"Once upon a time, in a country called the U.S.A., people started drinking more and more." Thus began the speech that Oriane Beloud, export marketing manager for the Inter-Rhône wine region, delivered to an assembled crowd of media, wine retailers, and importers on Tuesday night during an event at the Second City Theater.
In town from France to help launch the wine company's first U.S. advertising campaign, which was developed by Arnold NYC, Beloud spoke about why the wine company is now targeting American customers. Along with a growing appetite for grape, stateside consumers are generally open to trying new labels, Beloud said.
After the new campaign, dubbed "Côtes du Rhône: Always Right," debuted in September, the wine company held an event at New York's New Museum in October before coming to Chicago on Tuesday. Both cities are "important retail areas for us," said Beloud. "We planned the events so that we could thank our distributors and retailers in those areas and keep them informed. And of course, we all share a goal of letting the consumer know about our wines."
Beloud said she wanted the events to take place in venues that don't traditionally host wine tastings, to reflect the new ad campaign's "modern tone." In lieu of traditional wine-ad images such as "landscapes, glasses of wine, and people drinking," Beloud explained, the Arnold team's artwork includes photos of pizzas, leather jackets, and jewelry; she wanted the campaign's launch events to have a similarly "unexpected" vibe.
With two months to plan the Chicago event, Beloud tapped the HL Group to help find a venue. "They proposed the Second City, and that was perfect," she said. "We knew it would intrigue people. They'd think, 'A wine tasting in a theater?' They wouldn't know what to expect."
The event ultimately offered heavy passed hors d'oeuvres from Blue Plate Catering, which served everything from apricot-and-blue-cheese beggar's purses to a dish known as free-form maki, which filled open rice-paper shells with rice and shrimp. Servers circulated with trays of Côtes du Rhône wines; each glass came with a label attached to its stem, which informed guests of which wine they were drinking.
At 9 p.m., Second City performers took to the stage to begin an hour-long performance. Along with skits from the company's repertoire, the comedians perfomed sketches that they'd written specifically for the event. During the mock game show "Wine, Lose, or Draw," for example, the Côtes du Rhône label was called out multiple times. The group also performed improv, calling on the audience to shout out a location in which the skit should take place. A natural suggestion came from an eager guest in the back row, who chimed in with: "a vineyard!"
