Back in 1957, Fillipo and Maria Casella imagined establishing a winery in which their whole family could work and prosper. Fillipo recognised the potential of the Riverina as a wine grape growing area and they purchased land at Yenda and grew grapes for winemakers. In 1969, the family established their own winery, son Jon became Managing Director in 1994 with a vision to de-bunk the stuffiness long associated with wine and introduce fun into the sector.
Since its inception in 2001, the brand has grown to be the Most Powerful Australian Wine Brand in the World and fifth Most Powerful Wine Brand globally. Casella Family Brands exports over 12 and a half million cases of [yellow tail] to more than 50 countries around the world every year and more than two and a half million glasses of [yellow tail] are enjoyed around the world each day.
The United States market is huge and [yellow tail] wines ranks as the fastest growing imported wine in history. With an anticipated audience of 120 million watching this weekend’s Super Bowl, Casella Family Brands general manager of marketing and export sales, Libby Nutt explained “research has demonstrated that more and more people continue to reach for wine during this momentous occasion. Wine sales spike 9% the week leading up to Super Bowl and last year, thirty million people, or one out of four viewers, enjoyed wine during the game. The Super Bowl is a perfect time to show that wine belongs at any celebratory occasion.”
“The beauty of placing an advertisement during an event such as the Super Bowl is that the demographic is so varied the ad will be reaching a wide cross section of consumers. We know that [yellow tail] in the US has such a broad fan base – different ages, genders and ethnicities which is one of the key reason that we felt it would be perfect for [yellow tail]”.
The advertisement was directed by Hollywood heavyweight Harald Zwart and features Australian beach-babe, Ellie Gonsalves in a cameo appearance. Her personal social media followings ensure the [yellow tail] brand is leveraged to a wider audience.
A possible unintended consequence may be a spike in the numbers of Americans visiting Australia. Tourism Australia (TA) has engaged actor Chris Hemsworth as their global ambassador who recently featured in TA’s annual ‘G’Day USA’ promotions and, in 2016, there was an 18.3 per cent increase of visitors from the USA to Australia and is expected to be higher again in 2017.
‘It is very possible that, after seeing the [yellow tail] advertisement in the first half of this weekend’s Super Bowl game, not only will the wine flow but the bookings to Australia will jam the web sites of travel agents with people wanting to find that ‘roo and pet it.