Yenda’s own Casella Family Brands has scored a significant touchdown, securing a spot in the Holy Grail of advertising - half-time at the American Super Bowl.
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The bright lights of Houston, Texas and the Super Bowl are a long way from the humble origins of the once small Yenda winery, with ads priced at $5 million per 30 second time slot regularly featuring international names like Snickers and Mercedes-Benz.
For Casella Family Brands (CFB) managing director John Casella it is a “surreal” achievement and the product of years of hard work and gambles from his family.
“Honestly you would never dream of accomplishing these things, but I suppose everything is one step at a time” he said.
“My parents had a small winery, we made it a little bit bigger, went to the USA and had had success like nobody else has ever had - certainly not from Australia.”
While the ongoing vintage will keep Mr Casella home during the big game, the same can’t be said for the estimated 160 million people who will tune in to watch from across the world. With Yellowtail the most successful wine to launch in the US market, the company hopes the ‘Let’s Yellowtail’ ad will ensure viewers associate the fun, laid-back attitude with their next social gathering.
It is a process well thought out over the past 18 months as CFB decided whether the expenditure would give them the returns they needed. “We had discussions about making a really big statement, we are by far the biggest Aussie brand in the USA, and we really needed to show the market we are serious,” Mr Casella said.
“The discussion came up about the Super Bowl, we thought we couldn’t get in but we found a way around all that and it's incredible – we are the first Australian company and the first wine company in 40 years to advertise there.”
But even more importantly for Mr Casella was the publicity this would in turn generate for the wine industry and the region. “The thing about this success is that it will spread itself out to other people, to our growers, suppliers our employees,” he said. “It’s a great local story, it is a great industry story, it is a great immigrant story...who would have ever heard of a town like Yenda? Now it’s on a world stage.”