Every drinker respects the Campari. He is to the ethylic universe as a great painter is to the art world. It’s unique. Except he’s still alive. Very alive.
Which is no small thing for a brand that is over 160 years old — it was born in 1860, a year before the unification of the Italy, which is from March 1861. The bitter taste and intense reddish tone are indefectible characteristics of the drink made from the infusion of 60 ingredients. A secret formula created three decades before Coca-Cola was born, but which faces a challenge in the Brazilian market.
Even though it has fallen in love with generations around here, it needs to lose a bit of the perception that this is a drink for older people. For this, it will use a strong wave among millenials, that of the cocktail party. “Within the spirits segment, we are the number 1 player in mixology”, said Gustavo Rela Bruno, general director of the country’s flag to DINHEIRO.
The Campari Group — which still has two other respected ‘old people’, grayish and Cynar — bet on their drinks as a basis for drinks to gain market in 2022. Will be invested “25% above our history”, said the Executive, without citing consolidated numbers.
He believes in a summer full of colors, flavors and trends at the tables of bars and restaurants in the resumption of business after the pandemic. In addition to the high temperature, the high dollar exchange rate in reais is seen as an important ally. “The dollar is a limiting factor, which will prevent Brazilians from traveling internationally,” he said. “Especially the AB class, which is already in contact with mixology.”
TO CELEBRATE In the evaluation of Rela Bruno, people will stay in Brazil and consume more of the group’s portfolio products, which also own brands such as Aperol (aperitif), Sagatiba (cachaça), Skyy (vodka) and Wild Turkey (whiskey), and others 50 between spirits, wines and soft drinks. For him, another important point is the confidence of better days with the advance of vaccination against Covid-19 — until Tuesday (14), 75% of the population had received the first dose and 65.6%, the two doses. “After almost two years in cloistered, Brazilians want to celebrate, want to toast.”
The Executive already identifies this return with the increase in consumption of the company’s products at levels higher than before the health crisis. “We see Campari and Aperol with double-digit growth above 2019”, he said. The total sales volume of the Campari group should grow here, in his forecast, above the market average of 10.6% compared to 2020, according to IWSR, an analysis company in the beverage sector. For Rela Bruno, mixology is being consolidated in the Brazilian market.
And in this, it gains a decisive pair of stakeholders in its ecosystem, bars and restaurants. Mixing drinks is a way to bring in additional margin. “If you get a cachaça at a bar, it costs R$1. If you get Cynar, it costs R$1. If you mix the two and sell the drink known as Rooster tail, it can charge R$3.50”, he stated. Confident of the trend, the company created the Campari Academy. “We give courses for the construction of mixology and also for the technical consolidation of the bartender.”
The flag has two drinks among the three most consumed on the planet: Aperol Spritz, in second place, and Negroni, in third. The leadership belongs to the Gin Tonic. “People began to reflect that Campari is not just for drinking straight, that Aperol Spritz is for entertaining friends and that Negroni is a more introspective drink, for a more individualized moment.” With another discovery, according to him, on the part of consumers: that mixology, like what happens with wine, harmonizes many dishes. “There’s a lot of food with the perfect drink to go with it.” Depending on the brand, he expects to see the market in the red.
MARKETING EVER, AND BEFORE ALL
Gaspare Campari (1828-1882) created, at the age of 32, in 1860, the drink that bears his surname and won the world. He played at a bar, the Caffè Dell’ Amicizia, in Novara. A couple of years later, it was installed next to the monumental Cathedral of Milan, in Piazza del Duomo. A renovation in the square led to a stroke of luck and its bar (the then Caffè e Ristorante Campari) was installed at the entrance to the luxurious Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. It received artists, intellectuals, businessmen and politicians.
All moved by that intense red drink. Success. But he would not be the same without the genius of Davide (1867-1936), one of his sons. At the age of 21, in January 1889, he was the one who decided to publish in the Corriere dela Sera newspaper, with a circulation of 65,000 copies at the time, an advertisement for the infused drink created by his father.
Under the title Cordial Campari, the piece promised “a delicacy of aroma” in harmony with “famous foreign liqueurs such as (French) Chartreuse”. Pure branding, long before Coca-Cola – which would only be born in 1892. Five years after its first ad, Davide inaugurates what would become iconic for the brand: the poster culture. The first (below, on the left) was made by the Italian illustrator Giacomo Mora, in 1894, and depicts a thriving Milan. There Davide had the idea of looking for renowned artists to create his pieces.
The first big name was the German (born in Russia) Adolf Hohenstein, who ended up being recognized as the father of poster art and one of the great names of the so-called Stile Liberty, the Italian Art Noveau (second image below). Campari never again took the drink off the art world and the creative vanguard. At the turn of the 19th to the 20th century, Davide realized that his posters had become objects of worship and launched a pioneering calendar (third image below).
It was in charge of the famous Italian portraitist Cesare Tallone – who even painted Queen Margherita, the same one that gave its name to the pizza. For Campari, Tallone filled the calendar with singers, actresses and other celebrities of the time. Another success.
And so it was. From movements such as Futurism to Graphics, Campari has never let go of art. In 1984, five decades after Davide’s death, Italian filmmaker Federico Fellini (1920-1993) broke a taboo and directed his first TV commercial (below, right). He put a man and a woman on a train, sharing a cabin on a tedious ride that changes with drinking. It only lasts a minute. And it’s magic. Pure Fellini. A pure Campari.
Edson Rossi
NEGRONI IS ANOTHER SOIL
An Italian drink par excellence, Negroni borders on perfection between bitterness, sweetness and alcohol. And he was born with a pedigree. He is the grandson, so to speak, of Milano-Torino, a combination of bitter (Campari Milanese) with vermouth (Torino Punt and Mes/Carpano).
Before being created in the 1860s, it was very common for Lombards to drink amaro with soda. And Piedmontese people drink vermouth and soda. Gaspare Campari, inventor of Campari, who was born in Novara, between Turin and Milan, was probably one of the first to mix vermouth and amaro, without soda.
The drink stuck. Decades later, it is said that American soldiers thought Milano-Torino was too strong and called for the addition of sparkling water. The American drink was born. Son of Milano-Torino and… Father of Negroni.
This one is from Florence, created in Bar Casoni. There, Count Camillo Negroni, tired of the softness of his Americano, asked bartender Fosco Scarselli to make the drink stronger. Scarselli traded the soda for gin: Negroni. It was 1919. The world of drinks changed forever. For the recipe of three equal parts, watch on YouTube the music video Negroni, by the female punk band Quarteta. (https://bit.ly/3m7qIrr).
Edson Rossi
#Campari #world #red #ISTOÉ #MONEY