New focus for Wines of Argentina

Published: 13 September, 2010

Wines of Argentina has revamped its branding to focus on the country's culture in a bid to boost the premium appeal of Argentinian wines.

The body hopes the new campaign - Wines of Argentina, A Story in the Making - will help silence critics who say it hasn't done enough to support promotions.

Andrew Maidment, WOA UK director, said the organisation had worked with importers, retailers, including Majestic and Waitrose, as well as restaurants and consumers to come up with the new consumer brand identity.

It focuses on "iconic" imagery of the South American country - the tango, succulent steaks, Buenos Aires' history and the image of the sun taken from the country's flag.

Maidment said: "Our focus is on bringing Argentina to life for the general public. It is an extremely competitive marketplace. We need to work hard to differentiate ourselves from our competition as well as raise consumer awareness sufficiently so consumers actually seek us out in the first place."

He said the campaign aims to reposition Argentinian wine as a premium brand and allow the country's wines to command higher prices over time.

A promotional campaign to run in 30 independent outlets over the next two months kicked off at Harrods, where a consumer tasting of more than 30 wines will take place on September 14.

"Our aim is to use this branding as a base for a whole host of other retailer and on-trade promotions, both large and small, and then for a full plan of summer events in 2011," said Maidment.

Laurie Webster, chief executive of IWC's Argentinian Specialist of the Year, Las Bodegas, said the campaign was a "breath of fresh air". "Generally wine branding is pretty mediocre so it's great to stand out from the crowd."

He added: "It's easy to roll out the tango dancers and images of the Andes that's been effective over the years, but this takes Argentinian wines to a new level."

Printer friendly version