Fewer Wine Ads for 1988

Media advertising for wine in 1988 dropped 24% from 1987, and advertising for wine coolers dropped 34% in the same period, according to the 1989 Jobson’s Wine Marketing Handbook, published annually by Jobson Beverage Alcohol Group.

The handbook showed that only sparkling wine advertising rose in 1988, and the only medium to show an increase was spot radio.

“Retrenchment was the industry’s strategy in 1988,” said Seymour Leikind, publisher of the handbook. He said the wine industry is in transition, with many of the leading brands “trying to shore up eroding bases.”

Gallo, the leading advertiser of wine in the United States, spent $13 million less in 1988 than in the previous year, with total ad expenditures dropping to $51 million, Jobson said.

Cooler Ads Down

The handbook showed that wine cooler ad outlays went from $123 million in 1987 to $81 million in 1988, and 85% of that total came from the industry’s Big 3--Gallo’s Bartles & Jaymes, Seagram’s, and Miller Brewing Co.’s Matilda Bay.

The increase in sparkling wine advertising in 1988 was spearheaded by Gallo’s new Tott’s and by a campaign for Martini & Rossi Asti Spumante, the handbook reported.

Jobson is the publisher of Beverage Dynamics, a magazine that reports on the national alcoholic beverage business, and in the latest issue of that publication Jobson predicts a 10.9% growth this year in non-alcoholic beer sales.

The publication notes that Anheuser-Busch is test-marketing a non-alcoholic beer called O’Doul’s and that another non-alcoholic beer called Buckler is being marketed by Van Munching in eight major cities.

The publication said 6.7 million cases of non-alcoholic beer were sold in the United States in 1988. The category leader is Kingsbury.

Arbor Crest Winery in Spokane, Wash., announced it would import three wines produced in the Soviet Union. They are to be priced at about $7 a bottle.