Sydney: Think of Passion Pop and you think of cheap, sickly sweet wine tied to youthful misadventure.
But Host is trying to change those perceptions with new packaging and a new ad campaign aimed at modernising the alcoholic beverage.
The “Go Pop” campaign, which includes magazine, radio, street, point-of-sale, PR and online components, launches in Victoria from 26 March, before expanding nationally in July.
It is Host’s first work since picking up the McGuigan Simeon Wines ad account after a pitch late last year. There was no incumbent on the business as McGuigan, Australia’s second largest wine company behind Foster’s, had previously created all advertising in-house.
Samantha Bragg, McGuigan’s national marketing manager, said research had shown the design of the Passion Pop product was perceived as “daggy and old-fashioned”.
“The brand wasn’t resonating with today’s audience,” she said.
Host’s campaign aims to position Passion Pop as a “party-starter” for 18 to 25-year-old female drinkers, which they can share with each other, unlike ready-to-drink (RTD) products. Passion Pop is only sold off-premise.
The new bottle and packaging design, for the three flavours of original, mixed berry and lemon/lime, is certainly more modern – a long overdue revamp for a product that has looked the same for 30 years.
“There was a lot of stigma attached to Passion Pop, but the new packaging removes that,” Jodie Howard, business director at Host, said.
Bragg said the new packaging isn’t an attempt to attract more affluent, upmarket consumers to Passion Pop.
“It’s more about the positioning, giving it a night-time feel,” she said. “[Changing the packaging] wasn’t to add sophistication, it was to lose the negative cues.”
McGuigan claims Passion Pop has been the market leader in the under $8 sparkling wine category for the past 30 years, currently enjoying a 38% market share and 12% volume growth.
Nevertheless, the inexpensive end of the sparkling wine sector is in decline, mostly as a result of the growing popularity of RTDs.
Bragg said McGuigan does not intend to raise the price of Passion Pop “at this stage”.
Host’s next work for McGuigan will be ad campaigns for the company’s namesake wine brand and for Tempus Two, breaking in July.
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