Good Housekeeping, Jane, Real Simple, Life, and countless other venues with significant national audiences.

This fiscal year's public relations efforts kicked off with "Pairings & Pasta," a media outreach effort highlighting wine’s natural place with pasta. Chef and journalist Sam Gugino created pasta and wine pairings to coincide with National Pasta Month last October. For the holidays, Master Sommelier Alpana Singh gave consumers tips on first-time entertaining, leftover pairings, and wine-related New Year's resolutions. This spring Master Sommelier Andrea Immer Robinson delivered her ideas for wines to go with take-out cuisine, and to kick off the summer, wine writer and educator Jordan Mackay suggested wines to serve with main-dish salads.

In addition to the general market program, Wine Market Council worked to reach two target markets--the Millennial generation and Hispanics. Wine Market Council met face-to-face with Millenial-focused publication editors in New York this year. Millennials were also reached though a month-long relationship with Date.com where the council provided articles on wine basics with a dating focus. Of the Millennial generation himself, wine writer and educator Jordan Mackay hit the airwaves via a radio media tour to ease Valentine's Day wine worries.

Meetings with the Hispanic media in Miami were conducted with bilingual chef spokesperson Richard Sandoval. Included in this effort was a live appearance of Chef Sandoval on the national Univision morning show "Despierta America".

Coming up…a Hispanic holiday initiative followed by more wine in Miami at the Super Bowl.

For details about Wine Market Council's PR Initiatives, click here (note: this link takes you to the wineanswers.com site; use the browser's back button to return.