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Yellow Tail, the budget-friendly Australian wine brand known to college students everywhere, has barely touched its branding since its debut in 2001. Now, though, the company is tweaking its lookincluding its iconic kangaroo logoin an attempt stand out on shelves as younger generations turn away from the wine aisle and toward trendy canned cocktails. The new branding, which includes a more vibrant Roo mascot and crisper product labels, will hit shelves in the U.S. this coming June. The understated update seems like a bid to remind consumers of what once made Yellow Tail’s accessible, easy-to-parse branding so innovativebut it’s less likely to make a splash in a now-over-saturated market. [Photo: Courtesy of yellow tail] Wine in decline The wine industry is currently in a state of decline, both in the U.S. and globally. According to the IWSR, a global alcohol industry analytics firm, 2023 was the first year in nearly three decades that overall spirits sales declined rather than increase. Globally, the volume of wine sold that year was down 4%, a trend the IWSR predicts will continue until at least 2028. And in the U.S. in 2024, wine sales to retailers declined by 8%, based on data from Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America (WSWA). The decreasing interest in wine in the U.S. is attributable to a number of factors, including a rising cultural interest in moderating alcohol consumption, a growing number of alcohol-free options on the market, and a younger consumer base thats steering away from wine. Ever since the pandemic helped popularize to-go cocktails, ready-to-drink canned cocktails have become the trendy drink of choice for Gen Zers and Millennials over a $5 bottle of vino. Yellow Tails parent brand, Casella Wines, is Australia’s top wine brand by global sales, but it has faced headwinds in the last couple of years. From 2021 to 2022, the brands total sales dropped from $500.53 million to $461.16 million, while net profit slumped 56% to $25.38 million. This past year, the brand recovered somewhat with a revenue of $476.42 million and a net profit of $26.53 million. Yellow Tails offerings, which retail for around $10 or less, fit snugly within one of the sectors that has seen the most decline: cheap wines. Per a 2024 IWSR report, both standard and below-average priced wines are considered to be in a state of long-term decline. Meanwhile, more premium-priced wines (between $15 and $49.99) are expected to gain in sales volume by 2027. Still, Yellow Tails team sees its accessibility as a marketing asset. Yellow Tail has always been about making wine approachable, easy to choose, and easy to enjoy, which gives it broad appeal across different types of consumers, says Libby Nutt, Yellow Tails general manager of marketing and export sales. While overall alcohol consumption is declining globally (including wine), we see Yellow Tail as well-positioned to meet the needs of todays drinkers. A kangaroo for the modern drinker When Yellow Tail debuted in 2001, its playful, non-intimidating branding stood out in a sector full of more serious-looking wine. In fact, its frequently referenced in marketing courses as an example of the Blue Ocean strategy, a term for finding a unique gap in an existing market. The brands approach to wine for the everyman also included simple, easy-to-decipher labels highlighting only the need-to-know information, like the grape variety and brand name itself. But as the market has become more saturated (see brands like Cupcake Vineyards, for example), its become more difficult to make an impact on shelves. Yellow Tails pack design is iconic, remaining largely unchanged since its launch, Nutt says. However, after more than 20 years, it was time for a strategic update, one that enhanced the design without losing its distinctiveness. The wine market is increasingly competitive, making shelf standout and strong branding more important than ever. This refresh builds on our existing brand assets, making them even more recognizable. [Photo: Courtesy of yellow tail] The changes are subtle, but not unnoticeable. The Yellow Tail brand name has been moved above the logo, making it easier for consumers to immediately recognize each bottles variety. The color contrast on the labels has also been pumped up to draw the eye. In keeping with Yellow Tails tradition of accessibility, short flavor descriptions have been added to each blend. And, perhaps most notably, the Roo mascot has been given a bit of a facelift. His back has been rounded, his outlines more defined, and his shapes simplifiedgiving him a look more akin to an animated cartoon character than his former roughly sketched self. In this refresh, weve made [Roo] bolder and more dynamic, better reflecting the brands free-spirited, easy-going nature, Nutt says. Given that the new branding has yet to launch in the U.S., its unclear how consumers will respond to the look. And, based on the relative restraint of the rebrand, it seems more like Yellow Tail is using this move to get back on consumers radars rather than to actually reposition itself to a new audience. Still, for the wine industry at large, its going to take a lot more than a slightly new look to convince customers to ditch their spiked seltzer or non-alcoholic beer in favor of a classic bottle of red.
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How do you connect with an increasingly fractured audience? Erika Ayers Badan reveals the ups, downs, and lessons learned in her first year running the lifestyle brand Food52a big pivot from her role as CEO of Barstool Sports. Her new podcast Work drops advice from her own career, plus hot takesfrom generational differences in the office to her surprising insights for in-person work. Badan also shares how Food52 is finding its voice around politics, and navigating the current moment. This is an abridged transcript of an interview from Rapid Response, hosted by the former editor-in-chief of Fast Company Bob Safian. From the team behind the Masters of Scale podcast, Rapid Response features candid conversations with todays top business leaders navigating real-time challenges. Subscribe to Rapid Response wherever you get your podcasts to ensure you never miss an episode. 2025 has started with so much volatility. A lot of business leaders are on their heels wondering how to respond to the array of changes issuing from the Trump White House. For you, do you have a philosophy about how to respond? How much do you react to the daily news? How much can you ignore it? It’s funny, when the first announcements around the tariffs came out, it was on a Saturday. I was really freaked out. I called an emergency meeting on a Sunday. And that’s become the new normal, where there’s a lot of whiplash, there’s a lot of pontification, there’s a lot of speculation. And really, what I’ve gotten to is that you can see what’s happening in the Trump administration is going to be chaotic, and I think CEOs being able to stay the course and set their own pace is probably the best course. Being in a reactionary mode is dangerous in general, and it feels especially dangerous right now. I sometimes think about the role of business and business leaders as part of the checks and balances in American culture. And I don’t know whether you think about that at all or whether you think something like, Listen, your job is to run the business and that’s what you do and there’s not another mission beyond that. Government used to regulate business. Now what you’re seeing is entrepreneurs are reshaping the government. Everything is topsy-turvy. I think this is one of the fundamental questions we’re going to have right now. We’re clearly entering an era where there will be less regulation, so will brands police themselves? How’s that going to work? Are we just going to pendulum swing every four years? So I don’t have any good answers for you, Bob, but I also think about it. A lot of CEOs are uneasy about being candid in public. What’s the value of that candor, and how does it flow back to Food52’s business, or is it just about connection? I think candor is important in general, and I think consumers are looking for the story behind the story. And this show is a way for me to do a couple things. One is I’m trying to experiment and model out how shows could and should be launched, produced, clipped, cut, managed, and I’m dogfooding it on myself. So if you want to know, my real intention is to be able to create other formats that look like this that are about home and lifestyle and food, and I’m using this as a template. I’m realtime creating a template that I can then give to other people here. I’ve not really talked about that, but that is my intention. So for example, we have two really, really phenomenally talented test kitchen chefs. I believe that they both should have shows where they’re showing not only the art and their craft, but also talking about how they feel about it and what they learned about it and what inspires them and how they got there. So that’s one way it helps Food52. And then the second is a connection point. One thing I really learned at Barstool was, unwittingly or unknowingly, I created a community of really professional women, like I talked about, who are looking to other professional women to relate to, to be informed by, to ask advice from. And this is a way for me to keep current with that community who ultimately I think will help inform what content this company creates, what products we develop, and how we think about our go-to-market positioning. On your podcast, you drop a lot of hot takes about work, and you’ve said that you’re mostly in favor of in-person office work and also that people are becoming less resilient in the workplace. And I wondered whether those two things are related or are they separate? Great question. I am a fan of in-person work. I don’t know that all businesses will go back to five days a week in the office. I think great start-ups will, in the most part, require people to be together in a way that is hands-on and in person in some capacity. And as it relates to resilience, I think there’s a whole bunch of things that are leading into the resilience question. One is how kids are being raised and how much risk we expose people to. When you look at time spent from elementary school kids through college kids, you’re never bored anymore. You’re not out. You’re not left to your own devices. You’re not messing up and getting in trouble the way at least I got in trouble when I was in high school and college. And it’s because there’s a safer, more interesting option on your phone. And as a result, when you are forced into the real world, a lot is required of you, and you have to make unstructured time into something, and you have to propel yourself into new places. It can be very, very, very difficult. And so I think that’s contributing to it. And then I think working over Zoom and in the comfort of your homeand I don’t think working from home is comfortable. I think actually working from home is pretty hard. It’s easier to tune out or feel more distance and feel less connected. I often think when we go to school, a lot of the things we learn are not the school work, but how to engage with other people. And the same thing happens when you go into a workplace: You learn how to work with a group of people in a different way. Definitely. You learn what happens when people don’t like you at work. You don’t experience that when you work from home. What are the power dynamics? Who’s the hierarchy? I remember getting my first job at Microsoft, and I was very enamored and terrified of the execs there, and I just watched them all the time. I couldn’t get enough. I just wanted to watch what they wore, what they ate, what they did, how they talked to one another, how they led their people, how they dealt with failure. And I got a whole tuition just sitting in a room. If you’re on a Zoom call, you’re not getting the full picture. There’s no meeting after the meeting. There’s no hallway conversation. Then I think that’s the osmosis that can really feed you at work. That unstructured serendipity that is part of a workplace, which is not always efficient but can be effective. 100%. You can waste a lot of time at work. The days I really need to get a lot of work done, I don’t go to the office because the commute takesa long time, the chit-chat takes a long time, but it is really important because you learn the dynamics of a place, and that’s really where the fabric and culture can be developed.
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Some directors are known for their typographic flairfrom the ultrawide tracking of Christopher Nolans film titles to Quentin Tarantinos genre vernacular font and lettering selections. But last week, as we reported on Sean Bakers extensive use of Aguafina Script across his past four movies, we wondered: How many other directors have firmly embraced a single, singular typefaceand what does that typeface say about their films? The first part is easier to answer. It is rare, says title designer and Art of the Title editor-in-chief Lola Landekic. It’s a very interesting choice. As a creator, you have to sort of commit to a specific aesthetic. And I think you also have to know yourself very well and know that there’s a throughline in all your work. Thats clearly the case when it comes to Baker and the directors below. Sean BakerAguafina Script Perhaps the most audacious thing about Bakers use of Aguafina in the Best-Picture-winning Anora and his other films is the sheer amount of personality it contains. It is anything but a benign catchall facebut it is also a tonal fit that enhances the characters and themes at the heart of his most recent movies. Landekic likens titles and title sequences to seasonings that can make or break a dish. While Bakers work often deals with poverty and marginalized characters, the energetic Aguafina elevates everything all at once, providing a contrast to the common visual iconography around such subjects. It has perhaps been a key to his films since Tangerineand one that has carried over into marketing materials and more (a rare luxury when, for example, posters for the Men in Black films feature a bulky sans serif rather than Pablo Ferros far more interesting signature lettering that appears in the actual movies). It can be a difficult thing to achieve as a filmmaker, that kind of consistency of aesthetic, Landekic says. I admire anyone that can get that through the door because it’s hard these days where everything is created so piecemealoften the distributor controls the promotional materials, and the filmmaker has very little say into how that gets to look. Moreover, as you peruse this list, youll notice that it is a veritable boys’ cluband there are reasons for that. Women don’t get to make as many films, don’t get to make as many follow-up films, and don’t often get to have the level of control over their films that a lot of male filmmakers have, Landekic notes. So it’s a multipronged issue why we dont have a lot of female examples in this particular category. Wes AndersonFutura A lot has been written about Wes Andersons thoughtful and intentional approach to type and letteringbut the face that made him famous was Futura, which branded the first half of his filmography (so much so that many considered it an aesthetic betrayal when he sidelined it for Jessica Hisches title lettering in Moonrise Kingdom.) In Andersons masterpiece The Royal Tenenbaums, Futura was essentially a character in its own right, appearing not just in titles, but on buses, books and myriad places beyond. It harkens back to the French New Wave and sort of how Godard used titles, Landekic says. The thing about Futura is that its very unadorned. It feels almost like you could overlook it. But the way that Wes Anderson uses it gives it a very clean stamp. . . . What it really does is it makes everything feel very arranged and curated. And for a filmmaker like Wes Anderson, that is a lot of the point. One further Futura aside: Its a common misnomer that Stanley Kubrick used it widely in his filmography. In reality, he only truly deployed it in Eyes Wide Shut, and it croppd up in promotional materials for other projectsthough he did reportedly call it his favorite typeface. Woody AllenWindsor Perhaps no typographic directorial bond runs as deep as Woody Allen and Windsor, which has kicked off every single one of Allens films since Annie Hall in 1977. As Jarrett Fuller, host of the podcast Scratching the Surface, has detailed, Legend has it that . . . Allen would often eat breakfast at the same New Jersey diner as noted graphic and type designer Ed Benguiat. Allen, knowing Benguiat as a “printer,” asked him one morningprobably sometime between 1975 and 77for a good typeface to use in the credits of his upcoming film. Benguiat offered up Windsor. It would go on to become synonymous with the director and all things related to him. And regardless of whether a given film of his was a hit or a flop, quality or not, Windsor was thereand, well, it just works. It’s long, it’s kind of lanky. It has serifs. That f that you see in the Windsor font . . . looks like Charlie Chaplin standing with his two feet poking out, Landekic says. And so it has that kind of feeling to me where it has a sense of humor about it in the way that [Allen is] using it because a lot of his comedies and his dramatic work deal with a sort of a humdrum misunderstanding elevated to a sense of dramatic chaos in some senseand Windsor kind of flies in the face of that, where it wants to be regal, but it’s very rounded. So it has two personalities embodied within it. John CarpenterAlbertus In addition to his directorial chops, Carpenter is known for creating some iconic soundtracks for his films. So it tracks that he would be meticulous about other elements within his fictive worlds. One such detail: The typeface Albertus, which he first used in the titles for Escape From New York in 1981, and further deployed in seven other films, including The Thing, Christine, Prince of Darkness, and They Live. One of the larger tenets of horror is a fear of aging, Landekic explains. Many monsters are considered monstrous because they are, for example, wrinkly or deformed in a way which can be likened to how age afflicts all of us. And so Albertus . . . has that feeling of time and legacy and something worn. You can easily imagine Albertus being chiseled into a rock face because of its shape. So it lends itself very well to that kind of atmosphere. Ultimately, as a title designer, does Landekic wish every director would take as strong an approach as those referenced in this article? Landekic says she loves the fact that David Finchers movies have such radically different title sequences, and she thinks trying to fit everything into a tightly branded box could push films more toward being devalued as mere content. She adds that it could narrow a filmmakers focus too early if they made such a decision at the outset of their career. If Sean Baker wanted to make a sci-fi film, would it work with Aguafina? Would he feel pressure to make it work? At the end of the day, I would like the film to feel cohesive,” says Landekic. “And however that happens, however that needs to look, is the ideal. Ultimately, a title sequence and a title font is in service to a larger picture.
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