When Treasury Wine’s US marketing head John Wardley first enlisted the help of legendary rapper Snoop Dogg to promote the company’s new 19 Crimes line, he was told two very important pieces of information.
But the risk has more than paid off. Treasury’s 19 Crimes brand has become one of the winemaker’s most successful lines and helped cement its position in the company’s nascent, but speedily expanding, US division, softening some of theIt’s also helped Treasury move away from its traditionally middle-aged and older customer demographic and attract a raft of first-time wine drinkers, allowing the $7.4 billion vintner to uncork growth in previously uncharted waters.
Some of 19 Crimes’ differences are immediately evident in the brand’s use of a black, opaque bottle and sepia labels, each featuring a photo of a convict guilty of one of 19 different crimes. The labels are also equipped with augmented reality technology, coming to life when viewed through the lens of a smartphone camera.“There are a bunch of firsts we did with this brand that I think really helped separate it from the pack,” Wardley says.
This success has been so meteoric that at Treasury’s strategy day on Thursday, chief executive Tim Ford joked that he regularly asked his team what the business’ “next 19 Crimes” would be, saying the brand had become a “powerhouse” of the Treasury portfolio. The $10 to $30 range for wine is a “sweet spot” for Treasury, Ford says, especially for younger consumers which the winemaker has started to double down on following the loss of its older and higher-spending Chinese customers.