The Champagne Trend Is Upon Us
Champagne glasses being filled at a party.
After a year of being cooped up and isolated, people are looking forward to a 2021 summer full of sunny celebration--socially distanced, of course. With vaccines rolling out across the US and case numbers leveling, people are expecting to be able to celebrate the end of the pandemic by summer, and Champagne will be a propos for both the season and the occasion—the champagne trend is upon us.
Research Behind The Champagne Trend
Champagne was one of the hardest-hit industries in early 2020, coming to a screeching halt as monthly shipments fell by 68%. Nevertheless, bubbly has retained its cultural relevance throughout the pandemic, building momentum while major brands innovated and adapted to an atypical year.
Remaining the king of party drinks, the champagne trend took off with the New Year, and after a tipsy Tom Brady was seen tossing Champagne bottles and the Lombardi Trophy across boats in Florida.
While people may have had to spend their December 31st inside, according to leading online beverage vendor Drizly, the Champagne category accounted for 17.36% of all sales on NYE, a rise from 15.95% in 2019. Champagne was also the most popular gift on Drizly’s platform, signaling people’s attachment to it as a sign of good times. Champagne’s MFactor has nearly doubled over the past year, from a score of 30 in February 2020 to a score of 55 in February 2021.
MFactor data shows the champagne trend. MFactor is a proprietary tool that measures cultural momentum through topic modeling and sentiment analysis.
Notable Champagne Brands for 2021
The brands driving the champagne trend have used a slow 2020 to reevaluate their brand positioning and appeal to a wider audience. In rebranding last year, Veuve Clicquot partnered with female contemporary artist Yayoi Kusama from Japan, to pay homage to its founder Madame Clicquot, the window who brewed the first batch of Champagne in 1772. In collaborating, “It was essential to partner with an iconic and committed personality, much like the one who made Veuve Clicquot an emblematic Champagne house all those years ago,” said President and CEO Jean-Marc Gallot.
Similarly, LVMH’s recent announcement of a 50% stake in Jay-Z’s Champagne house, Ace of Spades, marks a new episode in LVMH’s history of culturally relevant, luxury branding. LVMH is buying into Jay-Z’s cultural expertise and entering a new wave of markets not served by its other brands. Philippe Schaus, who manages the Champagne portfolio for Moët Hennessy, said to Jay-Z: “In your understanding of the world of tomorrow, we believe you created a new consumer for Champagne.”
While it might seem counterintuitive to focus on Champagne during a pandemic, these new partnerships for Veuve and LVMH signal optimism about the future of luxury consumption as industry leaders double down on consumers’ outlook for a post-pandemic future.