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NAPA VALLEY WINERIES LAUNCH FIRST-EVER ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN
Ground-Breaking Creative Approach to Wine Industry Ads is Based on Science, Not Palate
9/6/2001 - This month, The Napa Valley Vintners (NVV) is launching a first-ever advertising campaign on behalf of Napa Valley winemakers and their wines. The new ad campaign grew out of a strategic positioning exercise that began in 1998 to further enhance the Napa Valley brand within the burgeoning global wine market.
Last year, both qualitative and quantitative opinion research was conducted at the local and national level among wine trade, consumers and news media.
"We wanted to learn what people were thinking -- both positive and negative -- about the Napa Valley as a place and as a brand," said Jeff Adams, marketing director for the Napa Valley Vintners. "We knew the results would be critically important to the development of our long-term marketing strategy as an appellation," he added.
The most significant finding that emerged from the research was a consensus that the Napa Valley is truly an ideal place to grow a wide variety of wine grapes -- the soil, the climate and the diversity of the sub-appellations. "From a wine grape's perspective, the Valley is a lot like paradise -- or, the Garden of Eden," said Adams.
The new NVV tagline --Napa Valley. To a winegrape, it's Eden-- began appearing in marketing materials in late 2000 and is used in each of the four print ads that currently comprise the campaign.
Developed by David Mantel & Associates of Lafayette, California, the new ads take a factual, scientific approach to the Napa Valley by building on public perception that, agriculturally speaking, the Napa Valley is a winegrape grower's paradise. The four-color ads feature phenomena of nature to underscore the near perfect terrain and terroir of the appellation. The Big Bang, Alaska's glaciers, prehistoric mollusks and molten lava are each Just Another Reason for drinking wines produced in the Napa Valley.
"The campaign is witty, highly original and direct," said Jack Stuart, general manager of Silverado Vineyards and an active member of the NVV. "It uses unexpected and beautiful images to communicate the direct linkage between an ideal grape growing region and world-class wines. We think the ads 'work,' and hope consumers agree," Stuart added.
The Just Another Reason campaign was actually launched several weeks ago in the California 2001 suppliment to the September issue of Decanter -- a wine industry magazine published in the United Kingdom. Subsequent ads will begin appearing in Wine Spectator, Wine Enthusiast, Wine & Spirits, Wine News, Appellation and Sante this month.
The Napa Valley Vintners is a professional, nonprofit trade organization representing nearly 200 Napa Valley wineries in marketing and promotional activities throughout North America, Europe and Asia.
Click here to view and download the ad series
Click to view and download the ad series.
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