The “M” Word the Wine Industry has to concentrate on nowadays is not Malbec or Merlot, it’s Millennials!

The home of the oldest wine-growing school in the world, Austria, has to offer 22 different types of white and 13 different types of red wine [1]. The most popular among the whites is the Grüner Veltliner, a wine that pairs well with almost anything you would ever choose to eat. As a result, Grüner Veltliner is not only extremely popular in its country of origin, but also in the rest of the world including the United States.

The Austrian wine industry has taken America by storm and it is among the three most important export countries for Austrian wine. When it comes to the consumer market in the United States, the baby boomers still make up the base of high frequency wine drinkers followed be the millennials. Nevertheless, when it comes to occasional wine drinkers the millennials account for 9 percent more than the boomers. Furthermore, the young adults account for the largest volume of wine consumed in 2015 [2].

These numbers clearly state the importance of the millennials for the wine industry. Nonetheless, the question is how should marketers target this vast audience to attain them for the long term? The millennials are the first generation that grew up with social platforms. Consequently, social media is the main source of information and influence for them. In addition to an own website numerous social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram should provide the right medium to communicate with millennials.

Obviously, the Austrian wine industry has taken notice of the importance of the millennials for the wine industry and the associated social media marketing. To communicate other Austrian regions and grapes in the United States, the Austrian Wine Marketing Board has teamed up with a New York based agency that promotes wine trade associations. For this social media marketing strategy Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are used, whereas the focus is on the latter. The name of the Instagram feed is austrianwineusa and it consists of landscapes and situational photos. These pictures should attract customers to wine and awake their desires.

As you can see, with almost 2.000 followers the Instagram page of Austrian Wine USA is still in its early days. By regularly posting relevant quality content, the use of hashtags, engagement with the community and most important staying authentic, the number of followers will naturally grow. No account gained his fellowship over one night, unless the followers are fake or your name is Beyoncé.

To finish, there is only one thing I really want to commend to Austrian Wine: do not forget about the social media channels and the associated marketing strategy in your own country (hint: make an Austrian Instagram account)!