A vision of the future
inspiration, an innate desire to find better ways of doing things, or just plain impulsiveness, Chaffey’s decision to launch into the augmented reality app business 18 months ago was done on the fly.
At the stage, he was the managing director of KBB Digital, a digital marketing agency established with TV personality and business expert David Koch.
At its peak, the agency employed 14 staff and had developed the digital strategy for some leading Australian brands.
On the side, Chaffey had become one of the experts featured on Kochie’s Business Builders.
But on December 10, 2018, over a 19 Crimes bottle of wine, things were quickly about to change.
Treasury Wines had a promotion using augmented reality with its 19 Crimes label and Chaffey pondered to son Luke about what could be achieved through augmented reality if you could connect it to a platform and to data.
The next day Luke — the IT half of the Team Chaffey — had a basic prototype showing that connection could be made.
“It was proof of concept,” Dave Chaffey says.
They got excited by some further research and eight or nine days later they were clear on where they thought there was a position in the market.
“We went and saw David (Koch), and said, `We’re out’,”Chaffey says.
KBB Digital still exists and
Chaffey says walking away may have cost them at least half a million dollars.
Chaffey is not the walking image of his father. “I hate the scramble; that’s his thing, not mine,” Luke says.
“He is the showman, I am the steady one. He’s the one who comes up with crazy ideas, and I either shoot them down, or go after them because they actually make sense.”
Apparently, father and son completed DISC behavioural assessments that determined they were polar opposites and it could be challenging for them to be on the same team. But their complementary skills, a mutual respect, an understanding of each other’s behavioural styles and, it seems, a similar sense of humour allows them to work productively together.
Luke says that when he started playing with augmented reality his thoughts turned to what purposeful function it could achieve.
“I like to do something to help save someone time, or to provide a better solution from a tech perspective,” he says. “That’s what pushes me.” With their extensive experience in digital marketing, the pair have built social media features into their app, which will be crucial to driving consumer adoption.
It is intended for the app to allow interaction in the virtual space, doing such things as putting their own pictures on wine labels in augmented reality. These could then be shared on social media, alongside the winery’s hashtag.
Their target are the Millennials, those tech-savvy under-40s who the wine industry is finding it hard to reach.
And the vision is for Winerytale to be the No.1 global augmented reality app for the wine industry.
is a host of ideas using augmented reality apps lined up on a wall at the Geelong West office that is home to Winerytale.
The principle of doing commerce using augmented reality can apply to anything.
“We certainly can see this concept being adapted to a range of products provided there’s value in it for people,” Chaffey says.
A seasoned businessman, he knows he is still finding his feet in this space but, after all, nobody has walked this road before.
“Clearly I jump from one thing to the next as long as there is an opportunity to build an empire and there are things you can change,” he says.
“What I have learnt, though, is that you have to be in the industry for about 10 years before you can change it properly.
“It was only towards the end of optometry that I really knew what mattered and what didn’t matter.
“And with KBB Digital, Kochie, Luke and I should have gone down a different road; there was an opportunity we could have chased but didn’t.”
But he reckons that his business instincts serve him well, even if the dots aren’t always lined up.
“I always play the long game,” he says. “I always do a lot of things without realising their sub-purpose and then they come good in the end.”
turned to the crowd for funds because COVID-19 killed an initial investment strategy of getting 10 people to commit about $180,000 each.
Chaffey says that he had about half the money lined up when the virus struck.
Instead of killing further time, the Chaffeys pushed ahead with an offer on Birchal, that has had about 450 people register their interest in investing a combined
$2.8 million.
But Chaffey has been advised that pledges don’t always come through and they have their contingency plans.
Plan A is to immediately launch the app in Australia with all the user-facing functions.
They have content prepared for most of the 1200 Australian wine brands, and there is still a host of work to do in communicating with wineries, which will be offered the app on a freemium model.
The app includes a feature that allows wineries to make their own automated social media content.
And down the track, it is possible purchases through the app will be directed to an appropriate distributor for a fee.
A fully-funded Plan A would then see the platform rolled out in the US, where Winerytale has already been busy marketing itself.
A third partner in the business, augmented reality specialist Matt Hallberg, lives in Pittsburgh.
To this stage the Chaffeys have been mostly self-funded with some investment support from family and friends.
All going well, for the next 12 months they will be still be signing up wineries and working to own the market before any major commercialisation play.
“That’s the right move to market,” Chaffey says.
“The opportunity from the very outset was whoever is the first one who gets there for this, wins the game.”