An Inside Look At Chandon's Strategy For Conquering The Millennial Bubbles Market

When champagne started popping up in rap videos, sparkling wine purveyor Chandon saw an opportunity to get in with millennials.

In the late '90s, champagne suddenly started showing up in rap videos: Biggie Smalls was seen popping open bottles on a yacht surrounded by scantily clad babes, Snoop Dogg rapped about drinking Moët while pimping at a stoplight, Jay-Z explained the proper pronunciation of Cristal before hitting up a club. The old champagne houses were perplexed. Overnight, the distinguished French beverage once reserved for respectable family gatherings had been transformed into a symbol of street cred, sex, and new money. "What can we do?" asked the managing director of Louis Roederer, the company that makes Cristal, when The Economist asked him in 2006 what he thought of his champagne being consumed by rappers. "We can't forbid people from buying it." (These comments offended Jay-Z so much that he publicly boycotted Cristal and last month purchased a competing champagne company, Armand de Brignac.)

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