Accolade Wines, the UK’s No 1 wine company, has announced it will be investing over £1million in South African wine brand Kumala with a new brand creative entitled ‘Keep it Kolourful’.

Kumala is the No 1 South African wine brand in the UK and the investment shows Accolade’s commitment to its South African portfolio, despite the difficult vintages the region has had due to ongoing drought issues. The brand has undertaken an extensive piece of positioning research to discover what South Africa and Kumala mean to consumers. The brand will be bringing that work to life through this new campaign.

At a time when there’s little investment in the category this marks a significant move for Kumala and is the biggest investment into the brand for over 10 years.

Activation will take place from September to November this year across digital, on pack, in-store and outdoor advertising. The first stage of the activation focuses on bringing the South African spirit to tasting notes in a visual campaign brought to life by South African artist: Maaike Bakker. With an estimated reach of 9.5m, the outdoor advertising will feature across key cities including London, Manchester, Birmingham and Edinburgh, as well as social media platforms Facebook and Instagram.

In partnership with Tesco, the in-store activity will include a ’Keep it Kolourful’ roadshow featuring JCD screens, sampling, themed food pairings and recipe cards. Kumala will also be helping to ‘Keep shopping Kolourful’, energising shopping trips by encouraging Tesco shoppers to have a little fun while doing their daily shop.

In the UK, the South African wine category is steadily declining at -3.6% value year on year. Despite the category decline, Kumala is performing strongly in the market, growing at 8.5% value year on year. This has largely been driven by the phenomenal growth of Kumala Reserve which has seen a 61.9% (Nielsen Scantrack data to 14.07.18) growth year-on-year, offering consumers a trade up option at £8 and championing specific regions in the Western Cape.