A new Bordeaux advertising campaign is going to use the full power of the internet for the first time – and will target the burgeoning lonely heart market.
The Bordeaux Wine Council (CIVB) intends to announce the new Europe-wide campaign next week, marketing director Pascal Loridon told decanter.com.
At this early stage Loridon will give little away, but he indicated he would be moving away from the theme of young people enjoying Bordeaux wine. That campaign ran for three years and cost €15m.
‘It was not as effective as we would have liked,’ he said. ‘After three years, we had to decide whether it could evolve or whether it needed to be changed, and it needed to be changed.
He would also be using the internet for the first time, explaining that it was a ‘very interesting’ platform for advertising, and suggesting he would be placing ads on dating sites like meetic.fr.
He said he was undecided about going wholeheartedly into viral ad campaigns – using weblogs and other ‘underground’ means to get the message across. ‘I don’t know about that. To have a good viral campaign you have to have a good virus in the first place.’
He said he hoped the new campaign would cost less and work better than the previous one. ‘If you have a very good campaign, you may have to spend less,’ he said, adding that the CIVB budget of €21m for 600m bottles of Bordeaux wine produced annually, which works out at 3c of marketing per bottle, leaves little room for error.
Details of the campaign, to be carried out in cooperation with a single private international marketing firm – selected from 17 candidates – will be finalised in late May, Loridon said.
Written by Panos Kakaviatos, and Adam Lechmere
