Written on 04/30/19 6:15 AM

As the prosecco category has grown significantly in the U.S., RPM has helped accelerate Riondo Prosecco’s rise. Prosecco is at the forefront of this sparkling wine boom, with producers and marketers competing to win share among fickle consumers, and they’re making progress. Value is growing ahead of volume according to both Nielsen and IRI data. Prosecco volume also continues to increase, with a range of 1.6 million to 2.25 million cases sold and a lift in revenue somewhere between 14.2% to 16.4% ($247 million to $347 million) in 2018.

Competition for Prosecco consumers is fierce; so, how can a relative newcomer grab share and cultivate consumer loyalty with a limited budget? That was the question RPM had to answer for Terlato Wines when the company acquired Riondo. Even with a limited budget, we needed to make an impact to get a foothold in the burgeoning category. RPM and Riondo turned to social channels with unique creative that stood out among the other brands and content that invited engagement with our core audience.

The result? Shanken News Daily, which provides exclusive news and research on the wine, spirits and beer business, recently called Riondo a “brand to watch” as it trends toward “hot brand” status. In fact, Riondo jumped 24% in 2018 to 192,000 cases sold, setting the pace for continued success.

RPM recently celebrated our 25th year, which means we’ve had a front row seat to seismic changes in how marketers market and consumers buy. From the dramatic shift of dollars to digital channels and heightened emphasis on consumer experience, to a hyper-focus on analytics and real-time optimization, our team has been running as fast as our industry’s been changing. We’ve witnessed the massive opportunity (and dollars) that boomers created, the challenge to reach the “middle children” in Gen X, me-me-me Millennials, and digital born Gen Z – who on average received their first mobile phone at age ten!

Consumers have become influencers and advocates, devices have become personal, and attention spans have become shorter. But that’s not all…marketers are more hard-pressed than ever to engage, remain transparent, and create personal experiences – all while being their authentic selves. And there’s more! A recent survey revealed that 31% of U.S. marketers believe that, in the next 30 years, robots will do much of the digital marketing they currently do.

So, what does the next 25 years hold for our clients and our agency team? While we don’t have a crystal ball, we’re looking forward to evaluating new channels, improved data applications and even more comprehensive analytics for our clients.

Gen Z is currently defined as by the Pew Research Center as being born in 1997 or later.

Here are some things to know about them:

1.) They have never lived without the internet. They are always online but feel overwhelmed by advertising on digital platforms.

2.) They like Instagram, Snapchat, and YouTube—but not Facebook or Twitter. (See pie chart below.)

3.) Any ads on these platforms need to be authentic and natural, using real people and real customer testimonials.

Most of Gen Z is not yet old enough to drink alcohol or gamble, and they may not yet have hit life-stage milestones such as buying a house or even a car. However, it’s never too early to think about how to best message newer generations as they age into a core demographic. For example, what currently works for A55+ may not be effective when Gen Z enters that age range.

As we look ahead, our teams continue to actively work with clients to understand the relative value of each cohort and how to most effectively message them in order to reach new audiences without sacrificing the current consumer.

In its “Digital Video Advertising Best Practices 2019” report, eMarketer recently shared a number of useful trends and information pertaining to any channels that serve up video advertising and content digitally: advanced TV (connected, addressable, programmatic); VOD; social; YouTube; full episode players; and programmatic, PMP, and publisher-direct video. Of note here are some best practices specific to digital video creative.

From the report:

“For mobile video in particular, moving the brand message to the front is important. And for direct-response brands where the video is driving an acquisition KPI [key performance indicator], putting that call to action right up front is critical. IAB did a study recently on mobile shoppable video, and that 3-second sweet spot is super important so that the consumer knows there’s an opportunity to engage. It might use a call-to-action like ‘shop now’ or ‘learn more,’ but putting that up front is a best practice.”

—Eric John, Deputy Director, Video, Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB)

What’s our take on this? As production budgets allow, videos should be customized to the platform:

1.) Video ads should be short—ideally, not longer than 15 seconds, and consider shorter ads, such as 6-second ads when appropriate for the message and the platform

2.) The brand and CTA (call to action) need to be front loaded—unlike TV ads, where the critical information appears later in the ad, digital video ads should feature the logo, URL and/or CTA within the first three seconds of the ad starting because significant ad drop off can occur within four to five seconds of play.

3.) Don’t assume there will be sound—Closed captioning should be employed in case sound isn’t on. This function works best when captions are embedded into the creative asset itself, rather than relying on CC functions in platforms.

4.) Consider vertical video in the asset development process—Consumers generally do not want to have to turn their phones 90 degrees to what a video in full screen when in social platforms. Filming with vertical dimensions in mind can better enable content adaptability into tactics and platforms that use vertical video.