[yellowtail] releases second ad in $40m campaign

Buoyed by a 26% sales uplift following its Super Bowl advertisement, [yellow tail] is ignoring negative feedback from Aussie viewers and forging ahead with a $40million ad campaign in the United States featuring an anamatronic kangaroo and the "[yellowtail] guy".

The initial ad was criticised on social media by Australians who felt it was an embarrassing caricature of their country and detrimental to our wine industry.

“The wine itself continues to 'dumb down' the category,” one Aussie in the wine industry told Wine Spectator. “While most Aussies are all for fun and a good time, this was not at all classy and it was just weird.”

However the punters disagreed. The ad was pre-released online, leading to 285 million media impressions. Following its Super Bowl premier, [yellow tail]’s brand awareness increased by 12 points and purchase intent for those who viewed the ad doubled.

The company’s Twitter and Instagram accounts also experienced a 30% jump in followers.

“People commented that the ad had a really fun vibe to it,” Deutsch Family Wine & Spirits CEO Peter Deutsch, which distributes the brand in the US, told Wine Spectator. “The brand is very approachable. The campaign brings the brand’s laid-back Australian personality to life.”

Casella Family Brands Managing Director John Casella told drinks bulletin: “We knew that we needed to make a big impact with our next campaign to engage US consumers, drive brand awareness and increase sales.

“The results to date demonstrate our investment in the Super Bowl campaign was the right strategy for the [yellow tail] brand; it has been 12 years since we’ve experienced growth of this magnitude within a single month and we are confident that [yellow tail] will continue to go from strength to strength in our biggest market.”

Deutsch added: “We are extremely proud that [yellow tail] ended the 40-year wine drought in Super Bowl advertising.

“We are thankful for the incredible support from our distributors and retailers who helped us leverage the ad with more than 280,000 cases of [yellow tail] on display. That’s probably more than at any other moment in the brand’s life.” 

[yellowtail] now plans to embark on a three-year TV campaign, estimated to cost more than $40million. The campaign is geared to maintain long-term growth in sales in the US, especially among Generation X and Millennials, and will end in December 2019.

“There are no tweaks that we’re making in response to anybody that came forward with negative comments about the ad,” said Deutsch. “You're never going to get 100 percent across the board. We think those comments were outliers and we question the source and the motivation behind them.”

Watch the latest advertisement to air in the [yellowtail] ad series below ...