Toast to Humanity creates wine buzz through expansion of cause-branding strategy Boca Raton, FL, June 14, 2005 With Florida as America's second largest wine consumer market, topped only by California, what better way to reach the majority of U.S. wine consumers than via a prominent film festival gala where the two foremost markets meet. Toast To Humanity (TTH), a cause branding promotion, which is rapidly becoming a major force in the wine industry, seized the opportunity. Bouchard Finlayson Wines, a South African Wine little known in the U.S., was introduced to over 800 affluent guests at the recent Palm Beach International Film Festival (PBIFF) Gala Award Dinner and Show. The prestigious event draws dozens of major Hollywood celebrities, filmmakers from around the globe, and some of the Palm Beach County’s most affluent members of society. Bouchard Finlayson Wines were provided as the wine for the evening generating a word-of-mouth buzz about their product that will travel from Florida to California other locations in the U.S., Canada and Europe. Through the event, TTH also gained recognition via advertising and distribution of brochures, promoting their other wine sponsors in addition to Bouchard Finlayson Wines including: Banfi, Bouchard Pere et Fils, Bowe Joubert, Cavit, Frei Brothers, Sanoma-Loeb, and this year’s charity, A Child Is Missing, an organization whose primary purpose is to provide assistance to law enforcement in the search and early recovery efforts during the initial hours of a person's disappearance. With the success of the Palm Beach Fest, TTH, recently tied Sichel Wines to the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival party, held during the world’s largest market film festival, Cannes, and have their sights set on other high profile film festivals, wine/food paring events, and theatrical tie-ins. This begins to bring full circle the original concept of TTH founders Bonnie Skop and Ken Chase; to develop a win-win marketing campaign to benefit their combined passions for the wine and entertainment industries with their commitment of contributing to humanitarian causes. The concept, which was initiated in 2002, has now become a worldwide campaign, raising over $500,000 in both direct dollars and in-kind media for their charity partners, and has created consumer confidence and loyalty for their wine sponsors products. During the first half of 2005, Toast To Humanity popped the cork on additional exposure. Decanter Wine Magazine jumped on board for the first time this year, and TTH developed The Weekend Wine Watch which will receive distribution at the end of 2005 or the beginning of 2006. Golfer’s Guide has increased their sponsorship to a national level, including all of the U.S. and Canada, and USA Today has added a TTH banner ad to their website. Toast to Humanity’s mission is to effectively utilize cause-branding, to heighten awareness, consumer confidence and loyalty for their wine sponsors’ products by aligning with social and charitable causes, resulting in increased consumer confidence and loyalty for their products while providing worthy charitable organizations the support they need to fulfill their mission of being compassionate stewards of humanitarian causes. For more information concerning any of the press releases listed above, please contact: Jan Mitchell & Associates, Inc Mobile: 954-649-0258 e-mail: janpubpromo@yahoo.com Back to Press Room © 2006 Toast To Humanity | All Rights Reserved | info@toasttohumanity.com