The initiative comes as both companies are experiencing a period of immense growth and developing strong brand presence in the country.
Cybercellar is South Africa’s oldest e-commerce site and has been in operation since 1997. It has since experienced unprecedented growth and over the last few years has become the dominant go-to site to purchase alcoholic beverages online. The past two years have seen the company extend to non-alcoholic beverages as well as accessories. The move to include alcohol-related ticket sales was simply the next logical step. Quicket entered into the South African market in September 2011 as the first self-managed ticketing system in the country. It has since transformed into one of the largest event ticketing sites in SA.
James Hedley, co-founder of Quicket, comments: "We feel this partnership has the potential to create a lot of value for our event organisers in terms of brand exposure, extra sales and the ability to seamlessly upsell a range of products with tickets."
The latest exciting development for the partnership is the addition of the popular inner city wine tasting adventure, Tuning the Vine. Richard Mills, CEO of Tuning the Vine, says that the move to Cybercellar was strategic, creating the opportunity for greater exposure and wine sales for producers signing up to be a part of the Tuning the Vine #InnerCityWineRoute experience. Popular estates like Thelema, Zevenwacht and Vergenoegd are familiar faces at the event and are strong brands on the Cybercellar.com site. It makes sense to bring it all together to move the whole industry forward and create a strong brand presence for all involved.
Gavin Forsyth, chief marketing officer at Cybercellar says that he is excited by the future of the new venture. “Wine is one of the few truly lifestyle FMCG products out there. This means that brand affinity isn’t just created by the product itself, but also by the environment in which it is consumed. It therefore makes sense to incorporate events with wine, allowing us to provide customers with a complementary service to enhance their Cybercellar experience.”
