After being flagged and featured as a Staff Favorite in the iTunes app store during the holidays last year, Hello Vino is featured as the #1 Drink App in Apple’s “Holiday Apps” list. The feature concludes an incredible year of growth for this Tyngsboro, Mass. based wine app, including a recently debuted app for Android this October.
We characterize Hello Vino as doing for wine what the calculator did for math. Designed from the ground up for vino novices, Hello Vino provides recommendations based on the practical things you do know – like what occasion or holiday you’re buying for, the meal or dish you’re having, or more generally your taste or regional preference. Have a favorite wine already? Hello Vino can even recommend dishes that pair well with it.
This year Hello Vino provided well over 6 million wine recommendations (on top of 2 million logged in 2009) to hundreds of thousands of users. The app served over 900,000 recommendations in the month of November alone, and co-founder Jim McNamee tells us they expect to surpass 1 million this month. The company has been monitoring mobile wine behavior for nearly two years now, and McNamee shared some interesting data with us – data it’s about to release in a report, and which they’ve used to help drive an exciting product roadmap and new features for release in early 2011.
Most Requested Wine Recommendations
In terms of what occasion wine recommendations are requested for most on the go, McNamee tells us that “red wine for making an impression” comes out at the top. The second most requested occasion: birthday parties. This speaks to what many brands are realizing critical to mobile engagement: the ability to be involved in and deliver value in the moment, and at a time when there is a heightened need.
I’m not sure exactly how wine demand is forecasted, but Hello Vino’s users requested recommendations most for blackberry, cherry, oak and strawberry wine flavors in the second half of 2010. Tuscany, Italy and Mendoza, Argentina follow behind Napa, California as the top three most requested regions for recommendations.
With regard to food and dish pairings, the top 10 requests reflect the extent to which Hello Vino has successfully helped bring wine to the masses: pepperoni pizza rolls in at #1 followed by filet mignon, NY strip, plain cheese pizza, salmon, ribeye steak, grilled chicken, pasta marinara, shrimp, and T-bone steak.
Beyond wine recommendation and pairing requests, Hello Vino has been monitoring more general consumer behavior when it comes to wine on the go. The company recently conducted a survey of over 120k users, and is prepping to share many of the results with area app developers like these who are also building location-based drink apps. Check out some teaser data to the right.
New Features for 2011
Learnings from Hello Vino app usage on top of their mobile wine consumer survey are driving many of the app’s new features for release in early 2011.
Enhancing the core value of providing input-based recommendations on the go, new features will allow you to view recommendations from other Hello Vino users, view location-specific recommendations based on retail inventory, and even view recommended recipes that match particular wines (complete with the ingredients to shop for and directions).
On top of this, McNamee tells us that Hello Vino is working to integrate scanning technolgoy so you can use your smartphone’s camera to simply scan a wine label on the shelf instead of typing French and Italian words you can barely pronounce into the app. He also let us know that the next release of Hello Vino will allow you to save, rate and review wines like many other wine apps.
Today you can enjoy Hello Vino on any iPhone, Android, or mobile web enabled phone, and can even request recommendations over SMS. The app currently includes features like the ability to share wines to your social networks, prononciations, and helpful badge designations for wines deemed “Acclaim,” “Popular,” or “Value.” Check out the quick video below to see all the Hello Vino app offers, and keep checking in for their new release in early 2011:
