Joe Public turns wine into art for Spier

Rising to the task, the team strategised a fully integrated through the line campaign that would establish Spier as an innovative, forward-thinking wine brand that embraces art in all aspects of its approach as well as its communication.

In considering the ‘brand archetype' (or personality) of Spier, Joe Public concluded that Spier is a creator archetype. TV was selected as the appropriate medium to communicate this brand ethos.

“A brand is an entity very much like an individual,” says ATL Creative Director at Joe Public Liezl-Mari Long. “A brand has its own character, is perceived by the world in a certain way, responds to the world in a certain way and its resulting personality is unique. Simply put, in the world of brand personalities, Spier is the artist amongst the group.”

Spier's enhanced positioning was not without challenges as Liezl-Mari explains, “The take-out of the television commercial needed to rub off not only on the wine brand but also on the mother brand. Fortunately, Spier's approach is unique in the sense that they do utilise art as a form of self-expression, not only in wine making but also in many other aspects of life.”

The agency explored various angles in order to strike a balance between Spier as a brand that ‘embraces art as a way of life' and Spier the wine brand that ‘embraces wine as art'. Their biggest challenge lay in making this thinking relevant to the consumer.

“Our solution came in the form of an exploration of the meaning of art,” says Liezl-Mari. “By breaking art (and wine) down and taking it away from something that sits in a gallery or something that's meant ‘for others', we depict art as something that anyone can relate to.”

Joe Public cemented the concept by making the statement that ultimately art is just an expression of oneself whilst begging the question “What does your art say about you?”

“We all like different pieces of art because we are all different and art is a way of expressing who we are and how we relate to the world. By making this statement, we encourage people to interact with art and to interact with Spier wine. It's not important which piece of art (or wine) you are drawn to, it's important that you have the ability to utilise art (and wine) as a way of self-expression.”

Apart from a comprehensive television schedule spread across SABC, DSTV, Mnet and etv, the ‘What does your art say about you?' campaign can be seen in stores and in print media, expressed through poignant still photography of the television scenarios.

The Joe Public team on this campaign include Creative Director Liezl-Mari Long; art directors Brendan Hoffmann and Knutt Otto and Vincent Osmond and Liezl-Mari Long as writers. Kevin Fitzgerald from Egg directed the television ads and Lance Slabbert handled the still photography.