Spritzing the copycats
Campari seeks to boost Aperol as lookalikes, other options pour in
Bottles of Aperol on display in Venice, Italy.
A bartender pours a drink Aug. 30, 2021, at a Campari inauguration of a new brand house for Aperol, its best-selling beverage, in Venice, Italy.
The recipe for the century-old Aperol bitter, the key ingredient in the world's most popu-lar spritz cocktail, is a closely guarded secret.
That hasn't stopped a growing number of lookalike products and rival aperitifs from seeking to muscle in — first in major European supermarket chains and increasingly in bars and restaurants.
The Aperol brand is Campari's biggest earner, accounting for about 26% of revenue. Sales helped the company stay resilient last year as the sector dealt with weakening consumer demand.
Campari stepped up efforts to defend Aperol as copycats and rivals vie for a slice of the booming market. In recent months, the company launched its own pre-prepared Aperol Spritz in kegs and rolled out a communication campaign highlighting that not all orange-colored drinks are genuine Aperol Spritzes.
Campaign launched
At home in Italy, where competition is fiercest, the spirits group launched a promotional campaign and a loyalty program for bars and restaurants that certifies the sale of original Aperol Spritz cocktails, now covering 2,000 venues in Italy.
The broader rollout of pre-prepared Aperol Spritz kegs should help guard its position in the global spritz market, where consumption rose to nearly 4 billion servings in 2024 from less than 2.5 billion in 2019, according to data provider IWSR.
"The new development is that, since 2023, some bars and restaurants have begun serving orange-colored drinks, often from tap, that are not necessarily made with Aperol," said Andrea Neri, managing director of House of Aperitivi at Campari, adding that consumers often think they are drinking the original.
Neri said the use of lookalike products in bars so far largely was limited to Italy and coincided with the increasing use of ready-made mixes to speed up service.
Italy, where the Aperol Spritz originated and consumers long enjoyed light cocktails of similar bittersweet flavor, is Campari's second-largest single market after the United States.
Last year, Campari spent about $624 million on advertising and promotions, equivalent to 17.9% of net sales.
Orange original
In supermarkets, shelves dedicated to aperitifs are increasingly populated by orange drinks whose appearance closely resembles Aperol. These can be 30% to 40% cheaper than a bottle of Aperol, which retails in Italy for about $11.
The color became so strongly associated with the brand that Campari sought to protect it through trademark registrations as part of broader efforts to defend its intellectual property. The group also pursued legal action against small competitors in some cases.
The presence of similar products in supermarkets "is not a new phenomenon and can be observed across Europe," Neri said, playing down its impact on Aperol sales.
"The fact that there are lookalike products is a sign that Aperol is a very strong brand," said Sandro Castaldo, professor of marketing at Bocconi University, noting that color is often the first element copied by imitators.
While Aperol brand sales continue to grow — globally, by 1.4% last year, to $897 million — it is difficult to gauge the potential effect of lookalike products.
"We could probably have grown even faster," Neri said, referring to Italy, while noting the company has no precise data quantifying its effect.
More choices
Alternative cocktails and spritz-style drinks within the aperitif category present another challenge, as Aperol's success whetted appetites for similar summer drinks.
For example, Alpine-born paler rival Hugo Spritz — made with elderflower syrup or liqueur and Prosecco — is crowding U.S. summer menus and increasingly seen in pubs and bars in Britain.
Many American recipes and bar menus use St-Germain, the French elderflower liqueur owned by Bacardi, as the key ingredient for Hugos.
Bacardi told Reuters that St-Germain saw double-digit sales growth year-onyear, fueled by a rise in Hugo Spritz' popularity, citing IWSR data.
In Europe, Campari introduced Sarti Rosa, a fruit aperitif, with a viral marketing campaign for spritzes based on the hot pink drink aimed at female consumers.
Neri noted consumers gravitate toward lower-alcohol aperitif drinks rather than traditional cocktails, while daytime consumption also is rising.
"As the category leader, we have worked to expand our spritz portfolio across multiple brands," he said.
The group's aperitif lineup includes the Campari brand, as well as Sarti, Cynar, the non-alcoholic aperitif Crodino and an elderflower aperitif called Mondoro.
Analysts said Campari should continue to benefit from a trend that it helped to spark.
"I don't see lookalike products representing a threat for now," AlphaValue's analyst Theodore Duval-Segard told Reuters. "Campari has literally reinvented the spritz. At this point, Aperol and spritz are almost inseparable."
