Marketing a drink that suddenly pops up everywhere depends partly on luck, current trends as well as astute marketing.

Love it, or lump it, Aperol’s marketers clearly know what they’re doing. The bright apertif proves that to be in the running to be the Drink of Summer 2019 is as much about what said drink looks like on Instagram as what it tastes like IRL.

Enter the Aperol Spritz. The blend of ice, orange slice, bright apertif and bubbly prosecco results in a beverage that seems like it was made solely to be posted on social media. The New York Times infamously declared earlier this year that the trendy cocktail is “not a good drink” and has become popular in large part due to smart marketing. I haven’t tried it, so I can’t comment on the taste, but Aperol sure looks pretty, which I think is the most important thing when it comes to summer flings, non?

The appropriately orange-and-white hued branded Bar Aperol (and an accompanying Insta account, of course) has popped up on Toronto’s Queen St. W. strip to promote the Italian-born apertif (which is owned by the global Campari Group) from July 4 to July 28.

I’ve seen variations of this bubbly drink suddenly rise to the top on the menus of many a hipster bar, so it seems destined to be remembered as the Adult Drink of Summer 2019. Like flings of summer’s past, memories of whether Aperol Spritz’s actually tasted good or bad will mix together like salty water and sand in your hair after a day at the beach – but luckily for Aperol’s savvy marketers the pretty Instagram pics last much longer.

Credits

Advertiser: Campari Group (Aperol)