• by Karlene Lukovitz  @KLmarketdaily, January 31, 2018

Yellow Tail wine is expanding a strategy it employed last year to get around Anheuser-Busch’s exclusive rights to air ads for alcoholic beverages during the Super Bowl.

Last year, Yellow Tail made headlines by becoming the first wine brand in nearly 30 years to advertise on the Super Bowl (the last one was from Bartles & Jaymes, in 1988), by making local ad buys in 70 markets. 

The buys, executed by Havas Media, were planned to reach 85% of the expected 100 million-plus viewers of the game (actual viewership, per Nielsen, totaled 111.3 million).

The complicated work-around increased U.S. sales of the Australian wine, so it’s being expanded to 80 markets, to reach an estimated 3 million more TV viewers than last year, reports Deutsch Family Wine & Spirits, Yellow Tail’s U.S. importer and marketer.

The 30-second ad will air in the top 30 DMAs and more than 50 other markets, including new markets in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa. 

Yellow Tail is also investing in online video exposure on NBC, YouTube and Hulu and social media play through Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat, to generate an estimated 20 million combined views — 20% more than last year).

In total, the brand will spend $10.3 million on media for the game — versus last year’s $10 million — including about $5 million for the local Super Bowl buys. A 30-second national Super Bowl buy would have been roughly equivalent, going for more than $5 million this year. 

This year’s Super Bowl ad (below) continues a three-year “Let’s Yellow Tail” campaign, from Burns Group, that was launched with last year’s Big Game ad. 

Called “Big Game Surprise,” it shows a guy arriving home to find a kangaroo — with a party favor in his mouth — in his foyer, and a full-blown party, orchestrated by the yellow-suited “Yellow Tail Guy,” going on in his living room. The ad was directed by Harald Zwart, director of 2010’s “Karate Kid” remake and Capital One’s Alec Baldwin campaign. 

In last year’s SB ad, the animatronic “Roo” kangaroo was shown barbequing and sunbathing. That ad also featured an appearance by supermodel Ellie Gonsalves. 

A hit in the U.S., the ad campaign has been labeled “humiliating” by some Australians, who charge that it perpetuates cultural stereotypes.

Leading up to this year’s game, Yellow Tail’s food truck, featuring the Yellow Tail Guy and Roo, made 32 stops in nine U.S. markets. Consumers who take a photo with the touring truck and post it on social with #YellowTailgate #sweepstakes are entered in a sweeps with a grand prize of a trip for two to Australia.

Yellow Tail is the top-selling imported wine brand in the U.S., where it sells more than 7 million cases per year. It is also, according to the brand, television’s largest wine advertiser and Facebook’s largest wine brand, with 1.4 million followers.