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| South African Wine in the US during the World Cup |
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| US window display during World Cup 2010 |
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| US rocked to SA wines during World Cup |
| 19 July 2010 by Cape Classics |
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| The World Cup has had a very positive impact on the business of selling South African wine into the US market, especially in New York where wine retailers have run South African themed store fronts and in-store displays. Wine imports from the Cape for April 2010 show a 96% increase over April 2009.
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In addition to major retail outlets promoting South African wines, hosting tastings and creating soccer-themed displays, online retailers jumped on the bandwagon with special promotions. The interest also resulted in new business deals being struck with accounts which either never carried South African wines or had a minimal focus on the category. Demand has been particularly strong for wines considered to be unique "signature" South African varietals, namely Chenin Blanc and Pinotage.
It is all part of the soccer fever that gripped many parts of the USA, with an unprecedented flow of traffic into bars to coincide with 10h00 kick off times.
"The World Cup has felt like a windfall for our business. Using our Indaba branded soccer balls, jerseys, t-shirts, tote bags and case cards, along with our new 'Drink South African' campaign we created a series of in-store and retailer window displays. In total, we installed 15 World Cup themed windows all over New York," said Andre Shearer, the CEO of New York-based wine importer Cape Classics.
Among the New York retailers that flew the South African World Cup flag are Crown Liquors, Zachy's, Lisa's Liquor Barn and Marketview. "The important thing to note with Marketview is that their window display went up almost nine months ago! They were ready for World Cup well ahead of everyone else," Shearer said.
More South African support has come from French-born chef Daniel Boulud, who owns a series of award winning restaurants in New York, Miami, Palm Beach, Las Vegas, Vancouver, London and Beijing, including Daniel which is rated one of the world's top restaurants.
The webpage for his newly launched DBGB Kitchen and Bar encouraged people to catch the World Cup games at the venue, and the group wine director and buyer called Cape Classics to ask about potential promotions involving South African wines over the World Cup period. "They called us a week before kickoff, and because we are on the ground in New York we were able to meet their deadline and we got a Mulderbosch Rosé placement," Shearer said.
In certain cases the request for South African wine was more specific: for example the Blue Ribbon Restaurants group, which operates nine individual restaurants across New York City, requested "authentic" South African wines and chosen the Kanonkop Kadette and Raats Original Chenin from the Cape Classics portfolio.
The South African wine fever was not restricted to the East Coast as hotel groups and major retail chains took their campaigns nationally.
The Marriott Hotels and Resorts group is running a summer promotion across their US locations focusing on fresh fruit and juices, so Cape Classics created a Summer of South African Sangria campaign featuring Mulderbosch Rosé, Indaba Chardonnay and Excelsior Cabernet to secure placements in the properties. "The campaign has been very successful, and our Marriott business is booming," Shearer said.
Also on a national account front, retailers Costco and Cost Plus World Market bought in big, scheduling multiple state road shows and national programmes. "This also opened doors to accounts we did not have access to before. Because of World Cup interest, we were able to present wines for the first time to buyers such as the Houlihans Restaurant Group," Shearer said.
Cape Classics built South African themed displays in several Costco stores and the timing had to do with interest shown in the World Cup and South Africa. "We used Indaba soccer jerseys which were a hit. We were also in Colorado for the Aspen Food & Wine Classic with our Indaba soccer shirts, vuvuzelas and soccer balls. We even have clips of Marcus Samuelsson - who recently won Top Chef Masters (US television show) - playing footie and blowing a vuvuzela in between serving boerewors and bunny chow at the event," said Molly Choi, senior vice president of Cape Classics.
Another boost for South African wines came when wine.com had a big sale with free shipping the day World Cup started. They shot a video using Cape Classics wines to accompany a blog on their site. Click here to view.
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