Looking Ahead: New Year's Eve Celebration Ideas

Chadd Stubbs Moët Hennessy Consumer Engagement SVP tells Yahoo Finance that despite the pandemic people are still looking forward to celebrating New Year's Eve.

Video transcript

- Doesn't matter whether you say, l'chaim, prost, cheers-- there's always something to celebrate. And there's no better way to celebrate than with champagne. Let's bring in the senior vice president of consumer engagement, partnerships, and investment at Moet Hennessy, Chadd Stubbs. Good to have you here. And although 2020 has been for many people, a very difficult year, for a great many people, there's a lot to celebrate. And Moet is actually taking some steps to help this at home New Year's Eve celebration the one that we will remember fondly. Tell us more about this.

CHADD STUBBS: Well, Adam, thank you for having us. And by the way, your first lesson of the day is that it's-- Mo-et.

- Mo-et?

CHADD STUBBS: I have to correct you.

- It's OK. Yo habla Espanol-- Francais, no.

CHADD STUBBS: It's actually Dutch. So Mo-et Shan-don. But so glad to be here. And I think we're all going to agree after a year like this, we need something to celebrate. And so we came together with our full portfolio of brands to make it easy for you to celebrate a little bit of luxury at home this holiday, this New Year's, which I think we're assuming-- I think you'd agree-- will be the largest New Year's Eve celebration, ever, at home.

- Wait-- seriously, wait, what? You think it's here to be the largest? So you're saying at home, we're all going to stay at home. Hopefully, we're not going to have anyone come with us.

CHADD STUBBS: Correct. We're in our pods. We're safe in our pods.

- Do you think champagne sales will be down or up?

CHADD STUBBS: It's a good question. Actually, with the trends we're seeing, it's up. And I think it's because, again, people are looking for reasons to celebrate. And so that's part of our plan.

- You're the leading importer and marketer of high quality wines. Where does champagne-- where does Moet fall into that?

- Moet Chandon is actually the largest champagne in the world. And it's followed-- closely by its sister. So actually, in the US, Veuve Clicquot is our lead champagne. But the full lineup of champagnes including, our KRUG, but as well as our sparkling wine, Chandon here from the US-- all part of a great reason to join in the celebration.

- Let's sort of know what you're doing with restaurants here, because part of this is that you're donating $100,000 to the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation. And we all know that restaurants have been decimated. And the prognosis is not great for them looking ahead for how many of them might fail. And of course, that is a place where a lot of people buy a fancy bottle of wine. What do you-- what are you seeing with the restaurant relationships? I know it's, you know, levels removed from you, but still, through the suppliers and the distributors, what kind of-- what are you seeing there?

CHADD STUBBS: No, what we're seeing is-- I mean, again, you can imagine with the different state and local municipality rules, you know, it's so tough for them. And then as you know, even here in New York, you know, dining outdoors, tough, as well. So that is why we thought it was super important as part of our New Year's Eve campaign to give a reason and give an option to give back. So while we're donating over $100,000 to the National Restaurant Association Education Foundation you mentioned, we're also giving an easy place to donate for everyone else that joins in on our website. But then also, that'll bring us to over a million of relief we've given to the industry for advocacy and relief this year. But this is why we're so-- we so want to help our, you know, friends in the industry.

- Have people started to register for the One Unique Wish? And can you tell us more about what you could win if you win that?

CHADD STUBBS: Yes. So no-- thank you for bringing that up. I mean, what has been the most fun was for us to move fast to realize that we wanted to give consumers this chance to celebrate at home and bring some fun to it. So not only are we joining-- joining with us is actress and activist, Tracee Ellis Ross, actor and Hennessy Ambassador, Henry Golding, DJ Steve Aoki, and to actor Darren Criss. All of those are joining us to celebrate. So they-- consumers can enter to win to have one of these join them in a virtual-- you know, virtual New Year's Eve celebration for theirs at home.

That's not all, right? There's also going to be a way for you to enter a wish that you want to come true in 2021. And we're going to do our best to select one and fulfill it for you.

- What do you think of all the ways that we're ordering alcohol these days? Like, I can go on a website, I've got an app, I could go across this store. We talk a lot about the trends and the changes that we're seeing during the pandemic. Do you think that these are here to stay? Do you think that, you know, all of this is going to end up on an app one day?

- That's a great question. And we do think some of those changes are here to stay. I-- you know, when we look at some of our own sort of industry trends-- and I see what you have posted here-- it's exactly the same trends we're seeing. So on this basis, I think Credit Suisse with Nielsen estimates that e-commerce channels will account for 4% of industry volumes in 2020. So that's up 3 percentage points from 2019, and only expected to grow.

So think about it-- it's removing that friction-- that last mile. And with the delivery and some being able to deliver in one hour or less, I think that's the kind of service offering that's here to stay.

- Chadd Stubbs is the senior vice president of consumer engagement partnerships and investment at Moet Hennessy. We appreciate the update on all that you're doing, and also, the trivia question you gave us, because we're going to stump lots of people at our New Year's Eve celebrations, asking them is it Mo-eh, Mo-et, is it French, or is it? Dutch and we know the answer-- it be Dutch. Thank you so much, Chadd. We'll be right back.

CHADD STUBBS: Adam and Jen, thank you so much.