Tania’s success can be attributed to her analytical and creative smarts, calm demeanour, focus and professional sincerity. When working on our project, she demonstrated a deep understanding of the industry combined with a clear strategic process, which our workshop attendees appreciated. Tania managed to unite a vast and disparate group of regional stakeholders on a singular unique brand proposition which was —for all intents and purposes— a miracle! Her deep experience in qualitative research shone through, as she distilled large amounts of information into meaningful insights for our destinations. I would highly recommend iSpy to any brand seeking a robust yet compelling brand strategy (you won’t get any fluff or jazz hands with Tania!).

Holly Formosa - Wine Tourism Brand Manager | Wine Victoria

WINE VICTORIA AND VISIT VICTORIA have embarked on a bold plan to position Victoria as a premium wine producer and destination of the world. Five key 'wine pillars' form part of this strategy and Shiraz Central is one of them.

APPROACH

This region is an extra vast geographic region stretching from the north east of Victoria through to the mid-south west. It is a very diverse topography that importantly sits astride much of the Great Dividing Range and embraces many hundreds of wineries, vineyards, vignerons, wine styles, tourism operators, tourism associations, wine GI's and local councils. Bringing such a diverse group of passionate business people together under one unified banner is a challenge, and requires a commitment to engagement, listening and flexibility. Together with our design strategy partner Cupla, we employed our seven step process which leans heavily on the use of objective facts, research, stakeholder engagement and collaboration and found our way to a place called Shiraz Central.

OUTCOME

This outcome sought was not about a logo but about defining a position for the region capable of elevating it on the world stage to one that promises an exceptional style of wine, a unique style of experience and an evolving style of engagement that can and will be delivered across the region by independent wine makers and tourism operators. This is about being truthful yet aspirational. This is about strengthening all wine makers, brands and tourism operators in the region with a promise that leverages their shared truth of being situated in 'Victoria's wild heart' and thus why the area provides the perfect conditions for not just the production of their pioneering cool spiced Shiraz, but their adventurous wine making mind-set.  In defining the Shiraz Central proposition we were able to collaboratively define the seven key ingredients of any successful destination brand.

1. Competitive position

2. Sense of place

3. Signature product 

4. Signature experience

5. Key narrative streams

6. Key visual mneumonics and style

7. How to execute all of the above.

An excerpt from the brand playbook below shows some of the seven key ingredients and the 'how to's'. In our opinion it's Step Seven that is so often forgotten in brand strategy for destinations (and collective brands of any kind be they places, industry bodies, or councils) and therefore why there are so many good strategies collecting dust on marketing managers shelves. But that's another story, I need a glass of lovely cool spiced Shiraz for that one.  

THE RESULT?

A brand strategy that is currently being successfully employed to bring attention to central Victoria's wine country.