From outdated apéritif to multibillion-dollar business: Aperol's incredible marketing makeover

Chances are if you are a Gen Z, Millenial, Gen X or even a Baby Boomer, you have at some point partaken in an alcoholic tipple known as an Aperol spritz.

It's a concoction made of Prosecco, soda water and an Italian apéritif called Aperol, which has been around for more than 100 years.

But it's made a resurgence in the past two decades, thanks to a clever marketing campaign that was so successful it should be on the curriculum in every marketing school in the world.

So what is Aperol, and how did it become one of the biggest drink trends in the world?

What is Aperol?

Aperol was created in Italy in 1919 by brothers Luigi and Silvio Barbieri, who had inherited a small alcoholic beverage factory.

It was reportedly Luigi who came up with the recipe.

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After undergoing surgery, he filled in his days taking long walks, and collected flowers, herbs and berries that he then made into a drink.

While the exact recipe is a closely guarded secret, it is thought to contain bitter and sweet oranges, rhubarb, gentian root and cinchona bark. The brothers registered its secret formula and added the drink to their catalogue.

While it closely resembled another Italian beverage, Campari, it has an alcohol percentage of 11 per cent – about half that of Campari –making it easier to sell in some European countries at the time.

By the 1950s, the Barbieri company passed into the hands of their descendants, who grew the business steadily.

The birth of the Aperol spritz

Aperol had always been served with a ice and a little soda water.

The term 'spritz' has its origins in Italy – Venice to be precise – although the word is derived by the Austrian word "spritzen" or splash.

But around the 1950s, Italians started adding prosecco to the mix, and the Aperol spritz we know today was born. Early incarnations saw it garnished with an olive.

The drink continued to grow in popularity, espcially in Italy, in the 1960s.

That distinctive colour and taste

At some point there was also two additions made to the recipe, even though the manufacturers say it is original.

The orange hue is derived from two artificial dyes, E110 and E124. Both are largely banned in food in the EU but Aperol gets away with it because the levels are under the 200 milligrams per litre deemed safe.

By 1980, sales had peaked in Italy, and the family accepted a takeover offer from the Seagram Group, which started exporting the drink.

In 1991, it changed hands again, this time to Irish company Barbero 1891.

Then in 2003, it was purchased by the Campari Group, which paid $244 million to get its hands on Aperol.

What followed was a global reimagining of the brand that, up until then, was seen as the poor man's cousin of Campari – not that either was particularly popular in Australia.

My only early memory of either drink, or another Italian beverage, Cinzano, was seeing them gathering dust on liquor cabinets belonging to elderly aunts and uncles.

Then there was the look and taste. I remember being incredibly underwhelmed after sampling my first Aperol spritz – which, I will add, was being given away for free – and thinking it tasted like childhood medicine. But I digress.

A marketing makeover for the history books

Once in the hands of the Campari Group, Aperol set about turning the drink from an apéritif – an alcoholic beverage mostly served in the afternoon and early evening in Italy and a few neighbouring countries – to a global trend.

First step was to grow its popularity, starting in its native Italy, where up until then, it was mostly consumed by men in dodgy bars.

Its transformation started in the country's fashion capital, Milan.

There, in select bars, they swapped out the usual tumbler for an elegant balloon-shaped tall wine glass.

According to a 2023 BBC article, Campari Group's chief marketing officer Julka Villa thought that while a "brave choice", it was "rather annoying", but it turned out to be a "game-changing commercial choice".

"This glass gave it visibility and dignity," she said.

That is also when the olive – long the garnish of choice – gave away to or was joined by a thin slice of orange.

Once the drink took off among the younger set in Italy, where it soon became popular, it was time to broaden its horizons by working on brand awareness.

Not only did they have to get the name out there, but they had to reach a younger demographic.

What better way to do that than by giving the drink away for free – often at pop-ups in bars?

Its orange hue was embraced with all manner of marketing material from large umbrellas to deck chairs and everything in between.

I remember visiting Sydney's iconic Watson's Bay hotel on a summer's day and noting almost all the young drinkers had an Aperol spritz in their hand, which had been served from a specialty cart.

Of course, Australia's mostly endless summer foretold the brand would take off here.

But what about other markets, such as gloomy Britain and the US?

Sponsorship deals

Both also embraced the craze, helped along by clever marketing campaigns and of course, sponsorship deals.

In 2010, Aperol became the official sponsor of MotoGP – the Grand Prix motorcycle racing.

It also undertook a partnership with Manchester United Football Club in 2014 that ran for several years.

In Australia, it has been a long-time partner of the Australian Open, with partnerships running from 2017 to 2020, while a second started in 2024 and extends until at least next year.

Then there is the lucrative US market, which was a little harder to crack.

In 2023, it made its debut at Coachella, as an official partner.

A specialty drinks cart went along for the ride, while there was also an Orange Dome where festivalgoers could Instagram the heck out of the drink.

That same year, it partnered with the US Open to serve drinks to the crowds from a patio bar, on-site truck and two mobile carts.

Pop culture

When the second series of The White Lotus was about to start filming in Sicily, Italy, the production team contacted Aperol about how the drink should be featured in the show.

While many would assume it paid for product placement, Andrea Sengara, the head of US marketing at Campari told Marketing Brew in 2023 this wasn't the case.

She said she wasn't aware of a formal deal, but her team talked to the show's production about how an Aperol spritz should be made and served authentically.

"As a part of filming that show in the summertime in Sicily, Aperol spritzes would naturally be all over the place," she said.

In the end, the drink was featured in several episodes of the series, which aired in 2022, and the effect was immediate, with the company reporting a 50 per cent increase in sales of Aperol in the US that year.

Global juggernaut

By 2023, Aperol was generating more than $4.7 billion in global sales.

As for me, I got over my aversion to the drink a couple of years ago at a summer gathering when a friend brought along a bottle and I decided to give it a second chance.

Whether it was the prosecco she used, the way she mixed it, or simply the fact it was a summer's day in Sydney, I became a fan that day, and have mixed many an Aperol spritz since then.

I was happy to see an Aperol van while on holiday at a beachside resort in Bali recently, where I indulged in a few.

(OK, maybe more than a few, because there was buy-one-get-one-free offer.)

Whether it is the clever marketing, or that Aperol really does taste like how summer feels, it seems the world can't get enough of the drink that was crafted by a couple of brothers in Italy more than 100 years ago.

You can find the official Aperol spritz recipe here

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