Yellow Tail named most powerful wine brand in the world

Yellow Tail has topped Wine Intelligence's Global Wine Brand Power Index for the second year in a row.

And fellow Aussie brand Jacob's Creek wasn't far behind it, up four places on the list to No.3.

Another notable climber in the index was JP Chenet, up three places to No.5.

Building on feedback from over 20,000 wine drinkers in 20 markets – representing the views of 390 million wine drinkers globally – the second year of the study found that the US, Chile and Australia remain the dominant source countries for powerful wine brands.

Wine Intelligence notes: "In terms of what has changed, there is a consistent and overall drop in the calculated Global Wine Brand Power Index score itself from 2018 to 2019. This has been driven by one key shift: the ongoing decline in wine brand awareness among wine drinkers."

The report blames smartphones for the trend. 

"This shift is, in part, driven by a process called cognitive off-loading, where we rely increasingly on instant, online resources to retrieve information as and when we require it," Wine Intelligence notes.

"This leads to us no longer needing to store and remember as much information in our memories, as a ‘mega-encyclopaedia’ is now available at our fingertips via our smartphones, diluting the need for us to commit less necessary or important facts and pieces of information to our memory.

"This is reflected in the world of wine, where consumers are aware of fewer wine brands than they were 10 years ago – despite a rising involvement level with the category."

Commenting on the report, Wine Intelligence CEO Lulie Halstead said: “It’s interesting to see that wine brands, as a whole, have a challenge on their hands to hang onto their spot within consumers’ minds.

"The high-ranking brands in this list tend to have distinctive imagery, solid and consistent branding and tend to be the ones doing well, or very well, across multiple markets. This last observation also supports other evidence that we observe: despite market and cultural differences, wine drinkers have a strong tendency to value similar things in their wine brands across markets.”

Casella's Yellow Tail brand debuted its third consecutive Super Bowl campaign – Tastes like Happy - in January. More than 111 million Americans tune in for the big game, which makes it one of the most lucrative advertising opportunities in the the US, next to the Olympics. 

In 2017, Yellow Tail became the first wine brand in nearly 40 years to advertise at the Super Bowl.