Constellation closes in on mobile market

Constellation Brands is strengthening its ability to target wine drinkers through mobile platforms, having partnered with Hello Vino – a personal wine assistant app with 1.5 million users worldwide.

The Hello Vino app has been downloaded by 1.5 million wine consumers worldwide and serves as a mobile wine assistant helping to recommend wines, while its partnership with Constellation, signed late last year, now allows users to locate a wines nearest supplier.

Speaking to mobilemarketer.com, Chris Fehrnstrom, chief marketing officer of the wine and spirits division at Constellation Brands, revealed it now invests a quarter of its entire wine marketing budget on digital.

On its partnership with Hello Vino he said: “Through this, we can deliver messages to a targeted group we know is interested.

“We’re also now in the phase where we’re using a geo-targeted push program, which allows us to have push notifications sent to a target blind consumer reached specifically based on their likes.

“We can tap into them through these notifications or advertisements and guide them to a near store that provides an opportunity for the recipient to purchase the wine we suggested to them.”

Fehrnstrom singled out mobile marketing within the digital realm as one of the most important areas to focus on, citing the statistic that 45% of wine drinkers were more likely to use mobile devices compared the average consumer.

He said: “Because of the category were in, mobile for us is the bridge between the digital world and the physical world. We know consumers in our space are using their mobile devices more and more in store to make decisions.

“About 60% percent of the purchase decision is made in store and we know a little over 50% of shoppers use tech while they are shopping. So the ability to have this geo-targeted ability at the point of purchase is crucial.”