Vriesenhof Rebranding Campaign

The Brief

Vriesenhof is a winery located in Stellenbosch, South Africa, with a vision of creating great wines. Legendary ex-Springbok, Jan “Boland” Coetzee, acquired it in 1980 and produced his first batch of wine the following year. The need was to update the brand to attract a younger clientele and bring the brand online.

Solution

Rebrand Vriesenhof with a tone that is cheeky yet professional and cultured. This voice and the rebranding of the label and logo aren’t meant to detract from the high-quality workmanship of the wine itself; instead, they position Vriesenhof Vineyards as an established brand that’s undergone a shake-up to align with the now more digital means of communication in marketing. So, while the brand is playing a lot more in the digital space, its messaging remains old-school in thinking.

Logo

The first element examined was the brand identity and wine labels. We updated the font to a sans-serif font and added a bolder, more modern logo.

Social Media

The next step was to help create a social media presence to help consumers connect with the brand, as well as introduce a new tone of voice that’s cheeky
but still professional and cultured like a wine.

PR campaign for brand launch

A photocopied handwritten letter was posted to the core Cape Town areas, inviting local wine-lovers to come and sample the range at a nearby restaurant. The playfulness of the new voice is evident in the word “Chardonnay” being written in blue and highlighted, as if it were a hyperlink in a digital invite.

Wine Tasting /Brand Activation

Interactive background - Where customers and wine connoisseurs could interact with cheeky speech bubbles that would create Instagrammable moments, which will be shared on social media.

Signs and table talkers - Using playful ways to create points of interest as well as provide information.

Brochure - Tells the story of the farm and highlights tasting notes of each wine in the range, using hand-drawn elements of popular platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Google.

Stickers - To encourage the customer to rhymé everything with Chardonnay.

Agency: 3Verse Copy: Kathleen Jonas & Claire Tanner-Roberts
AD: Charne Alexander & Lea Terblanche JAD: Peni Buckton ECD: Ivan Johnson Integration Director: Joanne Stone
Production: Raygaanah Kippie Strategy: Kay Orlandi
Client Service Director: Andrew Alexander