Tastes Like Happy: The BAM Connection for [ yellow tail ]

 

 

In what promises to be among the “happiest” spots during the game, [ yellow tail ] wine will debut its new “Tastes Like Happy” ad campaign with a new :30 TV spot airing during the Super Bowl on Sunday, February 3.

[ yellow tail ] is on a mission to bring happiness to every table, kicking it all off with its third Super Bowl spot in a row. In 2017, [ yellow tail ], became the first wine brand in almost 40 years to advertise during the Big Game. Fans responded, leading the brand to its strongest sales in years. The brand experienced even more success in 2018, as it aired its second TV ad.

“Our new ‘Tastes Like Happy’ campaign celebrates everyday moments of joy around a bottle of [ yellow tail ],” said Tom Steffanci, President of Deutsch Family Wine & Spirits, the U.S. importer and marketer for [ yellow tail ]. “At a time when we could all use a little more happiness, [ yellow tail ] reminds us that it’s actually all around us.”

For the first time, [ yellow tail ] will feature two entirely fan-produced video segments as part of its commercial. In November, [ yellow tail ] launched a contest asking consumers to share videos showing what makes them happy. [ yellow tail ] received more than 1,500 fan submissions to its website and social pages.

“[ yellow tail ] brings people together to share their happiness,” said Steffanci. “[ yellow tail ] is the most followed wine brand on social media and the most popular imported wine brand in America because of the love and loyalty of our consumers. It was a natural step forward to feature real [ yellow tail ] fans in our new Big Game commercial.”

Many of the contest submissions depict time with family and friends. The most popular activities shared were dancing and singing. Selected by a panel of more than ten judges, the Grand Prize winner is Adrien Colon, dancing salsa on a magical flat rock on a beach in Ibiza, Spain. In addition to being featured in the Super Bowl spot, Adrien also won an all-expense paid trip to his happy place, anywhere in the world. The runner up prize winner is Katherine Nunez and the video of her swinging from a rope off a boat high above a beautiful bay in Aruba will also be featured in the Super Bowl spot. Her video was shot by Nunez’s husband while the two were on their honeymoon.

In addition to consumer generated content, the Super Bowl commercial features 22 principal actors and 44 extras. It was directed by award-winning feature film, music video and commercial director, Jeffrey Darling, and shot in Miami this past November. The new campaign will also run on YouTube, Buzzfeed and iHeartRadio in :30 and :15 second versions. 

Tell us about your role in the creation of the yellow tail Super Bowl work.
I am Co-Founder of The BAM Connection and its CCO, so I oversaw the whole process from strategy to campaign creation to producing the final spot. I also acted as lead Copywriter. This is for the Super Bowl, so as you can imagine, I had a fairly large group work on it, who all contributed considerable talents to the end product.

 

Give us an overview of the campaign, what is it about?
We started with a strategy centered around happiness. This brand is yellow, it has a kangaroo on the label, and it’s wine. It kinda screams happy. From there, one of our critical insights was that wine is almost always described by what’s insidethe glass – oak, hints of blackberry, etc. But wine drinking is also so much about what happens outside the glass. All the wonderful family moments, fun with friends, promotions, great first dates. All of that “happy” is so much a part of the wine drinking experience. We tried to capture all that, then “bracket the happy” with our signature [yellow tail] brackets. 

 

How is this Super Bowl brief different from the usual brief? 
This is not a one-off for the Super Bowl, this is the launch of a new campaign, starting with this commercial. So we were not creating a Super Bowl spot, we were creating a new campaign with a spot that would launch it on the Super Bowl. But of course, we were very aware of the Super Bowl’s giant stage, so we really anguished over each element to make sure it was the absolute highest quality it could be. We do that with every piece we create – but somewhere underneath, I’m sure we all dialed it up for this one.

 

Can you share your favorite behind-the-scenes moment with us? 
The day we were shooting the opening scene of the two glasses with the beautiful sunset behind them it was horribly overcast all day. Not one ray of sunshine. We moved the crew over to the shore, and as we waited for the magic hour, the clouds along the horizon line began to lift away, and suddenly that magic sun popped out for 30 minutes of the best sunset I have ever shot in my life. Whew!

 

What was the greatest challenge that you and your team faced during development? 
Happiness is a wonderful, but tough positioning. Pretty much every product or service promises you some form of happiness, which makes it quite difficult to find fresh, surprising interpretations. Also, handled in the wrong way, happy can quickly become sappy. So how do you come up with moments of happy that tie to wine, are insightful, surprising, specific yet universal so many can enjoy them. That was a challenge. We explored the millions of different types of happy wine moments, endless combinations depending on where, who, when you are enjoying it.

We concepted hundreds to get to the final seven in the spot – plus the two UGC scenes.

 

What did you enjoy most about seeing this campaign through? Did you learn anything new from the experience?

Where we sit culturally right now, the mood of everything going on – couldn’t the country use 30 seconds of happiness? That’s what we are trying to supply with this spot. We are not looking to shock you, not looking be controversial, not trying to make a statement. Just drink some [yellow tail], and remember all the people in life who make you happy and share some happy with them. I have really enjoyed putting that message out into the world right now.

 

Aside from this spot, what is your favorite Super Bowl ad of all time? Why?

There are so many. I’ll give some love to an oldie, and a less obvious choice. EF Hutton in 1979. Three reasons. 1) It’s not just a great piece of film, but a great commercial that actually sells the brand. 2) It’s part of a larger, long-term, branded campaign, not just a Super Bowl one-off. 3) It’s not trying too hard. Not celebrity-laden, preachy, ridiculously overhyped. Just clever, well executed, simplicity. A truly timeless idea.