Sogrape (EN) - Brands - Gazela

Since its launch GAZELA has been an important brand in Sogrape´s commercial strategy. Created in 1984, it is a light, fresh and versatile wine, with fruity bouquet and flavour and a slight touch of sugar, in a very attractive whole. It is ideal with meals or on its own as an aperitif.

GAZELA was born at the Azevedo Manor and Estate, a magnificent estate purchased by Sogrape in 1982. Located at Lama, near Barcelos, Quinta de Azevedo is ideal for the production of high-quality Vinho Verde. The best regional vine varieties are planted here, especially Loureiro and Pedernã, both recommended for making Vinho Verde. The estate is also equipped with a modern vinification centre, an essential tool for making the company’s quality wines.

In the Vinho Verde region, and apart from Quinta de Azevedo, Sogrape selects quality grapes and wines from private growers that are also part of GAZELA’s final blend.

The first packaging

GAZELA’s first packaging was carefully studied so as to reflect the brand’s values. Subject to several conditioning factors and to the legal constraints of the time, the initial packaging and labelling were the result of a partnership between the British designer Val Smith and Sogrape.
The “Alsace” dark-green bottle is a classic for Vinho Verde. The long cork and the high-quality capsule were the natural choice to ensure the wine’s best keeping.

The label

In the original label the word “GAZELA”, in white, stood out, and it was topped by the image of a gazelle in a crest background, recalling the brand’s attributes of lightness and elegance.
The label’s green and blue tones shape a fresh, lively and flavour-rich nature, all attributes of this wine. The graphic motives of the vine, the grapes and the angels’ vintage reinforce the bond with the land and the care with which GAZELA is made.
A small neck-label “refreshes” the bottle and shows it is a Portuguese wine.
The very simple back label emphasises the label’s message and stresses the wine’s characteristics:
“A wine as deliciously light and fresh as the leafy landscape of its region of origin – the Minho (…)”
In comparison with its competitors GAZELA had an expensive packaging, but one which reflected all the brand’s quality emphasis and one into which so much care was put that the label was plastic-coated so as not to be damaged during handling and serving.

The first advertising spot

In the mid-1980s, coinciding with a period of international success and expansion for Sogrape, GAZELA’s presentation to the consumers was consolidated with a television advertising campaign whose claim was “GAZELA, a well-born Vinho Verde”, produced by Team.
The campaign aimed at emphasising GAZELA’s values of freshness and lightness, stressing the care and cradle of its production and making clear Sogrape’s hallmark. The spots ended with the claim: “GAZELA, a well-born Vinho Verde, the prestige of a Sogrape wine”.
Sogrape Distribuição SA’s entry into the Portuguese market in 1990 brought the brand a greater dynamism and sustained growth. A new television campaign, created by Cineponto – Leo Burnett, was then launched. On this occasion the main claim was: “GAZELA, no one can resist it” and, seasonally, “GAZELA, the summer’s official sponsor”.
Taking hold of “their” bottle (since no one can resist it!) or readily replacing an emptied GAZELA bottle, under the unanimous applause of their peers, the lobsters were the campaign’s stars.
These spots delighted many GAZELA fans and its sales gained accordingly.

GAZELA's changing face

In 1995, following some market surveys, GAZELA’s image underwent it first significant evolution. The British agency Moberly was chosen for the task.
The label was simplified. The previous image profuseness disappeared, and only the grapes as a reference to nature and the gazelle, in its now more stylised crest, were retained. The brand’s lettering was modernised and given more prominence.
The dominant colour was green, as in the region where this wine was born.
In 1997 SOGRAPE launched a new media, outdoor and television campaign. Under the responsibility of Publicis, the purpose was to recruit new consumers and appeal to the brand’s freshness. The claim is clear: “GAZELA, spirit of youth”.
The television campaign carried a fresh humour that recalled to some degree the nonsense style of 1950s Portuguese cinema. Press advertising sought to reinforce GAZELA’s youthful spirit, while outdoors appealed to the wine’s full freshness. Using somewhat unlikely scenarios, breaking with typical wine advertising but still markedly branded, the campaign had a positive effect on sales as well as on GAZELA’s perception with the target-public.

GAZELA 2004

Since its creation SOGRAPE has had an attitude of constant change in the market, influencing the sector’s own evolution. In 2004, the company chose GAZELA to create a new dynamism in the Portuguese wine market.
The company carried out market surveys that showed, among other things, that the quality Vinho Verde market is growing and that, in relation to its main competitors:
- 50% of consumers prefer Gazela’s taste in a blind tasting
- This preference increases to 60% when the brand is revealed.
In spite of the fact that GAZELA’s sales reached its highest figure-ever in 2003 (about 1.5 million bottles), the signs are that there is still room for brand growth.
Always focusing on innovation and on the creation of brands with great visibility and notoriety with the consumers, SOGRAPE decided to present the “new” GAZELA with the purpose of modernising and driving the Vinho Verde category and assuming a leadership position, both in volume and in value.

The new GAZELA
In a project nurtured throughout a two-year period, the “new” GAZELA embodies the brand’s timeless values – freshness, lightness, attraction and versatility -, now renewed in a modern and jovial brand.
Everything changes! Everything, that is, except the Wine and the Brand.
Young, elegant, modern and original, GAZELA’s strong aesthetic component has design elements that will not allow it to go unnoticed.
The bottle’ design is more modern, with great elegance and with a bluish colour, giving the wine greater transparency and luminosity. The GAZELA lettering is shown upright along the bottle’s length, emphasising the brand’s name and matching the dark-green tone of the capsule. The captivating and original label complements and reinforces the whole, carrying the consumer into life’s good and happy moments.
The basic concept that gave rise to GAZELA’s new image originated at SOGRAPE and was subsequently developed in co-operation with EURO RSCG Design. Levels of acceptance for the new packaging have surpassed expectations.