Looking for innovative ways to keep your wine club members engaged? Awtomic Moments lets you visualize and gamify retention—helping wineries build long-term loyalty, increase average order value, and create personalized rewards program When it comes to wine club retention, wineries often focus on the basics: great wine, exclusive perks, and occasional discounts. But what if you could gamify retention, making every shipment feel like a milestone and every year of membership feel like an achievement? That’s exactly what Awtomic Moments is designed to do. 🍷✨ What Makes Awtomic Moments So Unique? Awtomic Moments is an industry-first tool that visualizes a customer’s membership journey, making it easy to see: ✅ What rewards they’ve earned ✅ What’s coming next ✅ Why it’s worth staying in the club By gamifying retention, wineries can create excitement, anticipation, and long-term loyalty—turning passive subscribers into engaged advocates who s

Loyalty, Deconstructed: Small Moments, Big Retention What actually makes members stick? In Session 4, Jason Curtis sits down with industry veteran Brian Baker to break down loyalty into practical, repeatable steps you can deploy without requiring bigger discounts or heavy lifting. In this replay, you’ll learn: Story by generation: Gen Z (values & moments), Millennials (experiences), Gen X (clarity), Boomers (legacy). Micro-exclusivity that scales: tiny lots, off-menu pours, member-only moments that feel special. Personalization beyond the name: preferences, simple “your year in wine” recaps, timely outreach. Surprise & delight: thoughtful unboxing layers, quick QR thank-you videos, occasional “upgrade” moments. Hospitality that converts: use the 80/20 guest-talk ratio and a 3-second pause to show you’re listening. Community & values: partner events, cause alignment, and easy member micro-communities. “Aim small, miss small. Start l

When it comes to wine club retention, wineries often focus on the fundamentals: great wine, exclusive perks, and occasional discounts. But what if you could gamify retention, making every shipment feel like a milestone and every year of membership feel like an achievement? That’s exactly what Awtomic Moments is designed to do.  What Makes Awtomic Moments So Unique? Awtomic Moments is an industry-first tool that visualizes a customer’s membership journey, making it easy to see: ✅ What rewards they’ve earned ✅ What’s coming next ✅ Why it’s worth staying in the club By gamifying retention, wineries can create excitement, anticipation, and long-term loyalty—turning passive subscribers into engaged advocates who stick around for years. But that’s just the beginning. Let’s dive into some innovative ways to use Moments to maximize retention and revenue. Reward Loyalty Over Time 💡 Give members something to look forward to with milest

Turning Summer Visitors into Long-Term Customers How to make sure they come for the pour and stay for the story Summer is finally here, and tasting rooms are buzzing with sunhats, selfie sticks, and road-trippers on the hunt for their next favorite wine. The influx is real: tasting room visitation peaks between May and September, with over 45% of annual winery visitors arriving in Q2 and Q3, according to data from the Silicon Valley Bank State of the Wine Industry Report. But here’s the challenge: for many of these guests, the experience ends with the last pour. One weekend, one flight, one forgotten name. So how do you turn that quick hello into a lasting relationship? The secret isn’t more marketing noise—it’s thoughtful connection. Think of your summer surge as the top of a funnel. If you treat each guest like a one-time transaction, you’re throwing away the most valuable part of that funnel: the chance to turn casual tasters into year-round customers

Let’s be honest: marketing is all about getting attention. In a crowded market, the competition for that attention is fierce. But here’s the thing—great marketing ideas don’t have to come from within the wine industry. In fact, some of the most successful strategies can be “borrowed” from other sectors. As the saying goes, “Great artists steal,” and great marketing is a form of art. Joe Wagner's TikTok: A Case Study in Getting Attention Take a page out of Joe Wagner’s book—or rather, his TikTok account. Wagner, a well-known winemaker, regularly posts videos of himself doing unexpected, attention-grabbing things, like playing under a shower of wine. It’s quirky, it’s messy, and it’s memorable, as proven by the four million people who liked the video. These stunts get people talking, sharing, and—most importantly—buying. This is exactly the kind of creativity that gets noticed and, crucially,

Do your existing sales execution survey questions drive beverage alcohol sales and increase profits? If not, it’s likely because your survey is not designed to yield actionable answers. Survey projects need a proven methodology and tool to make the data actionable; otherwise, time is wasted, and little is accomplished. You Can’t Fix What You Don’t Know Surveying helps identify your definition of a “perfect account,” perhaps more importantly, it should uncover gaps and reveal Accounts that are not performing. Since you can’t fix what you don’t know, understanding where you could be better represented or underperforming is a powerful place to start. Transform Surveying into Sales-Driving Activity What does it take to transform surveying into a sales-driving activity that will help you cross the finish line with a win? Top wine and spirits category performers use digital survey tools to help plan, measure, share, and drive specific Key Perfor

The Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) State of the US Wine Industry Report 2024 and the 2024 SOVOS/ShipCompliant DTC Wine Shipping Report came out last month, and the picture they paint is a little hard to make out. Is consumer spending on wine truly up, or down? How much are abstainers affecting the market? Have trends stabilized post-pandemic? While we don’t have all the answers, we can share our own perspectives, based on our decades of experience with the industry and these reports—and we can advise wineries on how to prepare for the rest of the year, given these trends. We feel that the data indicates wineries should be paying attention to… Planning ahead for a busy OND (holiday) season, What weather holds and cold shipping could mean for sales cycles, and How data can continue to enhance DTC sales and the DTC experience. Strong OND Sales Could Mean Good Things to Come Both reports noted that DTC sales were lowerer in 2023. This made for an unprecedented second year tha

Every year, we are always amazed at how much the wine industry changes—and at the ways in which wineries and their partners find ways to innovate. 2023 was no exception. What we are seeing is shifting patterns, including shifts in small parcel carriers, consumer purchase behavior, job creation, the use of technology, and more. We also see a lot of opportunity for savvy wineries going into 2024. So what were some of these key patterns in 2023 that will influence how the wine industry will (and should) react in 2024? Small Parcel Carriers Lend Stability to DTC It’s no secret that DTC wine shipping is disproportionately dependent upon small parcel carriers. So it was great news when UPS came to terms with its drivers union and avoided a major shut down this past summer. Meanwhile, Fedex is consolidating its ground and air business into one operating company, with an anticipated completion date of June 2024. The long term stability for UPS, combined with efficiency improvement

Gamification And Customer Engagement It Just Works This is how I know.  I used a gamification tool to see if I could attract potential clients and to my amazement it did.  I attended the 2023 North Coast Wine Industry Expo (WIN Expo) and wanted to determine if gamification would improve customer engagement.  And through the process would they share their contact information and they did.   At trade shows vendors have a host of small tchotchkes at their booth in hopes of attracting visitors.  It’s pretty much an unwritten tradeshow standard.  Everyone knows that without a giveaway no one is coming over to see you.  And the bigger the tchotchke the more people will stop by, grab one and they may take two more for a friend.     So you gave something away but did you get anything?  At a tradeshow most of the time you get a smile and a thank you.  Well at least you may get some brand recognition.  But what if you chan

As the wine and spirits industry becomes increasingly competitive, everyone seeks an “edge,” a “hack” - anything that offers a strategic advantage. For most wine & spirits sales professionals, the solution is sitting right on their mobile phones in the form of their CRM system. This article will shine a bright light on how CRMs focused on strong sales execution and management process empower salespeople in this industry. Rough sailing: the choppy waters of intense competition aka Why CRM? Before diving into the differences of a CRM and sales execution platforms and how they help salespeople sell more, we should briefly touch on the current market conditions. It’s the perfect storm of too many brands and too few distributors contributing to the growing chaos where most brands are struggling for attention.  Our mantra, is that “they, who hold the customer relationship, wins.” To change the game, change your frame You can craft