Tesco-A-Go-Go

Tesco’s annual PR assault has reaped record-breaking coverage. The Germans haven’t done too badly, either

A GREAT example of what a concentration of PR activity will do for you occurs every April when Tesco launches an assault on several fronts on behalf of its wine department.

Centred around the Wine Festival, and rolled out in-store, on-line and – most importantly of all – in its mega-tasting for key journalists at the beginning of the month, this co-ordinated bombardment provides a significant boost to Tesco’s share of voice during April.

In 2002 this activity helped the supermarket take 18% of all mentions – around double its normal hit rate, and made it the market leader for the month.

The fact that it had just launched a range of Stelvin-topped wines across it’s major stores also helped drive press chatter.  But would it do as well this year?

The answer on this occasion is yes. It grabbed one in five of all mentions; a phenomenal achievement and the highest share of voice ever recorded for a retailer in this service’s 16 month history.

Other notable PR-driven performances in April included a strong surge in mentions of German wine, spurred primarily by the wellsupported Great Riesling Tasting, a press and trade shindig featuring top Rieslings from Germany, Australia and elsewhere.

The subsequent coverage boosted Germany’s very modest 2.9% average showing to a robust 6.7% of mentions during the month. 

So which journos/publications are showing the most interest? In the case of Tesco, Malcolm Gluck of the Guardian and Jane MacQuitty of the Times appear to be driving most of the coverage.

Given that a lot of the Wine Festival is built around giving across-range discounts of up to 25% and far deeper discounts on selected SKUs, tickling the interests of two writers renowned for their love of reporting bargains to readers is no surprise.

However, the Tesco team might look to the lack of a single mention in either influential BBC Good Food Magazine or the FT Weekend section as possible "could-do-betters" for next year’s plans to garner publicity.

The German coverage is more evenly spread out, with most major broadsheets giving their favourite Rieslings a plug.

 In fact were Jancis Robinson’s Riesling review in the FT not to fall into May’s numbers (it came out on May 3), the Germans would have secured decent coverage in every daily and Sunday broadsheet bar the Independent on Sunday.