With Christmas just around the corner, Alistair Niven, Account Strategist at BD Network, takes a look at how premium wines can make a splash this yuletide – a season that’s defined by food, drink and social celebration.

Mistletoe and wine

It’s been an interesting year in the category. Since 2017, what have been classed (perhaps harshly) as ‘middle of the road’ wine brands have been in decline (you know the kind – available in the shop at the end of the road for 6 or 7 quid, they’ll do in a pinch if you don’t have access to a bigger store with more choice). ASDA alone culled 60 SKUs earlier this year in favour of more premium wine and spirit products (The Grocer May 2018). As a result, the category has immiscibly separated leaving value wines at the bottom and a premium wines at the top, with offerings in between slowly draining away.

Despite the volume decline, the value of the category has risen 3.6% (Kantar May 2018). Whilst possibly triggered by Mark Price’s comments in 2017 (Why you should always buy £10 bottles of wine), the shift toward premium wine has been attributed to two buying groups: the established wine drinkers who are looking to expand their repertoire and a new generation of millennial drinkers that have different purchasing habits. These new drinkers are more health conscious, motivated by experiences and because they drink less, they are willing to spend more on what little they do drink to enjoy premium quality (TRND June 2018). According to Mintel, over a quarter of this audience prefer to stay in and drink than go out to socialise so it could be suggested that wine lends itself to evenings in with friends and dinner (better say than spirits or beer).

‘Tis the season…

When you then add the benefits of the festive season to this landscape, Christmas becomes the Superbowl for premium wines. Vivino – a wine app for identifying, rating and recommending wine, seems to corroborate this as it sees a massive spike in usage throughout December (its peak for the year). And it’s not hard to see why.

At Christmas we don’t mind splashing out a little more to enjoy the best. It’s the one time of year we can collectively indulge in a little largesse without feeling guilty (until consciences return in January). A seasonal menu and cold winter nights provide more consumption opportunities for premium wines with an audience that prefers to stay in. It’s also a social time of year for catching up, with friends and family. As hosts we want to put on a good spread and as guests we want to bring something a little more special to the table. Not to forget gifting, which extends beyond nearest and dearest to include colleagues and even school teachers. In fact the opinion of those less close to us probably pushes us further into premium wine choices. Somehow a bottle of Barefoot for an end of term present doesn’t quite ring true at Christmas.

Eat, drink and be merry

So with the appetite confirmed and near perfect conditions, this is how we’d recommend premium wine brands convert sales this December:

• Category Signposting: Education and Navigation – Category leaders recognise that not everyone is a connoisseur yet, so helping consumers navigate an overwhelming category will make their wines more selectable than just the label. Brands can differentiate themselves at point of sale by moving beyond flavour profile and bringing to life the drinking experience (whether it be the food to be enjoyed with or special serves (e.g. perfect mulled with cinnamon, apple and cognac). This education starts out of store via carefully executed media to create purchase intent before shoppers even reach the wine section
• Distinctiveness – Standing out on shelf is the first hurdle to eventual selection when a wine choice is not predetermined. Here bottle finishes (shape, colour, material), limited edition packaging (boxes, sleeves, wraps) and unusual print finishes (varnishes, embossing, foiling) achieve great stand out and we’d be looking at how we could wrap our bottles this Christmas
• Gift positioning – Packaging and gifting solutions can provide a tipping point (remember the Coca-Cola ribbon label?) when there’s a shortlist of wines on offer. Something as simple as offering a free wine bag or the like can help a premium wine position itself as the ideal candidate for ‘bring a bottle’
• Co packed gifts – This is less about branded glassware and more about items of use that enhance the drinking experience. Items such as bottle stoppers that promote moderate drinking in more than one sitting or bottle top aerators that work as you pour are the types of items we’d recommend that premium brands offer
• Seasonal Food Pairings – Certain foods also enjoy sales uplift during the festive season (e.g. speciality cheese and meats). We’re expecting to see more partnerships between premium wines and seasonal foods, as it delivers on the experience that the millennial audience pursues, increases basket spend for retailers and can deliver out of category placement for sampling opportunities
• Increased spending on retailers’ site banners, ECRM and digital display – The urban millennial is a valuable target market for premium wines but living in cities means that they don’t drive a car. Whilst they rely on home delivery for the big shop, premium wine brands should leverage digital touchpoints to educate and get in basket
• Impulse and Convenience – The convenience channel still plays an important role for consumers grabbing last minute items ahead of hosting or attending a party. Premium wine brands should invest in out of category display units to capitalise on impulse purchase and prevent shoppers reaching the wine aisle
• 0 is hero – With so many parties on it’s important to spare a thought for the designated drivers and those unable to partake during the festive season. There’s a key opportunity for Low and No alcohol wines to cater to them this Christmas and also capitalise on the millennial audience’s more abstemious drinking habits. We expect more shelf space to be given over to these products in retail with a premium brand leading the way

Whatever you choose to indulge in this December, we wish you a very merry Christmas. Too soon?

BD Network is an independent Brand Activation Agency created to Murder the Mediocre. They believe the age of selling is over – it’s time to start engaging. They create engagement with meaning and help clients connect with the right audience at the right time, and in the right way. They do this by creating ideas based on three pillars: People; really understanding the audience and what makes them tick. Purpose; leveraging what a brand stands for to create meaningful engagement. Participation; inviting the audience to join in, making them feel connected and valued.

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Mondelez is again partnering The National Trust and The National Trust of Scotland for a series of Cadbury Easter Egg Hunts at iconic Trust properties. This will be the 11th year the event has run, and the fifth year that experiential agency RPM has managed the activities on behalf of Cadbury.

Cadbury points out that Easter is an important time of year for it commercially, and also as a brand. Delia Metral, Junior Brand Manager, Easter, says: “We know how important Cadbury is at Easter and this year, we want to take it to the next level by bringing a smile to the whole nation with Cadbury Easter Egg Hunt – a season of celebrations where Cadbury Easter bunny will bring families together around the ritual of egg hunts. We are very excited to partner with National Trust and National Trust for Scotland again and, with RPM’s great support, organise more than 300 Cadbury Easter Egg Hunts across the UK. We expect again several 100,000s of families to take part.”

Dom Robertson, Managing Director of RPM, adds: “In 2017, we achieved fantastic results, with over 1 million people attending a hunt over the Easter weekend and an enjoyment rate of 97%.  We plan to continue to improve on these results in 2018 and to build on the association Cadbury has with Easter.”

Cadbury will be providing properties with the support to activate their own personalised egg hunt themes, linking back to each of the properties unique stories, all leading to a Cadbury treat as a reward at the end.

RPM has created and is leading on all experiential elements of the campaign.  This includes roll out of the successful 2017 strategy and creative concepts.  The agency is also managing the National Trust partnership kit and signage production, staffing and logistics.

The hunts will be taking place at 305 National Trust properties across England, Scotland and Wales on the weekend between Friday 30th March and Monday 2nd April (except for Northern Ireland, where activities will also happen on Tuesday 3rd April).

Easter egg hunt participants are asked to either pay a small fee or make a donation to take part in a hunt, with all proceeds going back to conserving the properties.  The campaign has raised over £4.1 million over the past 10 years.

Consumers can visit the Cadbury website to find a nearby Cadbury Easter Egg Hunt.

The Cadbury brand is owned by Mondelēz International, the global snacking company with 2016 net revenues of approximately $26 billion. Mondelēz is a world leader in biscuits, chocolate, gum, candy and powdered beverages, with power brands including Oreo and belVita biscuits; Cadbury Dairy Milk and Milka chocolate; and Trident gum.

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Mondelēz-owned confectionery brand Cadbury is again partnering the National Trust and National Trust for Scotland for the Cadbury’s Great British Egg Hunt campaign. The annual Easter egg hunt, which launches on Friday 14^th April and runs nationwide over the Easter weekend, forms part of Cadbury’s wider seasonal campaign.

The activation was put together for Cadbury by independent creative agency, RPM.

Building on the natural association between the brand and the Easter holiday, the activation is designed to encourage direct participation from families across the UK, with the ultimate aim of establishing Cadbury as ‘THE Easter Treat’.  The partnership plays a key role in cementing the idea of Cadbury as owners of the Easter egg hunt into the minds of the British consumer.

Participating families are invited to join the egg hunts at National Trust and National Trust for Scotland properties across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. For the 10th year running, Cadbury will be providing properties with the support to activate their own personalised egg hunt themes, linking back to each of the properties unique stories. Themes range from knights tracking down dragon eggs to a 1950s vintage-style Easter egg hunt, all leading to a Cadbury treat as a reward at the end. All money raised goes back into conserving the locations.

RPM has created and is leading on all experiential elements of the campaign. This includes roll-out of the successful 2016 strategy and creative concepts. The agency is also managing the National Trust partnership, kit and signage production, staffing and logistics.

Hortense Foult-Rothenburger, Senior Brand Manager – Easter at Cadbury, says: “We know how important Cadbury is at Easter and this year, we want to take it to the next level by bringing a smile to the whole nation with Cadbury’s Great British Egg Hunt – a season of celebrations where Cadbury Easter bunny will bring families together around the fun ritual of egg hunts. We are very excited to partner with National Trust and National Trust for Scotland again and, with RPM’s great support, to organise more than 300 Cadbury egg hunts across the UK. We expect 100,000s of families to take part.”

Laura Keates, Business Director RPM/ Mondelēz, comments: “We are really excited about Easter 2017. This year is very much about building on the incredibly successful year we had in 2016, where we had over one million people engage with the Easter Egg Hunt campaign though National Trust properties. We are working closely with Cadbury, the National Trust and National Trust for Scotland for the fourth year to deliver best in class activation, which will be live across the UK for 1,104 days over the Easter weekend period.”

Mondelēz International is a world leader in biscuits, chocolate, gum, candy and powdered beverages, with 2016 net revenues of approximately $26 billion. It owns global ‘Power Brands’ such as Oreo and belVita biscuits; Cadbury Dairy Milk and Milka chocolate; and Trident gum.

RPM is an independent creative agency, with brand engagement at its core, which aims to deliver purposeful brand experiences that change consumer and shopper behaviour. Clients include Diageo, Mondelēz, Heineken and Sky.

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British chocolate company Thorntons has launched an interactive chocolate factory to engage consumers during the busy Easter season.

The campaign, which uses CGI animation techniques to demonstrate the inner workings of the chocolate factory, aims to give consumers a taste of how Thorntons lovingly crafts each and every one of its Easter eggs.

“The Ultimate Guide to Easter Eggs” is the brand’s biggest investment yet in content and experiential activity.

Created in response to customer interest in the chocolate factory, the campaign emphasises the brand’s heritage, focusing in particular on the egg-spinning process (Thorntons eggs are spun as one whole, not two halves) and includes bitesize facts about the factory.

A gamification element adds to the experience with consumers challenged to find five Easter eggs within the factory. One winner of the Easter egg hunt will be selected at random on March 27^th 2016 and will enjoy a real-life tour of the Thorntons factory as well as a year’s supply of chocolate.

To celebrate the launch of the interactive chocolate factory, Thorntons invited a selection of influential bloggers to experience the real-life chocolate factory as well as have a go at personalising their own Easter eggs and crafting their own chocolates. The event gained significant traction on social media including Twitter and Instagram.

John Alexander Rowley, search manager at Thorntons, said: “Easter is the second biggest chocolate season of the year and we are delighted to launch this campaign to drive search visibility, increase online brand equity and provide a great overall digital experience to our customers.”

Thorntons worked with Cogent Elliott and CGI specialists Junction Eleven to create and develop the campaign. Thorntons has also put an article on its blog for a behind the scenes look at how the CGI chocolate factory was made.

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Cadbury has opened the world’s first Cadbury Creme Egg Café in Central London, serving a range of Creme Egg inspired recipes, to highlight the return of the Easter seasonal product.

The Café includes a takeaway area which is specifically designed for Creme Egg lovers who are short on time with an offering of Creme Egg Toasties to go – two pieces of toast with a Crème Egg sandwiched between them.

Other twists on classic British egg recipes include Egg & Soldiers – a Creme Egg cracked open with toast soldiers for dipping in the fondant inside – Creme Egg Tray Bake and Strawberries and Creme (Egg).

Upstairs is a sit-in eating area and a mini interactive ball pool.

The Creme Egg café opened on January 22 and will stay open until March 6 on Fridays between 5.00pm – 9.00pm and Saturdays and Sundays between 2.00pm – 6.00pm.

Cadbury, which is owned by global snack food group Mondelez, started selling pre-booked tickets for the sit-in Café in mid-January and these have all sold out: there are a limited number of walk-ins spaces available every day on a first come, first served basis.

Laura Mimoun, brand manager for Cadbury Creme Egg, says: “We’re so excited to bring this celebration of all things Creme Egg to life through the launch of our very first Creme Egg Café. Every year, fans tell us how excited they are that Creme Eggs are back on shelves – so we wanted to celebrate the nation’s love for the product in a fun and cheeky way, that only Creme Egg can. The launch of the café is the perfect place to do this and we hope people will have a truly cracking time tucking into the gooey yumminess.”

The Cadbury Creme Egg cafe is at 26 Greek Street in London’s Soho.

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Ferrero’s Kinder confectionery brand is running a new retailer competition designed to drive consumers into store and to increase sales during the key Easter sales period.

The activity focuses on the new Kinder Joy limited edition products, a plastic egg featuring a tab opening up into two halves – one half made of creamy milk and cocoa cream and the other including a fun toy along with a spoon.

It is a seasonal sub-brand within the Kinder portfolio and was launched in the UK in December 2015 after a successful launch in the Republic of Ireland, where Ferrero says 40% of buyers were completely new to Kinder Surprise and 8% were incremental to the entire Easter confectionery category.

The trade competition will see 10 retailers receive everything they need to execute the perfect Easter Egg Hunt in-store or within their local communities. They will get all the essentials to create an Easter Egg Hunt including marketing materials such as posters for store windows, branded goods, free stock and incentivising consumer prizes such as family day-out vouchers.

Levi Boorer, customer development director at Ferrero, comments: “We admire and value everything that our retailer partners do to give back to the communities they operate in, and we want to lend a helping hand and spread some joy in-store at Easter. We are looking forward to receiving the store nominations and want to wish all retailers entering the best of luck.”

Ferrero says that convenience stores are regarded by consumers as the service which has the most positive impact on local communities, and its campaign is set to capitalise on this and support retailers in giving something back to their local community while embracing the family nature of Kinder.

Retailers can fill in an entry form to nominate their store which they can find at a participating depot or complete the form online at www.ferrero-trade.co.uk. Entries open January 11th 2016 and winners will be announced in early February, ahead of the activation of the Kinder Easter Egg Hunts on 25th – 27th March (Easter Weekend).

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