The newest brand in the Accolade Wines portfolio, Viña Anakena, was relaunched in the UK market, last Friday (December 4) at the Royal Albert Hall, prior to the British Champions Tournament, to mark its new sponsorship arrangement with British Tennis and the UK Lawn Tennis Association.
Viña Anakena became the newest brand to enter Accolade Wines’ portfolio following its acquisition by Accolade Wines in September 2015. Accolade Wines is now the first company to have a footprint in all major New World wine regions, cementing its position as the leading New World supplier of premium and commercial wines.
Paul Schaafsma, CEO, Accolade Wines, hosted the event and commented, “Viña Anakena is a high quality Chilean wine brand with an established international reputation as a producer of world-class, distinctly Chilean wines. We firmly believe that, under our ownership we can now take the brand to the next level in terms of its global presence and distribution.”
He continued, “Our research shows that there is a gap in the market for a new authentic Chilean brand and that opportunities are out there for us to build distribution and consumer demand for Viña Anakena. Accolade Wines has a proven track record in developing new ideas and brands. Our successes with Mud House and NPD such as Echo Falls Fruits shows that we have the capability to create new categories and consumer demand in the wine category and build genuine value at the premium end too. Viña Anakena is a great addition to the portfolio and initial reaction from the trade indicates that we can expect to see great results.”
UK and Ireland Marketing Director, Amy White comments “The Chilean wine category is a highly competitive one with popular brands already established. In developing the right proposition for Viña Anakena in the UK, we spent a lot of time engaging consumers to best understand what they are looking for in this sector of the market. It became acutely apparent, through research, that brands with heritage, provenance and a true story to tell were the factors considered most important. Viña Anakena is a brand built on stories and provenance as throughout the range it plays homage to Chile’s indigenous people and it’s country’s pre-Colombian cultures and with the results we’ve seen in consumer research, we have no doubt whatsoever that as soon as these new wines hit the shelves, the UK consumers will engage positively”.
White continues “In consumer research Viña Anakena scored higher than any of the key competitor brands in the category. The brand came out as the number one choice for consumers on a range of benchmark criteria such as, shelf stand out, quality of packaging, price: quality ratio, purchase intent, propensity to switch and “a brand for me”.
The results were overwhelmingly positive for Viña Anakena and alongside the marketing programme we have in place for the brand, we’re feeling very excited about the future potential of this brand”.
To support the launch of Viña Anakena Accolade Wines will invest half a million pounds in the brand over the next 12 months. This includes a new partnership with the Lawn Tennis Association which will see Viña Anakena become the Official Wine of British Tennis and the Lawn Tennis Association. Accolade Wines has signed a three year deal to ensure a long term platform from which to build awareness and loyalty for the brand.
“This partnership is a fantastic opportunity for Viña Anakena and we couldn’t be happier to be working alongside the LTA and British Tennis team, particularly given the recent success in the Davis Cup which saw the British team beat Belgium to win the tournament for the first time in 79 years. With general interest in tennis now heightened following this fantastic performance, we’re very excited about the 2016 calendar including the AEGON Championships at the Queens Club and of course, Wimbledon next summer” Schaafsma comments.
