HelloVino’s Jim McNamee talks about his app’s cool upgrade
100,000 now and counting. iPhone apps are proliferating and wine apps for our iPhones are growing in numbers and sophistication as well. And while there are several very good wine apps out there, HelloVino has quickly become our preferred. HelloVino is an absolute sick wine pairing and suggestion tool that we can use via the Web on any mobile device, via text messaging, and, of course, on the free iPhone app. Whether you’re looking for a wine to pair with food, dig on its own, or even give as a gift, HelloVino helps the wine consumer with the heavy lifting.
Jim McNamee assembled a team not very long ago with Rick Breslin and Chris Mitchell to produce the app which has just released a very cool and major upgrade. It matters not whether one has followed or discovered them via Twitter or Facebook or their website, the fact of the matter is the app is becoming very popular and McNamee and his team don’t see that popularity waning anytime soon. It’s easy to have vision here as an entrepreneur too when one takes into consideration the fact that nearly 70% of Gen-Y consumers carry their cell phones with them at all times. Megan Berry, writing for Mashable, listed it at the top of their 5 Must-Have iPhone Apps for Wine Lovers and Paul Mabray at VinTank praised it as a “great tool” for making point of purchase decisions. And that’s where we have really come to like it as well.
Rick Breslin is on camera for a very user-friendly walk through of just how uncomplicated the app is.
What is Hello Vino? from Hello Vino on Vimeo.
Given how popular the app has become, we were psyched when McNamee agreed to share with us a few of the stories that led to HelloVino’s creation and evolving functionality.
We think Hello Vino is the smartest i Phone app there right now. What prompted you to develop it in the first place? What was stronger, the love for wine or technology?
Wow, thank you! We truly appreciate the compliment. To answer your question, we are primarily a Web Development and Online Marketing firm that found ourselves doing a lot of Web sites and campaigns for the wine industry (wine brands and popular content). After countless meetings and calls, we were well aware of the wine consumer pain points such as being overwhelmed by the wall of wine in a store, or shying away from asking questions because of intimidation (just to name a few). Because we’re into technology, and now wine, mobile Web development and App development was exciting and we wanted to challenge ourselves. Mobile is the next big thing right? Right?? That was a safe answer huh? Ok, how about this…we’re geeks. We started to get curious about wine because of our everday business, wondered why an app like ours didn’t already exist, consulted with wine experts, and went for it.
How many downloads have you seen thus far and what do you see is your ultimate potential for growth?
Our numbers are in the six-digit range. The numbers we’re really jazzed up about (and make us work harder) are the usage stats. From June 2009 to October 2009, Hello Vino recommended 1.5 million brands to consumers. We are currently experiencing and average of 25% increased usage every month. With the number of iPhone sales increasing, and the rumors of Verizon entering the iPhone game in 2010, we see the potential of more app downloads. In addition, the percentage of U.S. wine consumption is on the rise, and Millennials are a growing wine consumer demographic.
As you looked at the new version’s upgrade, what feature changes were the most important for you to get done?
The biggie was social networking capabilities. Let’s face it, industry scores and industry reviews serve a purpose (they still do), but friends sharing their activity in our app, or a sharing specific wine brands has serious legs (had to do the pun). While tackling the sharing functionality, we wanted to stay focused on the user experience, offer the sharing capabilities from within the app so they don’t have to leave it. This social upgrade stemmed from user feedback and reviews issued by MacWorld.com and Vintank.
We also expanded our content for consumers to make educated purchase decisions. There are now more ethnic food options, more occasion-based suggestions such as holidays, and other popular occasions. We aimed to provide more information on our brand result pages as well. The brands served to consumers now display tasting notes, ratings, and reviews. Actually, one of the biggest pieces of feedback we received since the first version of Hello Vino was “what if I already have a bottle of wine?” With the latest version, users can now work backwards and get food pairing recommendations for a bottle of wine they already have. Lastly, our search functionality got a boost. We have a relationship with Wine.com and fuel our search results with a quality wine selection users can sift through by type, region, price, vintage, and availability in their state.
There’s going to be more…so get your wine glasses and buckle up!
Are you engaged in dialogue with the Hello Vino consumer, sensitive, open to that feedback?
Interacting with consumers and our users is extremely important to us. We try hard to support our active presence on Twitter and Facebook. I’ll be honest, it’s not easy to keep up at times, but we’re scrappy and try to address everything (and usually do). In fact, we’re open to feedback from all levels of wine and tech knowledge (beginner to expert, and techie to non-techie). To sum it up, it’s all important. The fun part is assessing the variety of feedback and determining what is efficient and beneficial. By the way, we’re on Twitter and if you’d like to share something with us, please do at @hellovino, or contact us a hello@hellovino.com.
You seem to have spent a great deal of time considering how best to monetize Hello Vino. Tell us about that.
Well…that was subtle! 
This first year, we are focused on adoption and improving the user experience within the HelloVino app. We want to provide a valuable tool for the wine consumer, and a viable advertising channel for wineries. We do have several opportunities to earn revenue, but this winery program is the first that we’ve launched. So here’s the scoop…Brands can register for free with the option to sponsor the top listing.
The new brand advertising program offers wineries a highly targeted, simple to use self-service system with direct access to motivated wine consumers. Designed to support wineries of all sizes, the program, its specifications and reporting tools are available to brand managers on the Hello Vino website. We will still display other brands at random in order to preserve the user experience.
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http://twitter.com/hellovino Hello Vino
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http://twitter.com/hellovino Hello Vino
