More than two centuries ago, Chilean businessman Don Melchor de Concha y Toro started a rumour to keep thieves away from stealing his precious wine collection. And thus was born the legend of Casillero del Diablo (directly translated as the “devil’s locker” in Spanish), a wine which cannot be stolen.

The wine brand’s award-winning campaign was based on this story and first launched in the U.K. in 2014. The latest installment of the “Wine Legend” campaign is being extended in Ontario and Alberta and will be running through December with the tag “Protected Forever.”

“The brand’s campaigns are always mysterious and the use of devil’s story for the positioning is to be more playful rather than cold or dark,” says Veronica Novak, VP marketing at Escalade Wines & Spirits, the Canadian distributor for Casillero del Diablo. “This campaign has entered Canada for the first time in this size and scope.”

The campaign targets a national audience and includes the use of social, a first for the brand. To drive consumers to stores, the brand is placing ads in OOH, cinema and digital. It has also heavily invested in in-store promotions at the LCBO.

“Studies show that up to 80% of people already know what to pick up before going into an LCBO or any liquor store. There’s only a small percentage of opportunity to change their mind. Our communications strategy has changed to focus more outside of the store to drive traffic into the store,” says Novak.

Specifically, the brand is targeting adults age 25 to 50 who buy value-priced wines, with the Chilean wine sold in Canada for between $10 and $15. “The wine category is extremely fragmented,” says Novak. “There is not a lot of loyalty as we see a huge category of consumers who only buy something when it is on a discount.”

Casillero del Diablo is using end-aisles, gondola and shelf extensions to promote the brand during the Halloween period, a sales-heavy period for the alcohol category.

Dubbed “Hallowine,” the in-store promotions feature value-adds in the form of small devil horns that light up, and which are hung from the neck of the bottles and can be used as a part of Halloween costumes. Additionally, the shelves will also display a special edition of its “Day of the Dead” painted bottles and a new premium Cabernet Sauvignon Casillero del Diablo Reserva Privada.

“The Chile wine category does not grow at a very high rate, roughly about 2% to 3%,” says Novak, adding that another goal for the campaign is to increase the category growth rate in Canada. “We added the word Chile under the label because people may be afraid to mispronounce the Spanish name. Giving centre placement to the country name on the bottle would take some of the guess work out of the shopping decision.”

The brand worked with Havas on creative, as well as media planning and buying.