Message in a Bottle: Brandever design agency changed the ways of wine marketing
12 September 2008 | By Popsop Team
From Blasted Church to Dirty Laundry to Son of a Bitch Pinot Noir andd Bernie Hadley-Beauregard the Canadian design agency Brandever is changing how wine is being marketed — one bottle at a time.
Megalomaniac: Inspired by the larger-than-life persona of Niagara winery owner John Howard, Megalomaniac earned Brandever a prestigious Gold Award for package design at the London International Awards 2007 and Best of Show for label design at the 2007 San Francisco International Wine Competition. The labels feature a surrealist sensibility, with headless figures and floating hats. The varietal names are pure Brandever: Son of a BitchPinot Noir, for example, is named for the difficult personality of the so-called heartbreak grape.
Fort Wine: The rebranding of the Langley, B.C. Fort Wine Company was launched last summer and features labels that riff on highly collectible 1900s era fruit-crate labels, complete with apple-cheeked fruit harvester (illustrated by Peter Ferguson). The wines also feature the signature Brandever repartee, with names such as Ghost of the Bogs white cranberry, which has a Sleepy Hollow-type illustration by Ryan Heshka.
Organized Crime: Not a vintage owned by the Cosa Nostra, the Organized Crime Winery brand refers to a dispute between rival congregations of Mennonites near Beamsville, Ont., which resulted in one group stealing and destroying the other flock’s pipe organ. Illustrations for each varietal, by Clare Louise Mallison of the U.K., depict a particular scene of the crime. The logo for the brand itself takes a traditional Mennonite hat and evokes a slightly gangster edginess.
Blasted Church: The brand that changed the face of wine marketing in Canada and launched a niche for Brandever, Blasted Church Vineyards started out as the unfortunately named Prpich Hills. As part of its ongoing relationship with Blasted Church, Brandever extended the brand into signature events, such as the Midnight Service gospel choir concert, part of the Okanagan Wine Festival, held in the winery’s cellar. The label of this wine features unauthorized caricatures of notable wine critics, illustrated by Monica Melnychuk.
Dirty Laundry: You can’t research an old Okanagan mining town without finding a brothel story. In this case, the winery’s original name, Scherzinger Vineyards, wasn’t creating a gold rush for the vintner. The story of an old Chinese laundry that fronted a bawdy house gave rise to a new brand, and a 525 per cent increase in sales. The design tells the tale subtly with a crisp white label with a red-hot iron and embossed swirls of, ahem, steam.
Stage Left: The wine brand that tempts you to throw away your day job and, as Bernie Hadley-Beuregard puts it, “lubricate the possibilities with a glass of wine,” was inspired by the lives of vintners Melinda Doty and Rich Williams, who left home out east and bought a winery in Paso Robles, Calif.
Spit Decisions: Serious wine tasters make a habit of spitting out each sample, lest they become inebriated during prolonged sessions. Brandever coined the name Spit Decisions Wine Buying Group, for a collective of highly astute connoisseurs who sleuth out international wine discoveries. Not surprisingly the
group turned to Brandever to brand its first endeavor, Whatchmacallit, a wine series sold exclusively to restaurants. Next up, Spit Decisions challenged Brandever to come up with an endorsement for Cline Cellars. Rather than make alogo showing the group’s endorsement, Brandever wrote the reasons for its recommendation over the entire bottle.
Naramata Bench: The Naramata Bench is considered ground zero for grape growing and winemaking in the Okanagan Valley. Four years ago, Brandever created a long-range marketing plan for the Naramata Bench Wineries Association. One of the keys was to create signature events associated with the area, such as the Tailgate Party in Naramata, a sold-out annual event much loved by wine aficionados. A map to the Naramata wineries has atreasure-map sensibility that leads wine hunters on an amusing tour of area’s oenological treats.
By Jane Giffen
Popsop.com
Tags: alcohol drinks, article, package design, wine
