67 PALL MALL'S DIGITAL EXPANSION

One fine wine brand that has fully embraced a hybrid digital business model is the fine wine Private Member’s Club 67 Pall Mall. The Club, founded in St James’s London in 2015 by then-banker Grant Ashton, was originally designed to be the perfect physical place for wine aficionados, enthusiasts, makers, traders, writers, journalists and sommeliers to meet and share their passion for wine.

In 2020, the Club adapted quicker to the challenges than any other business we know during the pandemic. The fine wine club accelerated its plans to expand – firstly via its virtual membership. It immediately adopted a virtual calendar of wine tasting online webinars and events. The take up from members, new prospects, wine experts and winemakers keen to engage with audiences digitally was unrivalled. Over 600 hours of original content was created in the first year of lockdown. The club kept all of the recordings and built a bank of digital content. The club also developed proprietary technology for sustainable tasting kits, in effect becoming an online retailer to deliver wines to members ‘as the winemaker intended’ to pair with live online webinar tastings. The club has sent out over 7,000 wine sample packs and bottles.

Working tirelessly to ensure members love of wine and engagement with the Club didn’t suffer and the success of the virtual member content led 67 to launch a TV channel. The club have built a studio opposite the club on Pall Mall in London. So, in Q1 2021, the club successfully launched 67PallMall.tv, a streaming service dedicated to fine wine, a 4K 24-hour wine-centric channel. The channel offers six hours of original content per day, including livestreamed professional wine tasting and additional on-demand content available to wine enthusiasts across world. 67 partnered with Red Bee Media (RBM - the international broadcasting and media services company), utilising their OTT Platform.

“67PallMall.tv perfectly exemplifies the proliferation of the streaming market, where entrepreneurs, experts and enthusiasts from a multitude of backgrounds expand their network and monetize quality content through OTT technology,” says Steve Russell, Chief Product Officer, RBM.

RBM’s comprehensive OTT platform gives brands and content owners the possibility to launch a fully-fledged streaming service, rapidly and easily, no matter the audience or business idea. It supports all content formats including live, linear, catch-up and on-demand, as well as a full range of monetization options (such as ad-funded, subscription, pay-per-view and vouchers). Audience segmentation is done easily through advanced geo blocking functionality and DRM options. Many of RBM’s other services integrates easily with the platform, including content aggregation, metadata, and automatic captioning. It is the future for many brands looking to create their own content platform.

Talking about 67PallMall.tv, Stephanie Barnett:

“Our Channel Director said to me to launch a channel within 9 months was unheard of and didn’t think it would be possible but once again it’s amazing what focused minds can do”.

67 are now entering into a phase of aggressive expansion, increasing their footprint of physical clubs. “Our ongoing engagement with new committed wine lovers has accentuated the need for more physical sites,” said Barnett. First 67 Pall Mall Singapore, due to open at the end of 2021, next clubs are planned for Bordeaux, Napa Valley, Verbier and Beaune (Burgundy). Each will house TV studios enabling winemakers, specialists, and leading wine authorities guide viewers for tastings and features from around the world. Think Soho House global expansion to IPO but with a clear common denominator or connection: wine.

According to Stephanie:

“Because of technology we kept on all of our staff during the pandemic. It forced us to accelerate our digital plans. Our virtual presence grew and became central to our overall expansion strategy. We adapted to virtual life and now it’s about a hybrid model where physical, digital and the connection around wine acts as a flywheel. Embracing digital meant some of the limitations in terms of physical space were overcome and now our digital activities are driving demand for more physical sites around the world”.

Grant Ashton, CEO, and Founder:

“Embracing technology enables us to offer an even fuller picture of the wine world, where members and virtual members can taste our recommended wines in real-time, together at a distance. Our physical clubs will be fine wine lighthouses accompanied by our expanding digital capabilities in content and experiences. But we won’t stop there- our global footprint will provide wine hubs for innovation-driven to meet our core value proposition: making great wine at a great price even more accessible for our members, we have exciting plans for member’s wine storage, cellar tracking, exchanging wine and more”.

OTHER WINE CAPSTONE INSIGHTS, TO READ MORE ABOUT:

GRANT ASHTON’S 67 PALL MALL CAPSTONE CLICK HERE

MICHAEL BAUM’S VIVANT CAPSTONE CLICK HERE

ROBERT EDEN’S WINE CAPSTONE CLICK HERE

THE FUTURE TECHNOLOGY IN WINE CLICK HERE

MIKE T BARROW’S OPEN VINO CAPSTONE CLICK HERE

ENGLISH SPARKLING WINE AND CAUTIONARY WINE CAPSTONES CLICK HERE