How Aperol is working to make the spritz a year-round drink

It’s a spritz summer, according to Aperol—and, most likely, your Instagram feed.

Fresh off a bottle redesign and a canned-beverage release earlier this spring, the Italian liqueur brand is looking to make its presence more widely known this summer. The brand is sponsoring actor and singer Hilary Duff on her lucky me tour, popping up at local bars and restaurants to serve Aperol spritzes ahead of her performances in key markets, and offering fans the opportunity to win prizes and tickets to upcoming shows.

Alison Varone, head of marketing at Aperol parent company Campari America, told us it’s the first time the brand has gone on tour, but the strategy is based on the success of Aperol’s recent activations at events like Coachella and the US Open. It’s all a part of Aperol’s push in the last couple of years to drive visibility and boost Aperol’s presence online and in venues across the US—especially in the summer, she said.

“As soon as the weather gets remotely warm, people start talking about spritzes, which has been such a phenomenon for us that we’ve created,” Varone said.

While the brand has been popular in Europe for a long time, Aperol’s marketing team is working hard to bring “aperitivo culture” to the states, one city at a time.

Orange you glad?

In February, Duff released a song, “Adult Size Medium,” that includes the lyric, “Was it a sip of wine or Aperol?” that got the attention of the brand. She has since joined a growing roster of Aperol celebrity partners including Charli xcx, Bowen Yang and Joe Jonas, all of whom are tasked with appealing to social Gen Z and millennial drinkers, Varone said.

“We like to partner with people that really enjoy and love the brand,” she said. “We’ve been lucky to have many of them in the fold.”

Since then, Duff has been actively posting about the brand, incorporating spritzes onstage and backstage, Varone said. To support those efforts, Aperol is working with influencers and continuing to encourage consumers to organically share pictures of their drinks while out on the town.

“It’s really about putting content on social that is engaging, where consumers feel like, ‘I want to be part of the moment,’” she said.

While Varone said one can’t “walk the streets of any downtown metro area without seeing the orange Aperol spritz on someone’s table,” the brand is trying to make inroads beyond major US cities, which leads back to the brand’s decision to go cross-country with Duff.

Varone said the partnership with Duff will continue through the remainder of the year as Aperol works to reach new audiences and broaden its appeal beyond summer. On its blog, the brand encourages people to post spritz pics with captions like “Merry Spritzmas” and has previously posted people drinking spritzes on ski slopes. According to Varone, Aperol will also come out with a “new innovation” later this year to keep people sipping into the colder months.

“People are using Aperol for their holiday celebrations,” Varone said. “But summer is definitely a big part of [our] plan.”