While Rioja wines have long been popular in the UK, their core audience tended to be a traditional audience of older wine enthusiasts. Phipps was challenged with finding a way of bringing Rioja wines to a younger, urban audience, both male and female, creating a more modern and approachable face to Spain’s flagship wine region.
We wanted to create an annual festival that aligned Rioja with the Spanish tapas culture, bringing the region’s gastronomic heritage and diversity to life for a British audience. So we created ‘Rioja Tapas Fantasticas’, a two-day festival in London that saw us bring the legendary tapas street, Calle Laurel, located in Rioja’s main town, Logroño, to life in the heart of London. Over a period of six years, the event became a showcase for the wines of Rioja, with wineries taking up stalls alongside pop-ups of some of London’s best Spanish restaurants and tapas bars including Barrica, Ibérica, and Hispania. With forty wine bars, twelve restaurants, and live music, and DJs, the weekend-long event attracted 12,000 food and wine enthusiasts.
Wine experts and TV personalities Olly Smith and Susy Atkins, along with renowned Spanish chef José Pizarro, fronted the event, and helped to ignite enthusiasm among consumers for Rioja. Olly and Susy hosted masterclasses and wine walks to inform consumers on the region, while José hosted live cooking demonstrations on stage.
Over the last seven years, the campaign has…
Engagement and sampling withover 85,000 young, urban consumers who have visited our events in London and Manchester.
Introduced over 3,000 consumers to Rioja through educational workshops and wine walks with Olly Smith and Susy Atkins.
Generated an estimated £180,000 direct revenue for participating wineries.
Created over 3bn opportunites to read and hear about Rioja wines.
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