Background
Wine-ish was spec work I did for one of my first advertising classes. Our "client" Monique wanted to open a millennial-focused wine bar in Portland's Alberta arts district. Our research revealed that millennials were deterred by all the formality that can go into wine drinking. We wanted to position the bar as a comfy place people could hang out for hours. With this in mind, we came up with But Its A Wine Bar.
Concept
The idea behind the campaign was to compare the bar (Wine-ish) with impossibly comfy objects. This would both promote the bar as an informal cozy place and invoke curiosity in readers.
Our main strategy was to hang posters in areas with large amounts of millennials such as university campuses and trendy neighborhoods (Such as Alberta and Hawthorne.) The simple format meant that we could also spin off a large number of ads with relative ease. On top of that, a template could be created and shared on social media, letting others join in on the fun.
We also planned opening events to coincide with the district's summer festival, Last Thursday. During the festival, we planned to host an event we dubbed Wine Speed Dating. During the activity, people would have the chance to sample a flight of different wines. Once they were done they could slam a buzzer to move onto the next flight until eventually, their time ran out. We also planned on renting out a photo booth and a couple of fluffy friends.
Conclusion
As my first campaign and foray into copywriting, Wine-ish turned out pretty good. The professor and most of my classmates seemed to enjoy it. I think every creative is nervous about their work when they start off. The positive reception we got for Wine-ish really gave me the courage I needed to continue this path. It was after this campaign that I applied and was accepted into FIR NW, Portland State's student-run ad agency.