HUN WINE

If launching a new product wasn’t already tough enough; new wine-in-a-can brand, HUN Wine, faced another issue – Lockdown. Set to launch its new vegan, fair trade wine as the exclusive wine at several UK festivals that were then cancelled this Summer, HUN Wine had to completely reconsider its launch strategy.

With the UK being ordered to stay at home, meaning that OOH audiences were declining; many brands cancelled OOH campaigns. Instead, HUN Wine bucked this trend, continuing to use OOH as its launch platform.

A brand with a strong personality, HUN wine needed to launch in the most entertaining and disruptive way possible in order to gain lockdown’s “most talked about” status. With their target audience of trendy, twenty something festival goers mostly at home, HUN Wine considered OOH’s hyper-local audiences.  

Using behavioural data movements, we were able to locate the key areas where the brand’s audience lived, such as Camden, Clapham and Hackney. However, with these areas still locked down, HUN Wine’s campaign NEEDED to be eye catching and resonate with passers-by, out shopping, exercising or among the few still working.  

Whilst other brands positioning themselves as security blankets offering ‘togetherness’ in ‘unexpected times’, HUN Wine pushed against this sea of sameness with a light-hearted tonality, embracing the pandemic’s unexpected nature. As most brands pulled OOH and instead relied on TV or social, HUN wine wanted to make a bold media choice and disrupt the status quo. Instead, choosing to do the opposite and advertise in the last place everyone expected.  

So, we created a nationwide OOH campaign for nobody to see, with HUN Wine choosing to adapt their creative with bold, tongue-in-cheek messaging mocking their decision to launch their brand with OOH during lockdown. 

The campaign ran primarily across roadside D6’s, enhanced with LFDOOH provided by Ocean’s SME scheme. Despite reduced footfall around these sites, the campaign was still seen by key workers and locals.  

Humorously punchy messaging such as, “Look everybody! We’ve just launched a new wine. Anybody? Anybody? Anybody?” created a PR splash that was shared extensively online. Other creative, using adjacent billboards, included, “We were going to have our launch party here… But no one could make it”. By choosing humorously relatable, contextual messaging, HUN Wine successfully transformed the way the brand was perceived by consumers. 

Using OOH as the launch platform was a risk that paid off.

Despite the challenge, HUN wine managed to successfully launch their brand with the country in lockdown. The humorous copy designed to get people talking, saw interest in “HUN Wine” soar on Google Trends off the back of the OOH campaign.

The brand saw a huge increase in check-out sessions on their eComm site that month, as well as soaring sales in Tesco and pick up by Amazon.