Austrade has used micro-blogging service Twitter to help set up an online wine auction in Britain, helping introduce Australian winemakers to the market without travelling overseas.
The government department, together with online wine retailer nakedwines.com, set up an online tasting where customers could enjoy new wines from Australia and talk to their makers through Twitter.
Lachlan Grant, businesses development manager for Austrade London, says the event was used to showcase Australian products while introducing “exciting” new technology.
“Nakedwines wanted to do a tasting, so we put together 90 wines for them, and they recruited wineries and customers and they had people on Twitter blogging about what they were doing, the wines they liked and so on,” he says.
“As they progressed through the night, a list of most-liked wines was narrowed down to 15, and then the farmers were also online at Twitter, communicating about prices, and soon were even taking several orders.”
Grant says the use of Twitter will allow more events to be held overseas that don’t require participants to travel halfway across the world, as the process is fast and cost-effective.
“Twitter is really gaining momentum and it’s a tool people feel comfortable with using; it’s instant communication and it allows distance problems to be overcome. These smaller wineries that don’t have huge marketing budgets can use tech available for free, and all you use is an internet access.
“At Austrade we’re always looking at tech that can help Aussie companies, and we will definitely be using Twitter again.”
Austrade says winemaker Dave Johnson from Western Australia was one of the 15 finalists, and that he was able to make a number of deals through the auction.
“I got woken up by a call at 3.30am, I was online by 4am and by 5am I had an order for $12,000,” Johnson says.
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Patrick Stafford is a freelance journalist and a former deputy editor of SmartCompany.
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