Gallo teams up with NFL in new marketing sponsorship to help boost wine sales

The Modesto-based company, which has such notable holdings in Sonoma County as MacMurray Estate Vineyards and J Vineyards & Winery, inked the multiyear agreement in June with the league. The deal, whose financial terms were not revealed, will include marketing efforts beyond traditional TV advertising, such as on-site events and digital and social content throughout the season to the Super Bowl.

Gallo also will have local partnerships with 10 teams, including the San Francisco 49ers, Los Angeles Rams and Arizona Cardinals.

“We think this partnership could be very transformative for our category,” said Stephanie Gallo, a third-generation member of her family business who serves as chief marketing officer.

The sponsorship comes at a challenging time for the industry. Wine consumption per capita has been relatively flat in this country in recent years as Baby Boomers cut back on their purchasing as they age. Meanwhile, younger consumers are a much tougher segment to crack because they face an array of drink options from hard seltzers and ready-to-drink cocktails to cannabis drinks.

“We think this is a great way to insert wine into a new occasion,” said Gallo, who has spoken previously about the need to make wine more accessible to consumers. She also points to such countries as Germany and France that have a much higher per capita consumption rate than the U.S.

“The wine industry has to continuously challenge ourselves as to how me make ourselves relevant to the next generation of consumers,” she added.

That’s where the NFL comes in.

Forget the stereotyped image of middle-aged guy knocking back a few Budweisers or Miller Lites ― or maybe something stronger ― as part of pregame tailgating while blasting heavy metal music. The NFL has a varied fan base ranging in age from 8 to 80, and many of them over 21 are wine drinkers, said Tracie Rodburg, the NFL’s senior vice president of sponsorship management.

“This was really a response to our fans,” Rodburg said of the Gallo deal.

The sponsorship materialized as Anheuser-Busch Co. had earlier dropped the wine category from its contract when it renewed its partnership with the league this year to focus more on its Bud Light brand, she said.

Many teams were already making wine a greater focus of their hospitality offerings in their stadium clubs and lounges, Rodburg said.

In particular, the Las Vegas Raiders are a notable example despite the image of its fans as hard-partying, Harley-riding, Jack Daniels-swilling outlaws. In fact, the Raiders have a tailored program that includes wine cellars and even a sommelier on staff. (Raider legend Charles Woodson has his own wine label with production in Paso Robles.)

“This was really in response to our fans and the breadth of choices that they want to ensure they have,” Rodburg said. “And wine is absolutely one of them,”

The deal makes a lot of sense for Gallo because the NFL is at the center of the national cultural zeitgeist with its games being typically the most viewed TV broadcasts in the country, said Rich Campbell, a marketing professor at Sonoma State University who specializes in sports business. One count placed NFL games attracting 75 of the top 100 TV shows last year.

“The NFL isn’t the elephant in the room. The NFL is the room,” Campbell said. “They’re like the presidential suite at that level. Firms and brands want to be associated with them.”

There have been forays by other local wine companies and sports teams, such as Mumm Napa sponsoring the San Francisco Giants during the team’s World Series runs. In addition, Francis Ford Coppola Winery of Geyserville struck a deal with the Oakland A’s that included premium seating behind home plate and being able to offer its canned wine at the Coliseum.

Campbell noted the NFL had to notice those efforts along with the changing drinking habits within the country, especially as 40% of the league’s fans are women.

“It’s not just a men’s game. The viewership has changed and diversified over time. So, it makes logical sense so have the companies the NFL is being leveraged to reach,” he said.

The effort by Gallo also is long overdue as the wine industry has failed to keep up in broad-based advertising to reach consumers in comparison with both the beer and spirits industry, said Rob McMillan, founder of Silicon Valley Bank’s wine division.

Wine companies decades ago did use more broad-based advertising, such as Orson Welles’ pitches for Paul Masson wine along with his memorable catchphrase: “We will sell no wine before its time.”

In addition, there were the Bartles & Jaymes wine cooler ads from the 1980s that featured two older characters who were modeled from Gallo founders Ernest and Julio Gallo. But those efforts have languished in recent years.

In fact, wine companies had only been spending about $90 million annually in recent years in media expenditures compared to $457 million by distillers and a whopping $1.4 billion by the beer industry, according to data by Kantar Media and Shanken’s Impact Databank.

“We are losing out to spirits. We have been losing out to beer if you add spiked seltzer into it. There are other categories growing much rapidly,” McMillan said of sales trends.

He noted the wine industry’s view appears to be “pretty much sticking to our approach. It worked in the 90s, and, damn it, it is going to work in the 2030s.”

McMillan was part of a group of consultants who earlier this year pitched to wine industry leaders that they should combine forces and create a national research and promotion program similar to such products as beef and avocado to raise visibility for wine. It would be similar to the wine marketing effort carried out under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Agriculture back in the 1980s.

The new proposal, known as WineRAMP, failed when a few companies said they wouldn’t participate, which killed its momentum. Those companies said they would rather spend it on their own brands, he said.

“The industry is unable to cooperate for joint advertising. It’s just the truth,” McMillan said.

Into the void has stepped Gallo, which has a significant reach in the industry because it makes almost 100 million cases annually. That is just more than 30% of the country’ soverall production, according to consulting firm bw166.

Gallo already has stepped up advertising some brands within its vast portfolio, which ranges from entry-level Barefoot to its Louis Martini label, in which one 1.5-liter bottle sells for $460 on its website.

The efforts include a campaign with the revived Clos du Bois brand that featured advertisements directed by actress Courtney Cox. Those spots tweaked ageism that is typically seen in most alcohol advertising.

Gallo also unveiled a campaign for its Black Box Wines with actor Adam Scott playing a “Savvy Man” who uses his wry-and-dry humor to pitch the brand. But the NFL effort will raise the stakes for the company.

Gallo will start its NFL campaign with its bestselling Barefoot label. It hopes to introduce other brands next year, Stephanie Gallo said. The campaign also has a big component for displays at retail stores that stock wine, a nod to the “extremely powerful” brand of the NFL that shoppers will notice.

“This partnership is massive,” she said. “It requires a new muscle, and so we just wanted to start small before we scale.”

The company has no plans — at least not yet — to do a Super Bowl ad, Gallo added. Its mission now is to expand the playing field, whether at the stadium or at home.

“We’re mission-focused on winning new friends for wine,” she said.

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