Vibrant Rioja recognised as best consumer products marketing campaign in US

The marketing activities, carried out by PR agency CRT Tanaka, are focused in New York, Florida, Chicago, California, Texas and Miami

06/20/2012

Rioja competed against multinational companies such as John Deere, Diageo and American Express

The marketing campaign launched by DOC Rioja’s Regulating Council was awarded a Silver Anvil Award of Excellence in the ‘Integrated Communications’ and ‘Consumer Products’ categories by the Public Relations Society of America during the annual Silver Anvil Awards ceremony held in New York on 7th June. The Vibrant Rioja campaign, which is carried out by PR agency CRT Tanaka, was competing in the same category as leading multinationals such as John Deere, Diageo and American Express.

The Vibrant Rioja campaign activities are focused in New York, Florida, Chicago, California, Texas and Miami – where an important event targeted at professionals and consumers took place last April. The campaign in question occupies third place on the ranking of US importers and boasts a budget of €3 million, cornering the lion’s share of the appellation’s total marketing budget owing to the fact that the US market is currently seen as offering the greatest annual growth potential. The campaign is based on an ambitious marketing programme in points of sale with the aim of generating visibility for the Rioja brand; 75 per cent of the budget is targeted at the food industry and the remaining 25 per cent at the hospitality sector.

As a result, DOC Rioja has created an online publicity campaign via lifestyle media targeted at end consumers – in their majority young urban adults – together with parallel activities such as Rioja wine tastings and ‘fiestas’ which include food and wine pairings. The campaign boasts a collective following of around 90,000 consumers and 4,500 trade professionals, who receive regular information and invites to events via the campaign’s newsletter. US wine social network, snooth.com, with more than a million users per month, recently recognised DOC Rioja as the “Wine Region of the Year 2011”, an award which carries particular weight given that it was conferred by wine enthusiasts themselves.

The Silver Anvil Awards have grown in scope and prestige since their creation in 1946, borne out by the approximately 1,000 campaigns entered in the various categories of the competition’s latest edition. Some of the most important communications and PR companies in the US and the world took part in this annual contest, including: Edelman, Ketchum, Euro RSCG Worldwide PR, Ogilvy Public Relations, MWW Group, etc. The campaigns entered in the competition came from companies such as IBM, IKEA, P&G, General Motors, Jet Blue, Best Buy, US Navy, Hyundai Motor America, Nestle, and Yahoo. The Public Relations Society of America, the organisation which presents the awards, boasts more than 31,000 members, making it the largest PR and marketing organisation in the world.