Telling a Life of Crimes on “Living Wine Labels”
Want to learn history while drinking some wine? Treasury Wine Estates just launched the perfect brands for the wine and history buffs: 19 Crimes, Château St. Jean, Gentleman’s Collection and Beringer Bros.
There is no miracle, just innovation through technology. Treasury Wine Estates powered an app based on Augmented Reality. One downloaded on a mobile phone, the app allows to listen to the story of the criminal pictured on the label or, in the case of the more classical Beringer Bros. label, to listen to the story of the brothers.
The app allows the brands to reach out to their potential consumers. “19 crimes” targets the millennials who usually enter a store, phone in hand. They check prices, availability or consumers’ comments to make up their mind. According to Andrew Floor, Marketing Director for Treasury Wine Estates, in his interview to Beverage Daily, the app is the answer to this incredibly technological and connected world we live in. It goes beyond being just an other communication tool: it is leading the wine business into the future by connecting the complex world of wine and its younger consumers.
The app is the open door to knowledge and pleasure. How not enjoy a wine that tells you the story behind its history? But (there is very often a “but” in a story) one cannot help noticing that the technology applies mostly to mass market wines. It is the same in France where a discount supermarket, Lidl, recently launched a “Rosé Canicule” with a connected label designed by the French cartoonist Geluck (Caveat: the video is in French but you will understand the Augmented Reality technology by watching the designer when his phone gets close to the label):
As happy as I am to see the wine industry opening up to the large and fascinating use of the newest technology, I would love to see it applied to the best of our wines, whether from France, America, Australia or China. It would be the proof that technology is not just a toy for supermarket wines but a respected and respectable way of communicating on the story or history, on the men and women behind the label and mostly to remind us that drinking wine is a pleasure, a social act and not only an academic exercise ending up with a mark out of 100. Enjoy and have fun!
