Traveling Vineyard Wins Digital Media Award
View The Traveling Vineyard Profile
2/9/2014
Ipswich, MA, February 07, 2014 -- Traveling Vineyard announced today that it won Best Microsite for the “Sommology™” pages of its website. The award was given at a ceremony during the Second Annual Direct Selling Association "Be Connected" conference held in Washington, DC on December 6, 2013.
“Sommology” is a “created” word coined as a play on the word “sommelier," one with extensive knowledge of wine who makes recommendations. It is a proprietary food and wine pairing experience built on the idea that wines can be placed along a spectrum based on characteristics like body, fruitiness, oak, etc. This spectrum allows foods and wines to be substituted easily when one or the other is not available to still create a food and wine pairing that works.
The Sommology online experience uses an algorithm integrated into the rest of the website to offer pairing suggestions and links to additional wine information including a tasting video by the winemaker. The system can be accessed through a standard desktop browser by entering a 5-digit pairing code found on the back label of the bottle. It is also optimized for mobile devices. With the use of a QR code, wine lovers can scan the back label and access details about the wine. Pairing pages include appropriate entrées, cheeses and small bite selections.
According to Rick Libby, Traveling Vineyard's Chief Grape Stomper, “The Sommology system puts Traveling Vineyard brands and our wine knowledge in front of many more wine lovers than in the past. This is a true competitive advantage. Our bottles ‘travel’ beyond our wine tasting events and end up in the hands of many more people than you would expect when they are shared or given as gifts.”
“With Sommology”, remarks Libby, “Consultants and Guests can learn more about which food the wine pairs with best, and better understand how the wine was made and where it came from. More importantly, this additional wine content exposes site visitors to the concept of our in-home wine tastings where they can buy more wine. This is just one more lever we can pull to move the business forward.”
Libby comments, “Our Sommology project was a cross-functional team effort – the result of months of work on the part of our corporate employees and the field. We’re so pleased that our hard work resulted in quality digital materials recognized by industry peers. Preliminary results show that Sommology page views have increased by the thousands since launching in October of 2013, and home page visits are up by 20%. We are also seeing our tasting event average on the rise.”