Life After Memes: Digital Marketing insights on the future of Josh Cellars

By: Sophia Miller, Assistant Account Manager at Colangelo & Partners

In January 2024, Josh Cellars went viral. It marked an important first for an industry struggling with how to relate to an emerging generation of potential wine consumers. In the weeks since these users have taught the industry a valuable lesson.

On January 8th, 2024, an X (formerly Twitter) user shared a now-viral post encouraging his audience to try the wine. Responses criticizing his support of the wine piled up, spiraling into a meme trend. The brand responded via Instagram on January 12th but did not acknowledge the trend on X (Twitter) until January 16th, at which point multiple users replied to let them know they were already too late. The brand was self-deprecating in its humor, stating that it was late to the platform because it was locked out of its account, which is a major mistake at this time in the social media landscape.

This trend could not have happened with just any wine brand. The original post gained momentum because people recognized the brand. Before going viral, Josh was the most popular red wine in the US, according to Drizly. The label boasts extensive distribution, nearly universal availability, and extreme brand loyalty.

To analyze the impact of the viral trend on Josh Cellars’ social media accounts, Colangelo & Partners researched the profile growth through social media monitoring programs, including Sprout Social Listening and Tagger profile analytics. In December 2023 — before becoming a viral trend — Josh Cellars had 48.8k Instagram followers. During the month of January 2024, they gained 1,000 new followers — a growth rate consistent with their growth in previous months. On both Facebook and Instagram, the brand earned higher growth in November 2023 than it did during its moment as an internet sensation. While the trend has undoubtedly increased brand awareness, it has not led to significant lasting growth, and the internet is moving on.

Josh Cellars has publicly stated that their sales were up 5% in the first week of the trend, but the trend is passing very quickly, and the low growth and engagement on their social platforms indicate that it is unlikely to result in any long-term sales increases.

The viral moment was born out of criticism of the product, and the brand’s social response has gone all in on joining the joke, perhaps to their own detriment. The meme strategy overlooks the fact that they already had an extremely loyal audience, and risks damaging their relationship with these customers.

By buying into their new image as a joke, Josh Cellars seems to be forgetting what made people love their brand in the first place.

As of February 2024, according to Tagger, the top social audience segment for Josh Cellars is 35–44 — a demographic not consistent with the meme audience. From a social marketing perspective, it seems that the brand has quickly thrown away any existing social strategy. They are relying on reactive marketing to attract a younger demographic that is likely to move on to the next meme trend, while alienating their loyal base.

With limited wine knowledge among consumers, young segments of the US wine market are extremely sensitive to guidance — whether to or away from products. To confirm this sensitivity, look no further than wine’s last mainstream punchline — now infamously dubbed the Sideways effect, which damaged the reputation of Merlot for over a decade.

At a price point over $15, the brand is considered premium in the US market. Given its wide distribution, it is often presented as a higher-quality option on retail shelves. The people who regularly purchase Josh do so because they believe that it is a high-quality wine. By prioritizing the meme strategy, without an effort to explain it to their existing fans, they are likely to damage their reputation for quality. It has been shown that younger LDA consumers are drinking less but spending more on what they perceive to be high-quality beverages. With that in mind, continuing to post memes will not help Josh Cellars gain a new audience.

For brands that have been competing with Josh Cellars, this is an invitation to gain market share, as many Josh loyalists are likely to begin looking for alternatives. These labels should be focusing on communicating with their sales teams and investing in digital and influencer marketing campaigns to target the segment that would have previously purchased Josh.