A wise sommelier once told me the secret to a great bottle of wine: It’s not the wine you’re drinking, it’s the people you drink it with. Of course, drinking great wine with great friends is nice too.
That’s why I love Kendall-Jackson’s latest campaign. The California winery’s summer campaign isn’t so much about touting the great wine, but what you do with it.
Last week, Kendall-Jackson took their slogan to the parks of San Francisco. In partnership with the San Franscisco Parks Alliance, the company showed up at Alice’s Summerthing concert in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park with a ten-foot tall bottle of wine. The whole thing was rigged up to a game-show-style wheel. Think “The Price is Right,” but instead of vacations and cars, you can win VIP backstage passes.
As Kendall-Jackson’s Vice President of Marketing told MediaPost:
“One of the things that excited us about the spin-the-bottle idea is that it is culturally relevant across multiple generations. An ongoing objective for the brand is to engage consumers and build relevancy with a younger wine consumer who will become our core consumer for years to come. This activation is a way for us to connect with younger wine consumers, but still be relevant to long-standing fans that have been familiar with the brand for many years.”
Alice’s Summerthing is a free yearly concert held by CBS local affiliate 97.3 “Alice.” This year featured Ingrid Michaelson, Kodaline, Us the Duo, and Magic! It was attended by an estimated 15,000 concert-goers.
CBS Altitude Group worked closely with Kendall–Jackson and Heat on the design, production, and activation of Spin The Bottle.
The company plans to roll out the experience at other outdoor events under the slogan “Friendships grow nicely in the sun.” While the campaign is appealing to all generations, they hope to speak to millennials, not by overt messaging, but, as creative director Jeff Guenther tells MediaPost, to “hang out at concert with people enjoying some great music, and hopefully add a little more enjoyment to their day.”