Peroni Nastro Azzurro this week is making a bigger push around the Academy Awards, buying a host of digital ads that aim to elevate the above-premium brand by positioning it amid the glitz and glamour of the event.
Peroni will air a series of 6- and 15-second spots that will be served to Twitter users during and following the awards on Sunday. In all, the spots are projected to garner at least 33 million impressions and are slated to run on Twitter through March 1.
The easy-drinking Italian import made its national debut in late January with a 15-second ad that’s on air through the end of February. It’s the first step in a multi-pronged campaign to raise its national profile as it seeks to retain its title as the fastest-growing European import and expand sales significantly in 2019.
The videos that will air starting Sunday augment Peroni’s high-profile partnership with Vanity Fair during Oscar Week, which include it being the preferred beer poured at the magazine’s exclusive post-event party Sunday in Los Angeles.
“This is our first big national push behind the brand, and what better way to have our coming out party than during the Oscars,” says Paul Verdu, vice president of sales and marketing for Tenth and Blake, the MillerCoors craft and prestige import arm. “We were presented with an opportunity to put Peroni on the big stage, and we took it. We’re moving fast, and we adjusted our plans to be a bigger part of this premier event.”
The Vanity Fair partnership and the sponsored ads around the Oscars fit neatly into Peroni’s three core pillars: fashion, film and food, says Katie Feldman, the marketing manager for Peroni and other MillerCoors prestige import brands. “The red carpet and Oscar parties are the pinnacle of the intersection of fashion and film, so it was important for us to be a part of this."
Peroni, which logged 14.2 percent growth in 2018, is more than doubling its marketing investment for 2019, aiming to reach three times as many drinkers as last year. It is significantly expanding distribution in the on- and off-premise with support from a growing roster of national chains.
The brand also this year debuted a new tagline, Birra Beautifully, and is moving into sleeker signature bottles and slim cans adorned with a cleaner, more streamlined and modern label.
It will roll out a pair of new TV commercials in March, and supplement that investment with out-of-home advertising and a nationwide print media campaign targeted at the prime real estate inside arts, fashion, food and design publications.
“We’ve got big plans for Peroni,” Feldman says. “And this exposure during the Oscars is a very strong opportunity to showcase the brand and make it part of the conversation during one of the biggest media events of the year.”
The MillerCoors Behind the Beer news blog is typically published three days a week. Subscribe here. Do you have story ideas? Questions? Comments? Email Peter Frost at peter.frost@millercoors.com.