Yellow Tail to be first Super Bowl wine ad in 30 years

Casella's Yellow Tail brand is poised to be the first Super Bowl wine advertiser in more than 30 years.

Ad spots in the broadcast of America's equivalent of the Aussie footy grand final - screening on February 6 - can go for up to $US5.5million.

Tom Steffanci, President of Deutsch Family Wine & Spirits - Casella's US distribution partner - told The Street: "This is big news ... The reason we're doing it is not just for Yellow Tail, this is a bit of showing the world and America in particular that wine belongs at a wide variety of occasions. There are not many events like the Super Bowl where you can speak to 80 million consumers plus ... The campaign is going to be all about showing consumers in a fun and Ihope funny way that Yellow Tail and wine in general belongs at all kinds of occasions. You don't need the perfect glassware, it doesn't need to be stuffy."

According to Ad Age, Yellow Tail has been planning the ad for more than a year. The brand just had to get around AB InBev's exclusive alcohol category ad rights with Fox, the network that screens the Super Bowl.

Yellow Tail's media agency found a work around: it bought individual local ad buys across 70 TV markets, which means an estimated 85% of the more than 100 million people watching the game will have a chance to see the Aussie wine ad.

Ad Age notes: "Yellow Tail's decision to advertise in the game was driven by market dynamics shaping the wine industry. Wine has had a good run of late, despite the fact that its marketers tend to avoid expensive traditional ads in a fragmented category filled with a dizzying array of brands. Wine consumption grew from 14.6% of all alcohol servings in 2006 to 17.5% last year, according to BW166, which provides market analytics and advisory services to the beverage alcohol industry. In that same period, beer fell from 55.7% to 49.8%."

However, Shanken News Daily recently reported that the Austrailian import segment has struggled of late, especially at lower price points. Rather than cutting back on marketing and price cutting, Deutsch and Casella have decided to go the opposite route.  

"Our consumer research is telling us that Yellow Tail is a consumer-loved brand," Renato Reyes, chief marketing officer for Deutsch revealed." We said instead of investing in price [discounting] we are going to invest in the Super Bowl, the world's largest stage."

Click here to see the advertisement - created by the Burns Group - which features a new spokesperson for the brand, “Yellow Tail Guy,” and a kangaroo enjoying Yellow Tail wine at a party, a backyard barbecue and the beach.

“We’re using comedy to show that this wine is really fun to drink—to show that of the 5,000 wine brands in the space, Yellow Tail is the one that’s associated with fun,” said Mike Burns, founder of Burns Group.