Campari’s Julka Villa on building brand affection in person and the power of the moment

Summary

The Current Podcast: Campari’s Julka Villa on Building Brand Affection in Person and the Power of the Moment

Release Date: January 15, 2025

Introduction

In this episode of The Current Podcast, hosts Damian Fowler and Ilyse Lefering engage in an insightful conversation with Julka Villa, the Global Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) of Campari Group. With a legacy spanning over 160 years, Campari is a powerhouse in the global spirits industry, boasting a diverse portfolio of more than 50 brands, including iconic names like Aperol, Sky, Wild Turkey, and Courvoisier. Julka Villa brings 25 years of marketing expertise in the alcoholic beverage and beauty industries, offering a deep dive into how Campari marries its rich heritage with contemporary marketing strategies to remain relevant and beloved worldwide.

Balancing Legacy with Modern Relevance

One of the central themes of the conversation revolves around how Campari maintains its storied legacy while staying fresh and appealing to today's consumers.

Historical Foundations and Artistic Collaborations

Julka traces Campari’s roots back to the late 19th century, highlighting the brand's early commitment to boldness and visionary thinking. She states:

"If we go back to the roots of the Campari brand, about being bold, about being visionary, about investing in arts... Campari was one of the first, really interacting with artists like painters and designers and giving them the freedom to portray the brand in the way they saw it" (00:56).

This artistic collaboration extended into the 20th century, with partnerships with renowned filmmakers like Federico Fellini in the 1980s and Paolo Sorrentino in 2017. These collaborations not only preserved Campari’s legacy but also infused it with modern creativity, ensuring the brand remained dynamic and relevant.

Embracing Pop Culture and Modern Partnerships

Julka emphasizes the ongoing importance of pop culture in maintaining brand relevance:

"Our partnership with Arts have been more recently renovated in our cooperation with the major film festivals in the world... We are partners of the Cannes Film Festival, the festival in Venice, in Locarno, in Berlinale... That's definitely a modern way to keep the brand extremely aspirational" (03:28).

These strategic partnerships with prestigious film festivals help Campari connect with a broader audience, enhancing its aspirational image while engaging directly with consumers.

Global Brand Strategy and Localization

Campari’s strategy involves a careful balance between global brand consistency and local market customization. Julka explains:

"We have well identified what we call the global brands... depending on the area of the world, the characteristics of the market and the consumers, each individual operating company can compose the best portfolio to have the best performance on the market" (05:01).

In the United States, for instance, Campari focuses on flagship brands like Campari and Aperol, while also investing in newly acquired brands such as Courvoisier. This localized approach ensures that each market receives a tailored brand portfolio that resonates with local consumers while maintaining global brand integrity.

Navigating the Shift Towards Non-Alcoholic Beverages

Addressing the growing trend of non-alcoholic consumption, especially among Gen Z, Julka discusses how Campari is adapting to these shifts:

"There is a coexistence of people drinking alcoholic products and non alcoholic products... They are more conscious. They are not afraid to make a choice that could be out of their pool of friends" (06:38).

Campari is expanding its non-alcoholic portfolio, exemplified by the popular Italian non-alcoholic spritz, Crodino, which has been a staple since 1965. Julka shares plans to launch Crodino in the U.S. market, highlighting the brand’s proactive stance on evolving consumer preferences.

Data-Driven Marketing: Mindset Over Demographics

Julka emphasizes the shift from traditional demographic targeting to a mindset-based approach:

"What really counts today is the mindset and the attitude of people... It's about the motivation and the attitude of people when they are about to make a choice" (09:07).

This strategy allows Campari to create cross-generational appeal by focusing on the underlying motivations and attitudes that drive consumer behavior, rather than merely age or gender brackets.

Innovative Marketing Channels: Emphasizing In-Person Experiences

Recognizing the limitations of traditional social media channels for alcohol brands, Campari invests heavily in experiential marketing:

"Our investment is really put on organizing these kind of events... offering our best signature cocktail in our fantastic lounge" (10:41).

Events such as Coachella, the US Open, and the Australian Open provide Campari with platforms to engage directly with consumers, fostering brand affection through immersive, real-life experiences. These events are then amplified through social media, creating a harmonious blend of in-person and digital marketing.

Building Brand Awareness: The Oil Spill Approach

Julka discusses the strategic “oil spill approach” employed by Campari to build brand awareness for products like Aperol in new markets:

"We start with the city, a major city. We start with specific neighbors and key on trade outlet... then we create the phenomenon of the cocktail and then we expand" (14:13).

This method involves focusing on key venues in major cities to establish a trend, which then spreads organically to wider markets. This approach was pivotal in transforming Aperol from a Venetian staple to a globally recognized cocktail favorite.

Cultivating a Lifestyle Brand

Campari’s brands transcend mere beverages, embodying sophisticated lifestyles and moments of connection:

"Our brands... really stand for a certain lifestyle... they reflect a way of living and a way of appreciating life today" (17:19).

By associating their products with moments of relaxation, enjoyment with friends, and personal recharge, Campari creates an emotional connection with consumers, positioning their brands as integral parts of cherished life experiences.

Conclusion

Julka Villa’s insights reveal a sophisticated and adaptive marketing strategy that honors Campari’s rich heritage while embracing modern trends and consumer behaviors. By leveraging artistic collaborations, global-local strategies, experiential marketing, and a deep understanding of consumer mindsets, Campari continues to build strong brand affection and maintain its status as a leader in the global spirits industry.

Notable Quotes

• Julka Villa on Balancing Legacy and Modernity: “You can see that fast forward to the 80s, we start cooperating with one of the greatest filmmakers in the world, Federico Fellini... respecting the legacy, but at the same time renovating” (02:30).

• On Pop Culture’s Importance: “We are partners of the Cannes Film Festival, the festival in Venice, in Locarno, in Berlinale... keeping the brand extremely aspirational” (03:28).

• Navigating Non-Alcoholic Trends: “They are more conscious. They are not afraid to make a choice that could be out of their pool of friends” (06:38).

• Mindset Over Demographics: “What really counts today is the mindset and the attitude of people” (09:07).

• The Oil Spill Approach: “We start with the city, a major city... then we create the phenomenon of the cocktail and then we expand” (14:13).

Timestamp Reference

For clarity, timestamps are referenced as MM:SS, correlating to the point in the transcript where the quote occurs.

Transcript

[Yulka Villa]

Damien.

[Damian Fowler]

I'm Damian Fowler.

[Ilyce Lefering]

And I'm Ilyce Lefering.

[Damian Fowler]

And welcome to this edition of the Current Podcast.

[Ilyce Lefering]

This week we're delighted to talk with Yulka Villa, who at the time of this recording was a global CMO of Campari Group.

[Damian Fowler]

Founded in 1860, Campari is a household name in the global spirits industry with a portfolio of over 50 brands across world markets. We're talking familiar names like Aperol, Sky, Wild Turkey and Courvoisier.

[Ilyce Lefering]

Ilka is a marketing veteran with 25 years of experience in the alcoholic beverage and beauty industries. A specialist in consumer focused brands.

[Damian Fowler]

During her tenure as the CMO of the group, Julka was responsible for the marketing vision, strategy and execution of the Campari Group's brands. At the same time, she has a bird's eye view of the company's worldwide presence. Coordinating teams based in Milan, Paris and New York.

[Ilyce Lefering]

We started out by asking her about how she balances the Campari legacy with keeping its brands relevant for today's consumers. So Campari has a rich heritage. The company is now 164 years old. How do you go about balancing its legacy, the preservation of its legacy, while keeping the brand modern and relevant for today's consumers?

[Yulka Villa]

I think that if we go back to the roots of the Campari brand, about being bold, about being visionary, about investing in arts. Think about Europe, Italy in the second half of the 19th century, there were so few brands really investing in advertising. Campari was one of the first, really interacting with artists like painters and designers and giving them the freedom to portray the brand in the way they saw it. If you look at how we started, you can understand how we moved forward along our history. You can see that in the 20s and 30s of last century, for instance, we start cooperating with cinema, really asking the people working in the industries and producing the movies, postcards, producing designs and drawings for us. You can see that fast forward to the 80s, we start cooperating with one of the greatest filmmakers in the world, Federico Fellini, that was a big fan of the Campari brand. He was drinking Campari and he decided to cooperate with us to produce an advertising for the brand. And Fellini was the first filmmaker we cooperated with. But then we kept this partnership, for instance, with Paolo Sorrentino in 2017. And I was personally, you know, working with him. It was a fantastic experience to see an artist really bringing to life life the brand, respecting the legacy, but at the same time renovating. Since you are asking me how to keep the brand modern, still loyal to its root it was amazing to see how we could kept the daring attitude of the brand alive according to his own style.

[Ilyce Lefering]

Wow, that is super cool. So is pop culture still as important to the brand even today?

[Yulka Villa]

Absolutely, absolutely so. And this is so important for the Campari brand, but for many other brands, part of our portfolio. Just for you to know, we have more than 50 brands in our portfolio, and if you want, we can talk briefly about some of them. But when it comes to Campari, think about the fact that our partnership with Arts have been more recently renovated in our cooperation with the major film festivals in the world. We are partners of the Cannes Film Festival, the festival in Venice, in Locarno, in Berlinale. We closed the first year of partnership with the Toronto Film Festival. So that's definitely a modern way to keep the brand extremely aspirational, but still to get in touch with so many consumers and possible advocates for the brand. Because one of the things we really care about is not just to communicate our brands, but to assure our consumer to consume our brands throughout. The signature cocktails in the best way possible. And definitely field festival for us are a huge opportunity to provide liquid tulips, as we say, to our consumers, current and future.

[Damian Fowler]

What's interesting is with these different brands, you're sort of talking about how they're valued differently in different markets. That's very interesting to me. How do you know and prioritize which brands work best in which countries?

[Yulka Villa]

We have well identified what we call the global brands, the brands that should be built everywhere in the world, of course, step by step and respecting and reflecting the life stage. The brand is in a specific geography. And definitely the one I mentioned so far are global brands. And so also global priorities for the company. And then depending on the area of the world, the characteristics of the market and the consumers, each individual operating company can compose the best portfolio to have the best performance on the market. But definitely there are priorities on which we want everybody to focus upon.

[Damian Fowler]

If you think about the United States, is there a sort of priority?

[Yulka Villa]

Yeah, leading brand? Definitely. Definitely the priority for the United States are definitely our giant apparatus brands such as Campari and Aperol, Grand Manier, Wild Turkey, Espalon. And of course, the local team is really excited to rebuild the Courvoisier brand whose acquisition we have just finalized.

[Damian Fowler]

Yeah, each of those brands has its own kind of whole narrative around them, I imagine. But I wanted to ask you actually a little bit about the current moment that we're in, which we're seeing kind of a lot of debate around alcohol versus no alcohol consumption, particularly when it comes to like Gen Z demographics. I mean, how do you think about and navigate these perception shifts?

[Yulka Villa]

That's a very, that's a very interesting question, Damien. And of course, as you can imagine, we have been spending a lot of time and resources really to dig deep into this shift and transformation in a way of our consumerships. One thing that is not that evident to everybody is that differently from the past, there is a sort of coexistence of people drinking alcoholic products and non alcoholic products, depending on the moment they are in, the people they are with, what they had to do the day after. And this kind of consciousness and control on what to choose is even stronger in younger consumers, as you were mentioned. So they are more conscious. They are not, you know, afraid to make a choice that could be out of their pool of friends. Everybody's drinking something alcoholic. There's no problem at all for one of them to say, look, tomorrow I have to wake up very early, I have a very important day. I prefer to opt for a choice, a non alcoholic choice. So more than a counter position, today we see the coexistence of these kind of choices, which is quite interesting, honestly, also because it gives us the opportunity to be more mindful and intentional in developing also the part of our portfolio which is nonalcoholic. For instance, we have a product which is an extremely strong product in Italy and definitely in a phase of conquering of continental Europe. The name of the product is Crodino and is definitely our non alcoholic kind of spritz. It's a product that was invented and launched in the market in 1965. So this is a little bit a testament to the personality of the company wanting really to push boundaries. And actually we are preparing the launch of this fantastic product also in the US that we plan for next year.

[Ilyce Lefering]

So it sounds like Campari really kind of anticipated this trend of non alcoholic beverages in a sense.

[Yulka Villa]

Yeah, that's correct.

[Damian Fowler]

I'm just curious on that point. You know, as a marketer you must get lots of data back in terms of like who's drinking what, maybe by generation, maybe by geography even. I'm interested to know, do you kind of look at that in terms of strategizing and find the discrete markets?

[Yulka Villa]

Absolutely. With the passing of the years, what we really focus upon is the attitude of people. So demographics are not gender or age brackets are not the main elements we look for. Because what really counts today is the mindset and the attitude of people. For instance, if I think about a product like Aperol with its signature cocktail, Apple Spritz. What we can see across generations drinking this product across age brackets is the mindset. And you would be amazed how people approaching Upper Spritz, enjoying Upper Spritz, they really have in common the way they appreciate life and what they are looking for in that specific moment. Either they are 25 or 60. So there are also a number of cross generational alcoholic beverage experiences. And so the way we look at data is really about the motivation and the attitude of people when they are about to make a choice.

[Ilyce Lefering]

Yeah, that kind of shift towards mindset over demographics probably helps a lot when it comes to prioritizing channels for the brand and where to reach those audiences. Because I know in a lot of the times like Millennials and Gen Zers are in social media and usually that's not an option when it comes to alcohol brands. So is the brand finding other channels to be just as effective in reaching that kind of mindset that it's after?

[Yulka Villa]

I think a strong distinctive characteristics of our marketing and activation strategies. Really investing very seriously in events because definitely there's a lot of will among consumers of all ages really to leave events in person, really experience on their skin much more than in the past. And then we amplify, if you want, through social media, those events. But a big part of our investment is really put on organizing these kind of events. When it comes to the U.S. think about Coachella, which is more than a music festival, it's a lifestyle festival, as we all know, think about the US Open. But also if we go on the other side of the world in the APAC region, think about the Australian Open, which is for us a big opportunity to reach so many consumers. We are talking about hundreds of thousands of consumers that we can reach live, offering our best signature cocktail in our fantastic lounge. And then we can definitely amplify this content on a number of social media where alcoholic beverage can have a direct relationship with their consumers. So for us it's always a mix. We really believe that we have winning products, very straightforward drinking strategy, and that's why we care so much to bring these products to life in real life for consumers. So we don't see this business as happening just virtually definitely.

[Damian Fowler]

How do you kind of maintain and sort of keep tabs, as it were, on people who are loyal to the brands that you market?

[Yulka Villa]

Definitely over the years we invested and we improved our CRM capacity. So throughout social media and massively through events, we gather as much as possible information about our consumers so that we can definitely Keep them up to date on our yearly program. But also we can establish a more direct dialogue. Sometimes we consult them, a part of them for new projects. We listen to them and we ask them questions about, you know, possible initiatives, trends, specific topics. We want to know more. And I think that especially when it comes to a love brand, let's say, like apparel, that's very important. Feel part of a community, feel really listened to, is something as important as enjoying your favorite brand and your favorite signature drink.

[Damian Fowler]

And what's interesting to me is I was thinking about this because about maybe 12 years ago, I have a friend from Venice who lives in New York and we went to a restaurant and she ordered an Aperol. And at that point it wasn't very. Nobody really knew much about it here. And since then, of course, it's huge. It's like a probably one of the most popular cocktails around. I was just at the US Open in the summer and I could see your plaza there with Aperol everywhere. I guess it was, there's a sponsor, a partnership there. But my question is, could you walk us through how you built that awareness from that moment, however many years ago when it wasn't such a big, it was obviously big in Venice. You said it was the Venetian drink. So I was like, oh, that's interesting, I'll get one of those. And here we are.

[Yulka Villa]

Yes, I 10, 12 years ago, not only in the US but in many other places outside Europe, definitely was not the established staple it is today. And at the very beginning, we really faced some very basic difficulties. I have to say it was not easy to start talking about a signature cocktail that needed a bottle of Prosecco to be open, to be prepared. Because, you know, if you are familiar with sparkling wines, the problem with it is that if you open it and you use just a little part and then you keep the bottle for a couple of days, the carbonation will just, yes. Go away. So it was really a very precise, consistent and stubborn work of education. There's just one certainty about education, which is, you know when you started that you will never know when you will finish. And actually it's a never ending story in a way. So we, in the past, we put, and we keep putting a lot of effort and investment in educating the trade, the bartenders, bar owners, but also the final consumers. Because at the end, if the final consumer knows the best way to prepare an aperous spritz, they will be your advocate. And it happened to me so many times in the past when I was receiving at the table an Aprospritz that was not preparing the way it should have been. I was going back to the bar and I was saying, there's something wrong with my cocktail. It's a double, a double direction, education. And also a very important part is what we call the oil spill approach. What does it mean? We start with the city, a major city. We start with specific neighbors and key on trade outlet. In this neighbor, we build a relationship or partnership, we invest on these venues and we create the phenomenon of the cocktail and then we expand. So distribution and presence comes just after having started to create the trend with a very high level of the serve in a smaller number of venues. This has been the approach in the US and in every other part of the world. You mentioned Venice, which is the place where the brand really started being known and appreciated and recognized as the champion of aperitiv. But the phenomenon of apple spirits started in Venice, expanded to the Veneto region, which is the region of Venice, and then expanded Milan and from Milan to the rest of Italy. So the oil spill approach, as we call it, has always been front and center of the strategy of apparel and.

[Ilyce Lefering]

It'S building so interesting. When you think of Campari brands, it also implies like a level of sophistication. So in the sense are you marketing just drinks or is it something more, I don't know, like lifestyle?

[Yulka Villa]

Definitely. I think that our brands, starting from the most important ones, really stand for a certain lifestyle. If you think about Campari, really represent the sophistication of Milan and the lifestyle of the city. If you think about apparel, you're talking about a more democratic sort of brand, really more inclusive, more casual. You know, we always say with apparel, everybody's welcome. So they really reflect a way of living and a way of appreciating life today. Even more important, if you think about the trend of escapism, traveling without traveling. I need a break. I need a moment for myself, real enjoyment with my friends. Brands like these, and they are signature cocktail, let's say Aperol spritz for apparel, Negroni, for instance, for Campari, makes you really feel for half hour, one hour you are spending with your friends in another place. So they really stand for a way of living, for a place and for a moment in life where you really recharge your batteries and you dedicate really a true moment to yourself.

[Damian Fowler]

And that's it for this edition of the Current Podcast. We'll be back next week, so stay tuned.

[Ilyce Lefering]

The current podcast theme is by Love and Caliber. The current team includes Cat Fessy and Sydney Cairns.

[Yulka Villa]

And remember, we really believe that we have winning products, and that's why we care so much to bring this product to life. We don't see this business as happening just virtually.

[Damian Fowler]

I'm Damien.

[Ilyce Lefering]

And I'm Elise.

[Damian Fowler]

And we'll see you next time. And if you like what you hear, please subscribe and leave us a review. Also, tune into our other podcast, the Current Report.