EMILY HAY | MARKETING STRATEGIST / ACCOUNT DIRECTOR
Our resident South Australian, Emily lives & works in the beautiful Barossa.
Years in front-of-house hospitality management in Barossa and Adelaide, combined with a Bachelor of Visual Arts, honed her love of story telling, to the point stories are now entwined with everything she does.
After returning to the Barossa almost 15 years ago after a stint in tourism on Kangaroo Island, she began an immersion into many sides of wine & tourism marketing. From marketing & PR positions in a medium-sized family business, and the regional wine & tourism association (BGWA/Barossa Australia), to freelance design and a national leadership role in one of Australia’s largest drinks corporations, she’s seen (& learned) a lot!
Emily was recognised by Wine Communicators Australia (WCA) as an emerging voice in wine communication in 2015, as a Finalist in the New Wine Writer of the Year category in their annual Awards. Two years later, she went on to be awarded the inaugural WCA Wine Media Cadetship, taking her to Shanghai, Hong Kong & across South Australia. Her collaborative work with Barossa Grape & Wine Association received Best Wine Website or App, Best Wine PR Campaign and Overall Wine Communicator of the Year in the 2019 WCA awards and again in 2022, with Best Wine Marketing Communication Campaign. Her work in leading Barossa wineries through rapid DTC up-skilling during the pandemic was acknowledged as a finalist in the 2020 Australian Women in Wine Awards, Marketer of the Year (an award that was won by our very own Trish Barry!)
Alum of the esteemed Wine Future Leaders program, Emily has served as Chair of Australian Grape & Wine’s Diversity, Equality & Inclusion in Wine (DEIW) committee since late 2024. Emily believes strongly in giving back to the broader wine community, acting as a coach for subsequent years of Wine Future Leaders (2023 & 2025), and Mentor in the WCA Wine Mentor Program (2024 & 2025).
Emily has an unabashed love for all things strategic, developing a signature framework based on the three Cs; clarity, capability & capacity. She delights in building this flexible approach so even the least nerdy can get it, and importantly, easily put it to use in their businesses.
At heart, she is people-first and loves nothing more than connecting, whether that’s with our clients, or the in-person and digital communities of food & wine lovers out there.