• by Nina Lentini  @Nina_Lentini, June 4, 2007

Back in February, the California Association of Winegrape Growers (CAWG) welcomed representatives from Weber Shandwick to its offices to review a proposal set forth by the latter for the former.

Midway through the presentation, recalls CAWG President Karen Ross, "it was one of those 'ah ha' moments where we realized they had formalized what we see every day on wine lists and in [news] stories and in wine shops: California really is its own country."

The revolution was underway.

In a press release issued last week, California's winegrowers declared the state an "independent country where life is grape, citizens have the right to bear vines and Arnold Schwarzenegger can be president."

It even has its own motto: "E pluribus vinum," stamped on a microsite, OneNationUnderVines.com, created by Weber Shandwick, a global public relations and communications firm based in New York.

"They walked in with a full-blown, graphically illustrated presentation and helped us see what we could be doing," Ross tells Marketing Daily. "The graphics were what attracted us. They were clean and really resonated. The enthusiasm and energy with which they presented this concept really expressed how much they would love to represent our winegrape growers."

The idea behind the campaign is that California winegrape growers are competing with whole countries such as France, Italy and Spain. In fact, it is the fourth-largest producer of wine (after those countries) worldwide, and accounts for 90% of all U.S.-grown wine.

Established in 1974, the CAWG represents the growers of more than 50% of the gross grape tonnage crushed for wine and concentrate in California. Ross says the association's original purpose was to be an advocate for growers, to monitor industry affairs and to become involved in public policy issues as they were debated in Sacramento and Washington, D.C.

The emergence of the state as a global force in the industry and of the U.S. as one of the biggest consumers of wine (it is poised to become the largest in three years) moved the CAWG to look toward marketing.

While the current campaign is limited to public relations and the Web site, which is "a new adventure for the growers and my association," Ross says the group is looking to see what kind of credibility is built through PR and then it will consider what kind of advertising would be appropriate.

"Our consumers are in so many different segments, and we want our messages to be targeted," she says. "and so we will have to think through a strategy."

Ideally, the PR campaign will drive people online, allowing the CAWG to engage directly with consumers.

"We love the creativity of it," Ross says, "and it has a long-lasting message."