Swirl meets Clara Latham, General Manager of Della Vite.
Working with Seedlip, Clara created a whole new category of drink. It was called ‘the emperor’s new clothes’ – but today Seedlip is the king of the ever-growing distilled non-alcoholic spirit category. Now with recently launched Della Vita, can Clara change how we view Prosecco too?
What’s it like to create a category?
Establishing a normal brand – you know who your competitors are, the category and concept are established and the trade understands what you’re doing. They know what to expect from your product. But when you are creating a whole new category you can’t look at the world as it currently is – because otherwise you don’t exist. You have to look at the world as you think it could be.
Before Seedlip, if you weren’t drinking for whatever reason, your options were really limited. People expected to feel disappointed. Taking that as our starting point, Seedlip created something that made people feel good, irregardless of whether they were drinking alcohol or not, they felt considered. We have an opportunity to change the way things are today and to do that for the better. That’s endlessly inspiring.
How are you seeing the that the world could be different with Della Vite?
Though Della Vite is a very different proposition from Seedlip, I felt that they had lots of parallels. I felt a bit nervous to lead with the word ‘Prosecco’ when people asked me what my new venture was. Their faces would drop. ‘Really?’ they’d say, ‘not English sparkling? Not a category that’s on the rise?’.
But when I look at the Prosecco category as it stands in Great Britain, I see a massive opportunity to reposition it and change how it’s perceived. At the moment it’s seen as an entry-level cheap commodity, I think mainly because the large proportion of Prosecco which reaches us here is mass market and mass produced. But we have an opportunity to get people understanding that there is such a thing as really high-quality Prosecco – that they could be feel proud not just to say that they drink it, but that they even prefer it. That it’s their chosen drink.
Compared with other celebrity wines, there’s an unexpected focus on technical detail with Della Vite. What’s the motivation for that? And what challenges did you experience working with both Prosecco and celebrities – two things the established trade aren’t overly fond of?
It’s not just a beautifully designed bottle with the name of some celebrity sisters slapped on the bottle. Della Vite aspires to be a category pioneer – and we can only do that with a really well-crafted product. The most important factor for me taking this role was connecting with the sisters and understanding that they didn’t just want to launch another celebrity wine.
Della Vite is quite a different thing. It’s not just another premium rosé with a celebrity endorsement that does well in a category which people already understand and appreciate. The premiumisation of prosecco hasn’t happened yet – but Della Vite is more than up to the challenge. And it’s backed by these sisters who really understand that Prosecco can be a premium product and who know what they’re talking about – and who are prepared to surround themselves with people who give their ambition the best chance of succeeding.
Of course, people are always resistant to change. It’s natural to meet resistance when you’re doing something that’s not been done before. That’s why we really own the importance of education.
When you were marketing Seedlip what did you learn about the alcohol sector? And now you’re marketing alcohol, what can you apply from your experience with Seedlip?
Seedlip was a steep learning curve. Being in and around the alcoholic trade you suddenly realise in order to win in the on-trade the trade play a gate-keeper role in that. They’re the people who display your product to the consumer. Gaining their respect and investing time in getting them onside was really important.
But I also think the naivety can be an asset. Not being blinkered by what’s expected means you can approach things in a fresh way in a very ‘challenger’ way. Part of behaving like that gets people very interested and excited by what you’re doing.
I have also learnt the difference between the ‘wine trade’ and the ‘alcoholic brand world’ and their two schools of thought, for example when speaking to the wine trade, a heavy focus is on the product and liquid credentials. I describe Della Vite as being the perfect brand sitting between the two ways of thinking. We can lean into our wine credentials, and have a technical, intellectual conversation about the wine, and then we can also lean into the fact that we’re bubbles, we’re contemporary and that we have incredible lifestyle credentials. There’s a common ground for everyone.
What are you ambitions for Della Vite?
For me, success wouldn’t only be measured by how many bottles we sold, but alongside this, whether we’d become the brand which opened the door to a new space for Prosecco which was more celebrated, higher quality, and better understood.
Really, I’d love people to recognise that our brand was part of that step change.
Think of Fevertree – they did something fantastic for tonic. Before Sipsmiths and Hendricks gin was just Gordons. They managed to change people’s perception of what the norm was for that particular category. I hope that Della Vite will do the same.
