Sunday, June 12, 2022

Keep On Trucklin’ – Press Junkets in the Age of Disruption.

wine blog +  Italian wine blog + Italy W

5 comments:

Alexis Morgan said...

Well done sir. It's high time someone sheds light on the inherent bias and shortcomings of these obsolete events. I found your link from another blog suggesting people like you are short sighted. As one in the business of arranging these kind of events, I applaud you for tearing off the bandage. Myopic, I think not! Bravo!

D Heck said...

Thank you for highlighting this wasteful and puzzling practice. I have long pondered why producers shower money and time on junkets whose participants cannot draw a straight line from the producer's expense to actual wine sales. Why do they? It's just $$ down the drain. As an importer, I also receive invitations for expense paid trips, although very rarely and most of the time from publicists looking to fill junket trips to regions I have never imported. I have no clue as to why producers are so easily duped. Italian producers do exhibit an unhealthy level of adoration for giornalistas but don't they count their fingers after they shake hands?

Miquel said...

I've been on at this for... lord, six years now and it usually raises the hackles of those trying to cash in while people continue promoting this stuff.

One of the more amazing aspects are the amount of times I find PR people running paid events who will then call up myself and others I know just before the event starts to "fill it up" so that they look like they're doing their job.

thomas said...

As you might expect, I believe this is one of your poignantly accurate blog posts.

doug wilder said...

That comment about the airfare demand reminded me of two guys who review wines who were coming out to the west coast for a wine event and emailed that they would visit the winery I worked at if we paid for their plane tickets. We laughed about that. Just recently, I spoke with a Marketing Director for a highly-respected Estate in California about the usefulness of influencers, and their comment after hosting a busload was that instead of paying attention during the sit-down presentation they were posing for selfies. Essentially a waste. A winery I had reviewed since 2003 had gone through an ownership change. I emailed to set up my annual tasting. Their new GM was only interested in how many followers I had on IG. I asked him to look at the review portion of his website. I never heard back. With the exception of a guest house when shooting at a remote location, I pay my own way regardless if it is to taste or photograph. I'm glad you rattled the cool kids, Alfonso.

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