Anheuser Busch Companies (BUD)

[FUNMAN]

Yellow Tail wine again finds way around Super Bowl ad exclusivity


Erik Brady, USA TODAY Sports Published 8:03 a.m. ET Jan. 30, 2018 | Updated 8:24 a.m. ET Jan. 30, 2018



Football teams aren’t the only ones that execute end runs at the Super Bowl. Consider Yellow Tail wine.


Anheuser-Busch has exclusive category commercial rights on the Super Bowl, meaning no other alcohol ads can air. So Yellow Tail has made local ad buys in 80 U.S. markets to get its Super Bowl commercial to most of the country, up from 70 markets a year ago.


"We’re at it again,” says Tom Steffanci, president of Deutsch Family Wine & Spirits, U.S. importer and marketer of the Australian wine. “We’re gluttons for punishment.”


Watch here:

He’s talking about how hard it is to find a way around A-B’s exclusivity. Last year, Yellow Tail was the first wine advertised on the Super Bowl in almost 40 years. He says it would be simpler — and cheaper — if the brand could buy an ad on the national telecast. He says all those local ad buys cost more than the average of north of $5 million that national ads on the NBC telecast cost this year.


"We’re not thrilled about the end run and we’re even less thrilled about how costly and cumbersome it is,” Steffanci tells USA TODAY Sports. “But there’s not much we can do about it.”


This year’s 30-second spot is once again directed by Hollywood director Harald Zwart and once again stars Roopert, Yellow Tail’s animatronic kangaroo mascot, who’s also known as Roo. In this one, a man walks into his darkened home only come face to face with a kangaroo. Then — a surprise party breaks out, with music, wine and Roo.


Yellow Tail is back, despite the difficulty, Steffanci says, because last year’s ad campaign, centered around the Super Bowl, increased sales for the top-selling imported wine brand in the U.S.