Life’s little moments are better paired with wine is the message we have been listening to in an advertising campaign broadcast on Spanish TV. Part of the first nationwide promotion backed by the OIVE (Spain’s Wine Trade Organization), it is the initial step of a plan aimed at reversing the downturn in wine consumption in Spain.
This downward trend has been particularly acute over recent years with a 35% drop in per capita wine consumption between 2007 and 2014, according to data published by the Wine Institute and compiled by the OEMV, Spain’s Wine Observatory. Current wine consumption in Spain stands at around 20 litres per capita compared to 42 litres in France, 33 in Italy or 21 in the UK.
The campaign (watch the first spot here) will include online advertisement as well as leisure, lifestyle and women’s magazines —women area seen as a particularly interesting target group for wine. Future plans include product placements on Spanish TV series so we may finally be able to see leading characters drinking wine instead of beer.
The €4m investment in the first phase (November and December) is set to continue during 2018 and 2019 —the total €12m budget has been entirely funded by OIVE members. Set up in 2014, this organization brings together the industry’s various players (wine growers, private wineries and cooperatives). Since June, members pay a compulsory fee of €0.23 per hectoliter for bottled wine and €0.065/hl for bulk wine.
Targeted at men and women between 28 and 40 years of age, the campaign is the result of a strategic review commissioned by the OIVE. The findings of the study are far from promising. To start with, Spain is the only major wine producing country where per capita beer consumption has overtaken wine. Wine consumption is higher in tourist areas and the average wine consumer is over 40 years old with 53% of the group exceeding the age of 50.
Wine in Spain is no longer considered as food, the study says; instead, it is seen as an accessory. The change in habits (erratic meals, the quest for personal health and wellbeing, adults shifting their leisure time from night to daytime) has taken wine out of daily life relegating it to special occasions. But all hope is not lost: the report considers that wine can “fit in the new well-being lifestyle providing it regains its role as a cultural, healthy, enjoyable beverage.”
According to the research, other factors that have contributed to the drop in wine consumption include the lack of pride among Spaniards in their own culture and products and the inability of the industry to communicate a simple, homogeneous message covering the whole category. Consumers are overwhelmed by the enormous choice on the shelves, afraid of being unable to order wine properly and isolated when their beverage of choice differs from what most people drink –think beer. The study concludes that the main reason behind the gloomy wine consumption figures nationwide is the loss of regular consumers.
Following these conclusions, an achievable and profitable goal was established. Rather than trying to seduce non-wine consumers, the aim is to increase the frequency of consumption in people who drink wine occasionally or on special occasions, but do not particularly enjoy it or don’t identify it as an aspirational drink. The campaign will target consumers who drink wine once or twice a month with the aim that they become weekly drinkers and those who drink wine once a week start enjoying it several times a week.
Another goal is to communicate wine with a more modern approach making it look fun, easy and friendly but “avoiding trivialization or the loss of its identity and authenticity." Hence the strategy of linking wine with those small moments of life.
The presentation of the campaign, held in Madrid last Tuesday with the presence of Isabel García Tejerina, Minister of Agriculture, conveyed the same fun, casual atmosphere with the recreation of everyday scenes and characters: a living room with the TV on, friends hanging out, tapas and bottles with slogans like "Because my favourite TV series is released today and there’s a double episode."
