Bonnier Tidskrifter and Dagens Industri Launch Wine Clubs

CC-licensed: paul-simpson.org

Not long ago, Swedish magazine publishing house Bonnier Tidskrifter launched a new concept: wine clubs for three of its brands - Allt om Mat, Privata Affärer and Veckans Affärer. On Monday, Swedish business daily Dagens industri jumped on the wine club bandwagon with a wine club together with the same partner that Bonnier Tidskrifter uses.

"Allt om Mat can capture the huge interest in wine of its readers via its wine clubs, but we've noticed that internationally the concept works well with business magazines," says Jacob Hvid, business developer for Bonnier Tidskrifter Digital Media. "It's really nice to be able to develop a product for several of our brands and companies with a common business foundation."

Robert Danowsky, responsible for business development at Dagens industri, says that common initiatives that cross company boundaries are extremely positive. "The cooperation between Dagens industri and Bonnier Tidskrifter means we can much more clearly evaluate which activities have the best results and we can have a stronger grasp of the market than if we were working alone," he says.

Danowsky says that the wine clubs are a first step in extending the Dagens industri brand. "We know that our readers are extremely interested in food and drink and that's why we've launched the wine club," he says. "But I think that there are more areas that we write a lot about today, or products we review, where you can take it a step further and offer products and services directly to readers. This could be both for private use, such as a wine club, or services that are more clearly business-connected."

Members of the club receive a box at home with specially chosen wines four to six times a year. The clubs have different profiles and are adapted to the demography of the target readers for each publication, says Hvid. The marketing is done with the help of existing channels mostly.

"We will use more channels where it's most important to have a dialog, like on the web, in cell phones and via databases," says Hvid. "We let our strong brands stand for credibility. But wine clubs are a relatively new and complicated serivce that open up many questions: Is it legal? When do I get the wines? Where do they come from? And more. The challenge is finding another way to reach readers other than via ads or banners on the website. We've managed to succeed with Allt om Mat where we have a regular dialog with specifically identified people who would be interested in the service."

Photo: CC-licensed, Paul Simpson