Wine Design & Marketing Awards winners announced

04 April, 2016

By Christian Davis

In the April edition of the magazine Drinks International published the results of its Wine Design and Wine Marketing Awards, Christian Davis reports.

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MOST EVERYDAY CONSUMERS ARE routinely confounded when it comes to choosing an appropriate wine. Many multiple retailer wine fixtures constitute a veritable forest of bottles. Which to choose? A brand or a supermarket own-label? What’s the price, what’s on promotion?

Drinks International invited entries to its Wine Design & Marketing Awards in an effort to highlight and reward companies that have made the effort to distinguish their wines, either through astute marketing or eye-catching design.

The judges who convened at the Wine & Spirit Education Trust HQ in London were: David Cox, formerly of Brown-Forman Wines Europe, New Zealand Winegrowers and now CEO of drinks trade charity the Benevolent; Neil Vestrini, creative director at packaging design house Cartils; and DI editor Christian Davis.

OVERALL SUPREME CHAMPION & BEST DESIGN FOR A WINE RANGE

Sogrape Vinhos took the medals for its Sandeman port 225th Anniversary Collection. Beautifully designed, the packaging oozed quality and prestige. It had the ‘wow factor’.

BEST NEW DESIGN OF A WINE BRAND

Denomination with Enfant Terrible. The judges approved of the efforts to demystify wine by using a well-known expression to catch punters’ eyes to what is essentially a Côtes du Rhône wine.

BEST REPACKAGED WINE DESIGN

BD Creative with Boutinot’s Fire Flower.

BD has keyed into Wines of South Africa’s Biodiversity campaign and come up with an attractive, eye-catching label to tempt people to buy a bottle. It ticks all the boxes Wosa would like to have ticked.

BEST DIGITAL & SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGN

Joint Winners: Bodegas Protos’s Brindis Solidario Project and Esoes Digital Solutions for the El Consejo Regulador Jerez-Xeres-Sherry.

Protos’s prize was for non-profit organisations promoting interest in Spain overall. The winner would receive €10,000 in cash to put towards its project. The judges found it very worthy and impossible to resist.

The judges admired the ambition of the El Consejo Regulador Jerez-Xeres-Sherry to promote sherry and International Sherry Week, purely through digital channels – not something you would necessarily expect from sherry, which made it all the more interesting and exciting.

WINE PR COMPANY OF THE YEAR

Phipps PR is a company pushing the industry forward and the judges had no hesitation in giving the award to the one of the wine sector’s most respected and effective PR companies.

BEST INTEGRATED CAMPAIGN

Phipps (again) for its work with the Consejo Regulador DOCa Rioja in promoting the wines of Rioja, the oldest designation of origin in Spain. Its Tapas Fantasticas food and wine festival has proved a popular and successful experiential, digital, on and off trade campaign.

BEST EXPERIENTIAL & BEST ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN

Pernod Ricard Winemakers with Campo Viejo and Jacob’s Creek.

Well put together entries for two very strong but very different brands. Campo Viejo, the leading Rioja brand from Spain has been going like a train for Pernod Ricard.

Jacob’s Creek is one of the very few truly global wine brands – that requires continuous, significant investment. This campaign emphasises the brand’s heritage, authenticity and consistent quality. It may be obvious, particularly with the grassroots movement towards all things ‘craft’, but for a brand like JC, it needs to be on a grand scale. Made By does not disappoint.