Can anybody think of a decent wine ad on TV?
It’s got to the point that I wonder what's the best way to advertise wine. It’s a bit like what’s the best way to advertise a restaurant. At the top exclusive end it is probably best not too at all and carefully build your image in a more low key underground way.
Then of course in Melbourne there is the godfather of Fitzroy Street, Ronnie Di Stasio, who with his eponymously named restaurant breaks all the rules by taking out ads each week in The Age’s Epicure section. Not many restaurateurs could pull off advertising with such panache.
Of course, nowadays many food and wine brands are connecting direct with their customers through social media and campaign that firmly places their products in the cake holes of their customers and hopefully wins over their “hearts and minds” to trot off an old PR cliché.
But still there are those who insist in TV advertising. Quite why I have no idea because universally pretty much all wine advertising on TV or in cinema is about as bad as accidently swigging a glass of cat pissy Oyster Bay Sauvignon Blanc (which incidentally is a case study in brilliant brand building to the point that it’s Australia’s favourite white wine).
There was a great Twitter discussion about this yesterday among sommeliers, wine consultants and food blog types including myself.
It was stimulated as one of us had noticed the comments about the smug bastards in the Jacobs Creek global ad campaign on YouTube. And I should warn you it’s pretty racy stuff.
One agency creative Stickifingers, who’s worked on Brown Brothers campaigns suggested it is the lack of budget. In one ad she found herself doing the music.
But as we see in the wonderful world of scam ads, lack of budget doesn’t hold back great ideas. I suppose it’s a bit like in film where the bigger the budget the worse the picture becomes, more of a showcase for what money can buy rather than story telling.
And it is the same in ads. It’s about the idea and the story telling. Is it the case of the classic ad agency whinge that the clients don’t understand marketing or branding? Or is it they are too conservative to accept edgy executions for their lightly crushed grape juice (which is open fermented with wild yeast before maturing on aged French oak and put into heavy Bordeaux style bottles and plugged with the substandard cork that we find ourselves using in Australia).
The only ads I can recall are the great Orson Wells spots for Paul Masson from the late 1970s. But that was probably because The Third Man and Citizen cane are among my favourite films, his hypnotizing voice and that he was drunk at the time (a reason I was also keen on Oliver Reed).
The funny thing is in wine advertising print it isn’t too bad, with and Taylors coming to mind immediately for having pretty good campaigns.
And then of course, there’s wine and outdoor, with Cockatoo Ridge’s excellent billboard featuring former Miss Australia Erin McNaught juxtaposed with the line “She loves a cockatoo”.
Solid gold.
Can anybody think of a decent wine ad on TV?
It’s got to the point that I wonder what's the best way to advertise wine. It’s a bit like asking "what’s the best way to advertise a restaurant"? At the top exclusive end it is probably best not to at all and carefully build your image in a more low-key, underground way.
Then of course in Melbourne there is the godfather of Fitzroy Street, Ronnie Di Stasio, who with his eponymously named restaurant breaks all the rules by taking out ads each week in The Age’s Epicure section. Not many restaurateurs could pull off advertising with such panache.
Of course, nowadays many food and wine brands are connecting direct with their customers through social media and campaigns that firmly place their products in the cake holes of their customers and hopefully wins over their “hearts and minds” to trot off an old PR cliché.
But still there are those who insist in TV advertising. Quite why I have no idea because universally, pretty much all wine advertising on TV or in cinema is about as bad as accidentally swigging a glass of cat pissy Oyster Bay Sauvignon Blanc (which incidentally is a case study in brilliant brand building to the point that it’s Australia’s favourite white wine).
There was a great Twitter discussion about this yesterday among sommeliers, wine consultants and food blog types including myself.
It was stimulated as one of us had noticed the comments about the smug bastards in the Jacobs Creek global ad campaign on YouTube. And I should warn you it’s pretty racy stuff.
One agency creative Stickifingers, who’s worked on Brown Brothers campaigns suggested it is the lack of budget. In one ad she found herself doing the music.
But as we see in the wonderful world of scam ads, lack of budget doesn’t hold back great ideas.
It’s about the idea and the story telling. Is it the case of the classic ad agency whinge that the clients don’t understand marketing or branding? Or is it they are too conservative to accept edgy executions for their lightly crushed grape juice (which is open fermented with wild yeast before maturing on aged French oak and put into heavy Bordeaux style bottles and plugged with the substandard cork that we find ourselves using in Australia).
The only ads I can recall are the great Orson Welles spots for Paul Masson from the late 1970s. But that was probably because The Third Man and Citizen Kane are among my favourite films, his hypnotizing voice and that he was drunk at the time (a reason I was also keen on Oliver Reed).
The funny thing is in wine advertising print it isn’t too bad, with Taylors coming to mind immediately for having pretty good campaigns.
And then of course, there’s wine and outdoor, with Cockatoo Ridge’s excellent billboard featuring former Miss Australia Erin McNaught juxtaposed with the line “She loves a cockatoo”.
Solid gold.
