The combination of something a little different, perseverance and hard work does pay off.
Today Hugh MacLeod and Stormhoek Wine have that payoff in the form of the Blue Monster Reserve Label wine created by Stormhoek exclusively for Microsoft.
The Financial Times has the details although Hugh’s post is the more interesting read as it better illustrates a concept Hugh’s been talking about for a while, and which I’ve been thinking about a lot since just last week when he talked about it during the Inferno PR event on business blogging in the UK that he and I were speaking at.
That concept is social objects:
[…] the easiest products to market are objects with “Sociability” baked-in. Products that allow people to have “conversations” with other folk.
Nearly a year ago, Hugh created the Blue Monster as a conversation starter about Microsoft:
[…] For too long, Microsoft has allowed other people- the media, the competition and their detractors, especially- to tell their story on their behalf, instead of doing a better job of it themselves.
We firmly believe that Microsoft must start articulating their story better- what they do, why they do it, and why it matters- if they’re to remain happy and prosperous long-term.
If they can do this, well, we don’t expect people in their millions to magically start loving Microsoft overnight, but perhaps it might get people- including the people who work there- to start thinking differently. Small moves.
A social object evolving. More than a small move.
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