McGuigan ramps up summer marketing activity

Australian wine brand McGuigan is ramping up its UK summer activity with the sponsorship of two food festivals, a new consumer competition and a six-figure advertising campaign on the London Underground.

The wine brand will be sponsoring Meatopia for the second year running, which will take place at London Tobacco Dock on 1-3 September as well as experiential street food and music festival, On Blackheath on 9-10 September.

As the only wine sponsor at both foodie festivals, it will take its Airstream bar to both events to showcase a selection of wines from the portfolio, offering wine and food pairing suggestions for the dishes at the events. Wines on show include the Black Label range, the award-winning Shortlist range, super-premium icon wine The Philosophy and the McGuigan Torode Pinot Noir Rosé, the latest wine launched as part of the company’s long-standing collaboration with TV chef and Masterchef judge John Torode.

Torode will also be firing up his BBQ to cook visitors an Asian style lamb dish that can be tasted alongside a selection of the wines.

Australian Vintage is running a Facebook campaign to win two free pairs of Meatopia tickets and two free pairs of On Blackheath tickets during August.

McGuigan has also teamed up with holiday specialist Austravel for a new consumer competition where shoppers can bag themselves a 15-day Australian Sydney & Reef adventure, or a year’s supply of McGuigan wine. The online competition will run across from August until the end of November, with consumers entering by buying any bottle McGuigan Wine.

Last month, the retailer revealed to db that it is launching a six-figure advertising campaign for its Black Label brand that will run across the London Underground during September and October, building on its ‘Bring a McGuigan’ TV campaign last year. 

Julian Dyer, general manager of McGuigan’s parent company Australian Vintage in the UK and Europe, told db the campaign would reach around 8.4 million people and have an national reach of around 13% due to the number of people travelling through London.

The marketing push came on the back of the successful January tube campaign by Australian Vintage which celebrating the fact that CEO Neil McGuigan had been named ‘International Winemaker of the Year’ at the IWSC as many as four times.