Is the Future of Wine Marketing in Connected Packaging?

Being able to connect to customers through the product being sold is a marketers dream. That’s why we are seeing more wine marketers applying connected packaging to wine bottles.

Connection is the most important aspect of any relationship, any marketer will tell you that. The more channels a brand has connecting to customers, the more likely they are going to reach them. In wine the focus has always been the online, email and cellar door channels, and each is a fantastic tool in its own right. However, unlike connected packaging, none provide connection to customers in bottle shops, restaurants or at the dinner table via their mobile devices.

What Marketers are saying about Cellr’s Connected Packaging

Savvy Comms engaged Cellr to create interactive “Shelf Talkers” to support the launch and sales of their client Twisted Sticks as they launched their product through large liquor retail outlets.

What Brand Managers are saying about Cellr’s Connected Packaging

When Cellr heard Brown Brothers wanted to personalise their Prosecco Rose for gifting, we made their vision a reality by producing a dynamic digital solution. The result? A virtual gifting campaign that enables Brown Brothers to create, and become part of, their customers’ special moments. 

“As part of our commitment to drive the Sparkling category with significant investment and innovation, Brown Brothers are super excited to be partnering with Cellr to launch a first of its kind virtual gifting campaign on our Prosecco Rosé. At Brown Brothers we remain committed to enhancing and evolving the consumer wine experience, and this campaign allowed us to engage with consumers like never before whilst providing a truly unique value add. We believe our wines are made to be shared, and we loved Cellr’s capability to transform each bottle into a digitally immersive gifting experience.”

– Marcel D’Angelo, Brown Family Wine Group Brand Manager (Sparkling Wine)

Check out this video to see how Brown Brothers used Cellr QR on their Prosecco Rose labels to create an immersive gifting experience:

Connected packaging in real life

With customers spending more time on their smartphones, marketers are encouraging brands to adopt connected packaging. Here are some recent stories of Australian brands digitally activating wine to engage the market:

• Brown Brothers use Cellr QR to create an immersive gifting experience
• Family owned Eight at the Gate Wines is using Cellr’s connected packaging to engage with consumers in the U.S.
• Hentley Farm is using Cellr’s connected packaging to deliver an art showcase to their members
• The Barossa Grape & Wine Association used Cellr for the 2021 Barossa Wine Auction, to connect with winners and deliver digital verification of provenance on all wines.
• Halliday’s Top 100 worked with Cellr to deliver NFC enabled Top 100 stickers to winning wineries
• Ricca Terra Gets Digital Packaging to Start Conversations About Sustainability With Consumers
• Château Tanunda Brings the Barossa to the U.K. with Cellr Digital labels

So, what is connected packaging?

Connected packaging is a new, less saturated and more flexible channel enabling brands to connect directly with customers through their smartphones. That’s why it is a tool all wine marketers need under their belt.

Simply, it is tech-enabled packaging. That’s because it incorporates barcodes or chips into the packaging that can enable digital interactions with smart devices. It can come in the form of labels and lids enabled by NFC, as well as the widely recognised QR code. Labels enabled by NFC (Near Field Communication) have a thin chip embedded in the label that interacts with smartphones.

This creates a new point of contact with customers through each bottle of wine. Some providors, like Cellr, even provide marketers with a platform designed for delivering wine marketing content directly to customers.  

Check out this video to see how Ricca Terra Wines used NFC labels to connect directly to a customers smartphone:

Made for today’s customer

Connecting directly to a customer’s smartphone by the bottle unlocks endless marketing opportunities with the modern consumer. As stated in the Silicon Valley Bank State of Wine report for 2021. “The majority of wine brands are wedded to successful strategies of the past while the culture and customer have radically evolved.” However, connected packaging enables marketers to engage consumers using the modern technology favoured by the market.

24/7 remote engagement

You can now connect with customers who have your wine anywhere in the world, at any time. No matter where they are, or what they are doing, if they have a bottle of your wine you have a line of connection. This is important in a world where we are becoming increasingly globalised. With platforms like Cellr’s, you can even geo-target your marketing content accordingly. 

Endless marketing opportunities 

Being able to connect directly with a customer’s smartphone through a wine’s packaging enables limitless digital marketing opportunities. Showing customers the latest video, sharing tasting notes, running competitions, linking social media posts and directing them to the webstore is just the start. Through platforms like Cellr, connected packaging provides you with the marketing toolkit to execute campaigns and connect with customers like never before.

You can get in touch with the team at Cellr to find out more here.