Objective:

Millbrook Vineyards and Winery (Millbrook Winery) tapped Impact PR and Communications (IPR&C) to promote the collaboration between the Winery and former New York Yankees baseball legend, jazz musician and wine connoisseur, Bernie Williams. With a mere three months to execute, IPR&C was tasked with garnering media coverage and fast-track exposure for the kickoff to the Winery’s Jazz Concert Series, which would be opened by Bernie Williams and his band in June 2023. In addition, IPR&C was charged with creating awareness around the second release of Bernie’s Blends wines, a collection crafted and blended by Williams and Millbrook’s winemaking team and adorned with label artwork by Williams’ artist daughter, Beatriz Williams. Simultaneously, the team needed to tie in the philanthropic part of the story, since a portion of all wine sale proceeds were being donated to the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) Foundation’s Support Music Coalition, a cause Williams is passionate about.

Strategy:

• • Meet with Millbrook Winery leadership and Bernie Williams’ management team to gather and understand details around the event and the 2023 launch of Bernie’s Blend in addition to goals, expectations, scheduling, and to ensure all parties were aligned with next steps.
  • Work around Williams’ limited availability, due to travel and other philanthropic pursuits.
  • With established goals and strategies in mind, create key messages and story angles to utilize throughout the engagement.
  • Develop a targeted media list inclusive of national, regional and local press in the food and beverage, sports, ‘things to do’, arts and travel spaces.
  • Disseminate press materials such as an introductory media note, press release announcements and media advisory around the event and partnership.
  • Conduct follow-up pitching efforts with key reporters to secure media interest and interviews with Millbrook Winery representatives, as well as Bernie and Beatriz Williams.
  • Act as boots-on-the-ground during the event to help facilitate interviews and capture content for media unable to be on-site.

Results:

Within a few short weeks, the IPR&C garnered the following results on behalf of Millbrook Winery:

• 54 secured placements with more than 303,977,000 total media impressions, including live broadcast interviews for Bernie and Beatriz Williams and Ian Bearup in outlets such as Good Day New York, New York Live, WCBS-FM, News 12 Westchester and Hudson Valley, as well as a cover story in the Poughkeepsie Journal, and additional features in outlets such as Westchester & Fairfield County Business Journals, Times-Union, The Journal News, InsideHook and Chronogram, among others.
• 459 total tickets sold for the 2023 Jazz Concert event, resulting in an approximate 60 percent increase in ticket sales compared to the 2022 event, which had no proactive press strategy.
• More than 300 Bernie’s Blend wine bottles sold as the time of the event completion, with more bottles selling in the weeks following as press hits continued to publish.
• Increased awareness of Millbrook Winery as a go-to destination for award-winning wines and summer music events.

“Working with Impact throughout our engagement was nothing short of fantastic. Filomena and her team were always proactive, on top of their game, professional, and creative in their media promotion of our event. We could not have asked for better results from them.  I look forward to working with them in the very near future.” – David Bova, General Manager/Vice President, Millbrook Vineyards & Winery