19 Crimes has reinvented wine marketing by engaging younger, non-traditional wine consumers with its rebellious branding, sponsoring unconventional events, and avoiding traditional wine marketing channels. The brand prioritizes rule-breaking and creative strategies over traditional marketing, which has led to significant growth and expansion into various international markets. Today, the Drum, a must read site for marketers, profiled 19 Crimes.
The brand leverages a theme of rebellion, encapsulated in its ‘Everyday Moments of Rebellion’ campaign. This theme is tied to the convicts featured on their bottle labels, with the broader concept of rule-breaking offering a creative marketing angle that appeals to a sense of rebellion against conventional responsibilities and expectations. For instance, for Halloween, they introduced glow-in-the-dark bottles and an AR experience, and even aged wine in a coffin buried in a London graveyard, playing on the rule-breaking narrative.
As a result of breaking the mold of traditional wine marketing, 19 Crimes has seen success in the US, UK, and Australian markets and is looking to expand into more territories that resonate with its rebellious branding. They measure potential new markets on their openness to the rule-breaking and rebellious nature that 19 Crimes embodies, ensuring that their marketing strategy aligns with the cultural attitudes of the markets they enter.
Sounds to me like they’ve got the right marketing blend all bottled up.