Riojaes.riojawine.com/multimedia/files/BOLETIN_PROMOCION INTERNACI… · he popular US wine consumers’ website Snooth.com has awarded the D.O. Ca. Rioja the title of ‘Wine Region

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Rioja International Promotion Bulletin - may 2012

Rioja is to invest more than 7 million euros in a promotional campaign The Control Board´s campaign take place in major Rioja drinking countries with the goal of strengthening the excellent position achieved by the wines of this Wine Region and to consolidate the historic export figures achieved in 20��.

Edited: CONSEJO REGULADOR D.O. CALIFICADA RIOJA

c/ Estambrera nº 52. 26006 LOGROÑO (La Rioja).

Tels. 941.500.400 • 941.500.528 • 941.500.648

Fax 941.500.664 • 941.500.536 •941.500.672

www:riojawine.com • e-mail: [email protected]

Publisher: Javier Pascual

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Special 2012 Promotional Plans

T he D.O.Ca. Rioja is to invest 7.4 million euros in a promotional campaign to

take place in major Rioja drink-ing countries (Spain, the UK, Germany, the USA, Switzerland, Sweden, Mexico and China) with the goal of strengthening the excellent position achieved by the wines of this Wine Region and to consolidate the historic export figures achieved in 2011. The Control Board thus provides continuity for its promotional ef-forts aimed at achieving one of the main goals of its Strategic Plan: increased exports. This is one of Rioja’s key solutions to prepare for the end of the economic crisis and the results achieved so far in both sales and position in the interna-tional market have confirmed the wisdom of that strategy.

The Control Board has designed a global strategy for all the countries where the promo-tional campaign is to be deployed, involving both wineries and

importers (in 2011, participants included 223 importers and about as many wineries). The main goal pursued is to empower and give prestige to the Rioja brand among final consumers, prescriptors, journalists and POS professionals. Another priority strategic goal is to focus campaigns on achieving a greater presence and visibility

for Rioja at points of purchase through specific promotions. The key messages to be conveyed by the campaign focus on the great quality and diversity of Rioja wines, their constant innovation, their consistent authenticity, Tem-pranillo as a key to their personal-ity, their excellent value for money and the tradition and prestige of

the region.With regard to investments

by country, the United States will receive €2,915,353, totalling the highest share, as it is considered the market with the greatest growth potential. Just as in the U.S., promotional investments are planned for Mexico (€685,279), Switzerland (€586,535) and China (€549,142) with co-funding from CMO funds, given their status as ‘third countries’. The CMO funds provide the D.O.Ca. Rioja with an additional 2.35 million euros for promotions outside the EU. The second country with the greatest promotional invest-ment (€1,184,661) is the United Kingdom, the leading importer of Rioja wines with 33% of total exports. Germany will be allotted €300.121, Sweden €168.150, and Spain, with 70% of sales of Rioja Wine, €984.868. This completes the total budget, which has expe-rienced a 2 million euro cut over the previous year.

Rioja seeks to consolidate 2011 record exports with promotions in 8 key markets

New worldwide Web

The Regulatory Board web page was renewed on July 2011 with the purpose of unifying all the different websites in the countries

where we run promotional campaigns. The access to each of them is now common through a single URL: www.riojawine.com <http://www.riojawine.com>

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Special 2012 Promotional Plans

The biggest on-line community of wine lovers considers Rioja ‘Wine Region of the Year 2011’

The popular US wine consumers’ website Snooth.com has awarded the D.O. Ca. Rioja the title of ‘Wine Region of the Year 2011’, a recongi-

tion that culminates the successful progress of the Designation in a year in which it beat its previous export record with over 120 million bottles sold in the international market. Snooth.com is the biggest website in the world dedicated to wine with over one million hits per month and

950,000 active registered users, which gives special value to this recognition of Rioja wine because it comes from wine enthusiasts.

In announcing the award, Snooth.com editor-in-chief Gregory Dal Piaz said that “Rioja is a region you must explore. The wines are simply too good to ignore.” He considers that Rioja is unbeatable in terms of offering wine of incredible value, both because they age very well “even better than many more famous and costly examples” and they have a great diversity of styles. Dal Piaz applauds Rioja’s success in applying different methods of vini-fication, from the most traditional to state-of-the-art techniques, with a wide range of products “able to supply nearly all palates with wines of preference.” He adds that no other Designation could compete in offering so much to the consumer in 2011.

The most convinving argu-ment for granting the award is the excellent value for money that Rioja

wines offer consumers. As Dal Piaz says, “I tasted so many $30 and under wines from Rioja this year that simply blew away almost all other wines at the same price point. Even at higher price points, the values are still there.” Ana Fabiano, Rioja brand ambassador in the U.S., underlines this characteristic that sets Rioja wines apart, saying that compared with other Designations, “with Rioja you get exceptional quality in every price range, it doesn’t matter the style or how long the wine has aged.”

Rioja has become Great Britain’s favourite wine

Rioja is gaining ground on the most prestigious wine-producing regions of the world, according to an independent study titled

“Reputation of Spanish wines in the main export markets, in comparison with those from other producer countries”, carried out by the British consultancy firm Wine Intelligence. The study was based on a sample of more than 1,000 British regular wine drinkers and was recently presented at the International Wine Fair in London.

The two main conclusions of the study are that Rioja holds first place for British consumers among the world’s wine producing regions when it comes to deciding on a wine. It also holds fourth place among the best-known regions, only behind Bordeaux, Burgundy and Chianti. Furthermore, 50% of regular British wine drinkers choose Rioja wines above other wine regions of international prestige.

With regard to the criteria applied by British regular consumers when it comes to choosing one wine or another, they have very clear ideas on the subject. The study shows that 59% make their choice on the basis of the country of origin of the grape and 51% the region. The grape variety, promotions and confidence in the brand are the other criteria that influence their choice.

Another conclusion that emerged from the study by Wine Intelligence is the direct identification of Rioja wine with the region and with Spain. As for wine purchasing habits, Rioja wines are the first option for British consumers in all price brackets.

Rioja triumphs in the ‘Tempranillos al Mundo’ competition in New York

The Rioja Designation of Origin earned the top marks at the ‘Tempranillos al Mundo’ itinerant wine competition organised

by the Spanish Federation of Winemaking Associations (FEAE). The awards confirm that this region, a benchmark in this grape variety, is also the place where it reaches its highest qualitative expression. Proof of this is that Rioja wines got 29 of the 55 gold medals awarded by the jury.

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Alliance between Rioja and InterContinental in the U.S.

Vibrant Rioja and InterContinental are promoting the culture of wine and tapas in the U.S. They presented their alliance by organising a Rioja food and wine festival in Miami during the week of 26 to �� September. The partnership began with a large tasting and tapas festival where guests could enjoy live Spanish music and learn more about the wines of Rioja. This alliance, which has lasted seven months included a selection of Rioja wines by the glass and menus paired with Rioja wine bottles.

Special 2012 Promotional Plans

UNITED STATES

This year, the United States moved up to third place among Rioja im-porters, so the campaign will be based on an ambitious programme

of POS promotions, with 75% of the budget to be spent off-trade and 25% on-trade, in order to increase sales of Rioja and generate visibil-ity for the Rioja brand in both sales channels. Activities will focus on New York, Florida, Chicago, California and Texas, while a big event for professionals and consumers is to be organised in Miami on 30 April. Finally, there will be an online advertising campaign in lifestyle media, mainly aimed at young, urban, end customers, together with parallel actions such as wine tastings and Rioja parties with food and wine pair-ings. The campaign has a group of about 90,000 consumers and about 4,500 professionals who follow its activities and receive newsletters with information about the campaign and invitations to events. The popular US wine consumers’ website Snooth.com, with over a million monthly users, has awarded the D.O. Ca. Rioja the title of ‘Wine Region of the Year 2011’ —a particularly valuable recognition because it comes from the wine lovers themselves.

SPRING SIPS WITH RIOJA

GASTRO BAR @ 35TH

Meet the Chef Multiple wine stations & tapas featuring Michelin-starred Chef Ignacio Echapresto of Rioja’s famed Venta Moncalvillo restaurant

Centenary bodegas, modern classic reds, crisp whites & juicy rosados

BEA Organic Olive Oil $25 per person Purchase tickets here

Daily Specials By the Glass & Riojan Tapas Pairings

Daily Happy Hour

Sip & Chat With Rioja Experts Every Friday

Gastro Bar @ 35th345 West 35th Street (between 8th & 9th Avenues)www.gb-35.com646-200-8857

RIOJA IS PURE GENIUS

VARIETY. QUALITY. VALUE. READY TO DRINK. FOOD-FRIENDLY. EDUCATION. SATISFACTION = PURE GENIUS.

SPRING SIPS WITH RIOJA APRIL 16 – MAY 18

KICK-OFF TASTING APRIL 19 7-9 PM

Tweet about @RiojaWine with #RiojaBuzz!

Rioja Grand Tasting 2012 in Miami

Despite the hurricane-like conditions (hello Miami!), hundreds of trade members and consumers met in Florida to attend “NextGen Rioja,” Vibrant Rioja’s Annual Grand Tasting. Held on April 30, this year’s event featured the most comprehensive showcase of wines from Rioja in the U.S., and highlighted the new generation of Rioja winemakers and winery owners that are not only following in their ancestors’ footsteps, but are also carving a new path of their own. During the day, Rioja hosted 200 trade and press guests for a seminar and tasting, where guests sampled more than 250+ Riojas from over 60 importers. In the evening, Vibrant Rioja and Snooth Media <http://www.snooth.com/> hosted a tasting event for 180 consum-ers featuring a global food lounge and DJ. Guests enjoyed a selection of 250+ Rioja wines, and 100% of the ticket proceeds benefitted the Make-A-Wish Foundation® <http://www.sfla.wish.org/> of Southern Florida. Vibrant Rioja also donated $1 per live tweet generated dur-ing the consumer event to the organization.

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Special 2012 Promotional Plans

UNITED KINGDOM

The most outstanding activity of the UK campaign will be the fifth edition of the successful “Rioja Tapas Fantasticas Festival”, to be

held in London on 14 and 15 July. This food and wine outdoor festival is attended by 15.000 people and has received three major awards for best promotional event of the year in the UK —from the International Wine & Spirits Competition, The Drink Business magazine (one of the leading wine and spirits publications in the UK) and The Golden Hedgehog PR awards. There will also be a competition for sommeliers and restaurateurs —the ‘Rioja Sommelier Challenge’ organised jointly with Imbibe magazine— and promotions in 25 independent retailers. Rioja will also sponsor the Club Elite VIP room for senior buyers at the London International Wine Fair.

The ‘Tapas Fantasticas’ initiative received three awards for best promotional event of the year in the UK and the largest wine consumer platform in the U.S., Snooth.com, awarded the D.O. Ca. Rioja the title of ‘Wine Region of the Year 2011’

Rioja wine and Spanish cuisine were the stars at the ‘Rioja Tapas Fantasticas’ festival, held the weekend of 25 and 26 June in London

in the open air and with a strong Spanish flavour. This popular festival organized by the Rioja Control Board attracted over 18,000 visitors to its fourth edition, held in Potters Field, at the foot of Tower Bridge. Attendees were able to enjoy the quality and diversity of a wide range of rosé, white and red wines from 33 wineries, all with the prestigious seal of the DOCa Rioja. To accompany and better appreciate these wines, they were accompanied by the most emblematic Spanish tapas, pre-pared by some of the most important Spanish restaurants in London. The renowned journalists Olly Smith, BBC presenter and wine taster, and Susy Atkins, wine critic of The Sunday Telegraph, transmitted the culture of Rioja wine to attending consumers through seminars and tastings that showed the history and production of Rioja Wine. Also, the renowned Spanish chef José Pizarro revealed his cooking secrets while Olly Smith and Susy Atkins suggested the best Rioja for each of his recipes.

Trips to Rioja

Finally, in view of the ma gnificent results obtained in recent years, one of the most interesting activities planned for each country is

a number of trips to Rioja for journalists and buyers. The goal is for them to learn first-hand about the great evolution experienced by the Wine Region over the last few years, both in its viticulture and in the wineries, as well as in the wide range of wine styles currently available. In 2011, 14 trips were organised, bringing 68 buyers, sommeliers and journalists from 5 different countries to Rioja.

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Special 2012 Promotional Plans

SWEDEN

Sweden is the fifth importer of Rioja and the campaign will continue with activities such as participating in the Nobel Prizes, the Rioja

Sommelier Award, —unofficially considered the Swedish sommelier school championship— and seminars for catering professionals and consumers. Social media will also play a prominent role in the cam-paign.

MEXICO

One of the most significant Rioja wine promotional plans in Mexico is an advertising campaign targeting end consumers

through different media such as billboards, television, magazines and the Internet with the slogan ‘Mexico driven by Rioja’. This year the campaign is employing the image and testimonial of 2 Mexican personalities: Jair Téllez, chef at the Merotoro restaurant and Den-ise Gutiérrez, lead singer of Hello Seahorse. They will be the faces of the campaign, along with the brand ambassador Deby Beard. Also, a series of PR activities are going to promote Rioja wine in restaurants and supermarkets and Rioja is planning to participate in Mexico’s main food and drink fairs.

The Rioja Control Board has stepped up its incoming trips for professionals with a prescrip-tive capability (journalists, sommeliers and buyers) located in international markets that are considered strategic for Rioja wine sales. In 20��, trips focused on the professional sector and visits were scheduled for key buyers, sommeliers and managers of major chains from different markets. As in previous years, there were also trips for journalists from the trade and lifestyle press. In the photo, a group of Swedish journalists

SWITZERLAND

In Switzerland, Rioja is to participate in various cultural

events and wine and food festi-vals as a platform to showcase the diversity of Rioja wines for consumers, with tastings in a casual, relaxed atmosphere. The campaign is to be supported by online advertising in lifestyle media, and activities involving social media.

GERMANY

In Germany, the second-largest importer of Rioja, highlights in-

clude a partnership with Meininger, an industry-leading food and wine media group, for several joint Rioja wine educational and promotional activities targeting professionals and consumers and the participa-tion in the eat & STYLE trade fair, attended by high-spending con-noisseurs and gourmets.

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T he First Rioja Wine Fair —held in Hong Kong and Shanghai on 13 and 15

March respectively— turned out a great success with the attendance of a total of 1,400 experts, somme-liers and industry professionals.

The events were organised by the Control Board of the DOCa Rioja and included 67 participat-ing Rioja wineries which presented over 250 wines. Each winery had its own space where both profes-sionals and wine lovers were able to taste their wines.

“This exhibition is the Control Board’s first promotional event in China and its main goal was to ed-ucate opinion leaders and industry professionals about the qualities of the wines of Rioja to turn them into ambassadors for our wines,” said Ricardo Aguiriano, Director of Marketing and Communications of the DOCa Rioja.

During the Grand Tasting, where Tempranillo was the star performer, participants remarked above all about the wide range and diversity of wines on offer. Accord-

ing to Ricardo Aguiriano, they also surprised attendees by the good balance between small- and medi-um-sized wineries and large winer-ies, “allowing all importers to find suitable business opportunities.”

In each event, before the tast-ing there was a seminar on Rioja wines aimed at both prescriptors and industry professionals led by two local prescriptors: Susie Wu and Peter Kwong. The former is considered one of the greatest ex-perts on Rioja wine, on which she has written several books. Kwong, founder and chairman of the Hong Kong Wine Judges Association and Chairman of the Committee of Education & Training, said during his speech that Rioja had started its promotional campaign at a an excellent time, because importers are looking to expand their qual-ity wine lists. He also identified diversity, barrel ageing and guaran-tee of origin as the three qualities that make Rioja wines attractive for importers and retailers in Hong Kong.

The first tasting of Rioja in China brings together 1,400 professionals

The Chinese toast with Rioja to celebrate their New Year

Rioja wine played a leading role in the recent Chinese New Year celebrations, which took place from 23 to 29 January 2012. The

week was a public holiday throughout the country, so Rioja held a special promotion at 60 specialist sales outlets in 7 cities: Shang-hai, Beijing, Shenzhen, Wenzhou, Tianjin, Taicang and Fushun. The main goal of the campaign was to raise the profile of the Rioja brand among consumers and boost sales by giving away a wooden gift box to anyone who bought Rioja wine. The box came with the logo of Rioja and the campaign slogan in Chinese, two wine glasses, a corkscrew and a leaflet about Rioja wines.

Special 2012 Promotional Plans

CHINA

This year, China joins the Rioja foreign promotional campaigns for the first time, with a budget of €500,000. The main objective of the cam-paign is to educate opinion leaders and business professionals on the virtues of Rioja wines through events, seminars and direct actions

with importers and retailers. The event to launch the campaign is the first Rioja Fair, held on 13 and 15 March in Hong Kong and Shanghai, which turned out a great success, with 67 wineries featuring about 240 wines and attendance of some 1,300 Chinese trade professionals. Dur-ing the Chinese New Year, from 23 to 29 January, a promotion of Rioja wines was organised in 60 shops in 7 cities. Plans for the rest of the year include food fairs, seminars and tastings in several cities, joint actions with Chinese investment banks to organise tastings for preferred customers, and trips to Rioja for buyers and the press.