Aside from the obvious pleasures of tasting naturally farmed wine and artisan cheese, the BCAMA Wine & Cheese event provided three distinct takes on how those very indulgences are marketed.

The first speaker, Anthony Nicalo, Founder of Farmstead Wines, shared much more than the handcrafted wines he supplied for the evening’s tasting. He spoke on his use of storytelling and social media in his evangelization of the Vinaroon Movement. For such a grass-roots approach to wine-making, the idea of community-building through social media seemed very apropos.

Next up was Michael Mayes, Creative Director of TAXI Vancouver, telling the story of how the first ever Canadian Cheese Rolling Festival came to be last August. The challenge – as presented by Dairy Farmers of Canada to TAXI – was addressing BC’s lagging per capita cheese consumption compared to other provinces. Their solution was to bring cheese outdoors and into the active lifestyles of British Columbians, with Blackcomb hosting hundreds of contestants hurtling down the hill after an 11-pound wheel of cheese. Winner’s spoils aside, the campaign and event successfully provided a spike in our province’s cheese consumption.

The final speaker on marketing for the evening was Nick Black, Senior Associate, Concerto Marketing, who spoke on the use of morphological psychology in market research and brand strategy. Nick managed to keep that rather heady topic accessible by explaining how cheese is a symbol for culture (pun intended?), relationships and individual maturity and that the types of cheese you eat, and why you eat them, can tell a lot about you.

Following the speakers, an expert-led tasting and some mingling completed an evening of what I would say were three nicely diverse takes on marketing.

1. Jake Says:
   June 29th, 2009 at 12:21 pm

   Sounds too good to be true — sorry I missed it. Another great wine & food event (but a lot smaller) is going on in October at West Coast Wilderness Lodge, on the Sunshine Coast of B.C. It’s called Wine in the Wilderness and it’s a two-night weekend event.

   Friday night is seven-courses paired with international wines; Saturday is eight courses, all local ingredients, and the best wines B.C. has to offer.

   Saturday afternoon — a champagne boat cruise through the Skookumchuck Rapids, fastest salt water rapids in North America.

   http://www.wcwl.com

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