Who: Mark Anthony Wine & Spirits, with Mint for strategy, creative and media, and Mike Monson for production and music.
What: “Uncork a Bold One,” a new digital-only campaign with a concerted effort to break wine advertising conventions for Mark Anthony’s Beringer Bros.brand.
When & Where: The campaign is in market now for four weeks, targeting a 35 to 54 demo (leaning male) across the main digital video channels: Facebook/Instagram and YouTube. There’s a 60-second version with various cutdowns, and static executions for retargeting.
Why: The brand goes back to the 1870s and has long associated itself with the “pioneering spirit” of the American west, said Alex Alvernia, art director at Mint. Part of that pioneering spirit can be seen in its unique “bourbon” bottle, while the wine itself is aged in spirit barrels.
This is the first campaign since the bottle with a slightly curvy neck was introduced to Canada. The agency had to reimagine that pioneering positioning for this market, said Alvernia.
“The big insight was that with wine traditionally we have an image of it as sophisticated, with stem glasses,” said Kelly Deuster, executive strategy director. “The truth is the people that drink it are much more broad than that, much more real, much more interesting, active and dynamic.”
How: Mint went straight at the Canadian custom of “cracking a cold one” by suggesting that those typical beer drinking occasions could become wine drinking occasions, and they could instead “uncork a bold one.”
Rather than typical category tropes like an elegant glass of wine during a romantic moment, Mint worked with Monson to create a series of films and digital content showing people enjoying a glass of wine while chopping firewood (“If campfire is your cologne”) or after a tough bike ride (“If your gym is the outdoors”).
“It’s kind of rugged, it’s proud, it’s upbeat. It feels a little bit brazen, but it’s really down to earth at the same time,” said Alvernia. “We just wanted to make sure that we are relaying that those scenarios where people wouldn’t normally reach for wine, in this case they are given permission.”
“There’s a certain energy we’re trying to capture in this that isn’t normally found in wine advertising,” added executive creative director Kim Tarlo. This campaign is “blurring the lines between spirits, craft beer and wine,” she added. “To be a bit more accessible, friendly but more applicable to a lot of different occasions where people would be reaching for a craft beer.”
The bottle: The distinct bottle makes an instant on-shelf statement about Beringer Bros being different to the wines around it. It wants to connect with people who don’t think of themselves as wine-drinkers, said Tarlo. “The bottle says this isn’t made just for wine drinkers, and it kind of pulls people in in that way, so the visual cue was to do that.”
