Wine Travel Awards Guide. How does it work?

It is becoming less and less logical to buy a bottle of wine for 100 euros. Unless, of course, you are a collector of rare wines and a regular at Sotheby’s. After all, in just an hour, the two of you will drink it, and the impression will have evaporated, and the aftertaste will not help. It’s different if the bottle is from a place you both used to visit. Or are planning to visit. The Wine Travel Awards Guide — a collection of unforgettable locations where world-famous wine is created — is published for those who are looking for special wines and experiences. So how does this marketing campaign work?

The truth is at the bottom

Perhaps the closest analogy would be with a bottle (our audience should appreciate it). The Wine Travel Awards is an attractive vessel, and the content is a marketing campaign for the nominated members for 1.5 years. The WTA project is a strong and modern mix of promo tools: stands at world exhibitions, articles and news on the websites of the international media group Drinks+, teasings, social media activity, etc. And note: each participant can create this blend according to their own recipe — together we will develop an individual promotion program based on the tasks of each individual partner. And one of the strongest advertising strategies is to become a member of The WTA Guide.

 

 

Michelin stars of wine tourism

Throughout the year, the Wine Travel Awards editorial team (backed by experienced wine journalists, tasters from international wine competitions, and a panel of judges from the most respected names in the wine world) meticulously selects several hundred charismatic participants from all over the world (currently, the wine map includes 42 countries). Not everyone makes it to these pages. The most interesting and progressive ones – small wineries and world-famous chateaux – gather here. These are manufactures from France, Romania, New Zealand, Georgia or Moldova, with amazing wines, enotecas, aging in mountain caves, dungeons or even at the bottom of the sea, with a magical natural landscape, historic castles, masterpieces of art and architecture. There are wine museums with exciting exhibitions and outstanding tastings, spa hotels among the vineyards as well as restaurants that offer not only specialties wines but the ones made from indigenous varieties.

And, in addition, the most qualified personalities of the wine world: guides from Portugal or Italy, wine brand ambassadors, authors of blogs and guidebooks from 5 continents, travel agencies, and founders of wine schools. In other words, experts who can be contacted for advice, sacred knowledge, or simply to book a tour. Everyone has contact information on the page, and some of them have medals from the Winner of the Vote or the Winner of the Award. These are the Michelin stars of wine tourism, signaling the distinctive characteristics of the WTA Guide heroes.

All of them are featured in the Wine Travel Awards Guide, which is published every autumn — a colorful, presentable 250-page publication with a circulation of five thousand copies, plus an electronic version. View the previous issue — the WTA Guide 2022-2023 here.

We are often asked: where can I buy The WTA Guide?

The answer is simple: nowhere. The entire edition is distributed exclusively free of charge at international events — summits, conferences, and the world’s leading wine exhibitions: Wine Paris-Vinexpo Paris, ProWein, London Wine Fair, Vinitaly and others. The previous digital WTA edition is available (as well as the upcoming one will be) on the Wine Paris-Vinexpo Paris, ProWein, WTA,  Drinks+ websites throughout the year.

This well-thought-out distribution allows each issue of the WTA Guide to gain a powerful and, most importantly, well-targeted audience. According to general statistics, over the past 1.5 years, 650,000 wine professionals from around the world and more than 2 million wine lovers have become readers of the guide.

How to become a sponsor of the issue?

The WTA Guide editorial team often recalls a funny story: we were approached by a sponsor who decided to cooperate in a rather romantic setting — he and his wife were traveling in Madeira and in one of the wine boutiques with a panoramic view of the sea, his attention was drawn not to the magnificent landscape, but to a copy of the guide on the guest table 😏 He asked the staff if it was their advertising. It turned out that no, the shop owner had just traveled to ProWein, picked up what he thought was an attractive publication and put it up to please his visitors. And it was then, during a family vacation, that our sponsor decided to place an advertisement (for one of the most famous chateaux in France, by the way) in the next issue of the WTA Guide. And do you know what’s the funniest part of this story? His summary: I decided that if the owner of such an advanced wine boutique was not too lazy to bring a publication weighing almost 2 kg to Madeira from Germany, then someone definitely needs it! So why not me? But seriously, the Wine Travel Awards Guide has much more powerful arguments 😏

What does the partner get?

Do you remember the proverb that says it’s not the place that adorns the person? Well, this is not the case. It is the place of your advertising that determines your success. But the WTA Guide, unlike ordinary wine or wine tourism magazines, due to its concept, has a significant number of priority advertising modules: from covers (4), titles of nominations (6), and to the first pages of categories (16).
Of course, the most prestigious position is the Front Cover of the guide, which also includes posters that are placed in several locations of the ProWein Düsseldorf exhibition.

But each of these modules comes with an extensive bonus program. Basically, every sponsor receives such a package:

• Full-page-advertising model on the COVER or TITLE.
• Placement of the sponsor’s logo on the brand wall page.
• Placement of an article on two internal pages (the interview).
• Placement of an article (on the topic you suggest) on winetravelawards.com in the WTA Discovery section.

And more! Either package has an important advantage: it is a very cost-effective offer, given the duration of the program. Plus, of course, bonuses, which are discussed separately. As a bonus to the package, you can nominate 5-8 candidates, including ambassadors, who represent your interests in the world, in the new release of the award for 2024-2025.

The proposed options are a framework, and we are open to your ideas and suggestions. After all, as we said, the Wine Travel Awards is not a project that runs on rails on a strict schedule.

This project allows you to develop an individual marketing program for 1.5 years — as an author’s wine created from different varieties and using different aging technologies. Or an author’s tourist route that suits only you — and will lead you to the very top you want.

If you are with us, join the new year of the award:

• Participate in the catalog: please, contact dimdi@ukr.net, +38 067 4474578 (WhatsApp, Telegram, Viber).
• Become a member of the WTA 2024-2025 on the terms of early booking.