Top drinks marketing campaigns and news: July

We’ve heard of wineries repurposing their barrels as sleeping pods for paying guests, but cider maker Orchard Pig has also got in on the act, and is offering consumers the opportunity to stay in a gigantic wooden pod in the shape of a pig.

The “world’s first portable piggy home” can accommodate 12 people and sleep two, equipped with “all the necessities for a night under the stars”.

Fully mobile, the ‘Trojan Pig’ can be brought to guests wherever they choose to stay. Bookings are currently being taken for August.

Last month Glengoyne Highland Single Malt Scotch Whisky’s announced it a partnership with the Scottish Open, its largest to date.

The deal includes pouring rights at all bars and hospitality spaces on the course throughout the four-day golf tournament from 11-14 July

Guests were able to sample a variety of releases from the Glengoyne Distillery including 10, 12, and 18 Year Old.

At the other end of the ABV spectrum, last month UK supermarket chain Sainsbury’s plans to launch a pop-up low-alcohol and alcohol-free pub in London, called The Clean Vic.

The pop-up, which opened on 24 and 25 July, serving drinks with a maximum alcohol level of 0.5% ABV, including Pernod Ricard’s new dark ‘spirit’ Celtic Soul, and a selection of alcohol-free beers including Lucky Saint; as low-alcohol wines and mocktails.

At the start of last month, Winerist, the wine, food and travel marketplace offering over 2000 travel ‘experiences’ in almost 150 destinations, joined forces with UK series The Wine Show.

The Wine Show and Winerist have selected a number of regions centred around each of The Wine Show episodes, offering viewers the opportunity to visit wineries and to stay at incredible wine hotels around the world.

Focusing on Portugal, filming has already started for series Three and will be transmitted in early 2020.

One third of drinkers in the UK don’t know that some red wines are best served chilled, according to new research commissioned by Chilean Pinot Noir producer Cono Sur.

A survey of more than 1,000 British drinkers commissioned by Cono Sur showed that most people believe red wine should always be served at room temperature, despite the case made by many in the industry that some varieties – such as Pinot Noir – are better lightly chilled, particularly during the summer months.

Of those surveyed, 36% said they believed it is ‘completely wrong’ to drink refrigerated red wine. Almost half said they have never tried red wine chilled, while 29% think doing so would be against wine etiquette. Interestingly, Pinot Noir was only the third most popular grape variety that drinkers had tried chilled, with a little over a quarter (23%) saying they had served it after it had spent some time in the fridge.

Many more had done so with Merlot, with more than 30% saying they’ve enjoyed the wine cold. Meanwhile, Shiraz came second, with 25% of those surveyed saying they’d cooled theirs. Alistair Cooper MW said: “If you think of the fruit characters you often encounter with lighter styles of red wines, like Pinot Noir – cherries, strawberries and raspberries – they are all fruits that you’d enjoy on a summer’s day straight out of the fridge. The same goes for the wine.”

The survey is part of an ongoing campaign Cono Sur is running to promote its new Pinot Noir bottle labels, which change colour when the drink is chilled in the fridge.

Arsenal FC has secured listing partnerships with two major players in the UK drinks industry: Chilean wine group Santa Rita Estates, and AB InBev-owned Camden Town Brewery.

The football club renewed its wine partnership with Chilean group Santa Rita Estates on 23 July. The group, which owns wine brands Santa Rita, Carmen and Doña Paula, will have exclusive pouring rights on the still and sparkling wines from its portfolio across club level, and general admission areas at Emirates Stadium.

The group will also have LED signage around the pitch at every home Premier League, League Cup and FA Cup match each season. Arsenal will also produce branded content for Santa Rita which will be shared across both companies’ digital and communications platforms. Access to Arsenal’s head coach and ‘legends’ are also included in the partnership.

“We are delighted to continue building on this fruitful relationship with Arsenal, impacting both fans and consumers across the globe,” said Santa Rita chairman Baltazar Sánchez. Santa Rita first landed a partnership with the football club in 2016.

The news comes days after Arsenal secured a new deal with AB InBev-owned London brewery Camden Town, that will see the brewer set up three dedicated bars at the stadium for the start of the new season.

Founded by Jasper Cuppaidge, the owner of The Horseshoe pub in Hampstead, Camden Town Brewery started production in 2010 and has since grown from just three staff to a team of 95. Its beers are available in over 1,000 pubs, bars, restaurants and retailers around the UK, as well as further afield in Sweden, Australia and Japan. Cuppaidge sold the business to AB InBev in December 2015 to expand its production and reach in the UK.

Cuppaidge said: “The partnership with Arsenal marks a huge moment both for me and for the entire team at Camden Town Brewery and we can’t wait to share our great beers and a better beer experience with all of the supporters like myself.”

Arsenal’s commercial director Peter Silverstone said: “We are always working to improve the matchday experience at Emirates Stadium, so to partner with the local and hugely renowned Camden Town Brewery is very exciting.

“Camden’s enthusiasm is infectious and their desire to support our fans is clear to see through their incredible competition offer to kick-start our partnership.

“We look forward to working with them on more exciting initiatives to capture the hearts and taste buds of Arsenal fans.”

Bacardi is looking for a new Chief marketing officer for Grey Goose and Patrón, after announcing that Lee Applbaum is to step down at the end of August.

The company confirmed it was focussing on external candidates in order to bring “diverse experience and a luxury and lifestyle lens” to its premium and super-premium tequila and vodka brand, with the successful candidate working closely with global CMO John Burke and serving on the Bacardi Global Leadership Team.

Australian beer brand Victoria Bitter is taking a novel approach to the low and no alcohol drinks trend by selling beer-flavoured teabags.

The tea, which retails at AU$10 (£5.67) for a box of 24 pyramid teabags, is a blend of ceylon black tea leaves and VB Super Pride Hops.

Victoria Bitter, produced by Carlton & United Breweries, advertises the novelty product as vegan, gluten-free and non-alcoholic, hitting three drinks trends in one go, and claims the resulting brew tastes exactly like the beer.

The teabags have been listed on the beer brand’s website ahead of The Ashes series this month.

Victoria Bitter is trying to encourage consumers to “boycott English breakfast tea” for this Aussie alternative.

Campo Eliseo Verdejo vines in Rueda (Photo credit: Campo Eliseo)

Spain’s most popular white wine – Verdejo, from Rueda – has launched a social media-driven sales promotion for independent retailers in the UK called #tasterueda. Starting this autumn, the campaign by DO Rueda has been created to promote the region’s flagship grape, Verdejo, in the specialist retail sector in the UK.

Designed to help these businesses increase sales of whites from Rueda, the initiative will see each participating shop receive an exclusive promotional point-of-sale pack including: a branded apron, corkscrews, an ice bucket, neck tags, maps, posters and an information guide.

To encourage independent wine specialists to take up the promotion, the shop that puts on the best show will be taken to Rueda to learn more about the region. Commenting on the promotion, Mario Muñoz, head of export, promotion and marketing at DO Rueda, said: “We believe that by helping to educate retailers about Rueda and encourage customers to try the wines in store we can help to sustain growth and build a viable position for Rueda wines on UK shelves.”

In June, officials in Rueda relaxed the rules for DO certification to allow for international grape varieties and create a new classification for higher-quality expressions from old vines. Such changes to the rules of the region are expected to come into force in time for this year’s vintage.

Australian Vintage-owned McGuigan Wines has launched its largest UK advertising campaign to date, in a £2 million sponsorship deal that covers Timeless Entertainment programming on UKTV’s Drama channel.

McGuigan’s sponsorship builds upon last year’s out-of-home ‘Bring a McGuigan’ campaign that included coverage across key locations throughout the UK and Republic of Ireland.

Produced by UKTV’s award-winning in-house creative shop, UKTV Creative, the series of six ads show a mix of guests arriving for a dinner party with the strapline ‘Bring a McGuigan’. Chief operating officer, Julian Dyer, said the investment is the company’s “biggest yet” in marketing in the UK.

“This marketing investment is our biggest yet, making people more aware of the moments and occasions when consumers can enjoy McGuigan’s award- winning wines. “We’re particularly excited about this sponsorship as we continue to show our dedication to the UK market, building on our investment over the past few years.”

The priority, he said, is to drive brand awareness “with an always on approach”, leading with its McGuigan Black Label range. He hopes to win over new customers with national and retailer specific in-store activations and a content-driven social media strategy.

Graham Norton 2019 Blending Session – Around The Blend! from Invivo Wines on Vimeo.

Graham Norton once again locked himself away with the team at Invivo & Co to blend his Sauvignon Blanc last month, and this time he invited The Wine Show‘s Joe Fattorini to help out.

This year marks the release of the sixth vintage of Graham Norton’s Sauvignon Blanc, and it’s the fifth vintage that the star has been seen creating the blend with the Invivo & Co team.

New Zealand winery Invivo & Co again brought samples of Marlborough SauviGNon Blanc to Graham in London, for a three-hour session of tasting and blending, but this year, The Wine Show star and Personality About Town, Joe Fattorini, was drafted in for his expert opinion.

William Grant & Sons-owned gin brand Hendrick’s is attempting to make the Tube smell like cucumber and roses with an advertising campaign involving scented posters and the “UK’s longest floor wrap”.

Teaming up with ad agency Space, Hendrick’s has created a “first of its kind” tunnel wrap in King’s Cross St Pancras Station. With slogans including ‘undeniably peculiar, utterly delicious’; ‘hello curious commuters’; and ‘escape the conventional and embrace the delectable’, the campaign takes the form of floor-to-ceiling wall decorations in the brand’s signature Victorian Surrealism theme.

The scented posters, designed to replicate the key flavours in the gin, will create an immersive experience. The campaign launched in mid-July and will run until September.

Facebook is reportedly enforcing age restrictions on business posts relating to alcohol and tobacco in order to confine content to people aged 18 and over.

As reported by CNN, Facebook, which also owns Instagram and messaging service WhatsApp, is implementing a number of changes to its policies on alcohol.

Enforced from 24 July, the company has banned all private sales, trades, transfers and gifting of alcohol and tobacco products on Facebook and Instagram.