Wine Rack is expanding its latest summer campaign across 164 Ontario stores to address the challenge that many wine drinkers do not realize the breadth of its offerings.

“Relax. We’ve Got You” features vibrant painted colours, backyard garden settings and parachutes dropping off bottles. The campaign includes both digital and in-store signage, such as posters, shelf-talkers, tent cards and other POS collateral, as well as daily samplings.

In addition to building broader awareness around its cider and wine offerings, the brand is using the campaign to re-emphasize its approachability, according to Tamara Jakes, Wine Rack’s marketing director.

Jakes says the brand’s more approachable marketing is meant to help “reinforce that buying wine doesn’t have to be intimidating,” and that its teams are there to help customers with “everyday solutions, be it pairing, entertaining or gifting.”

With its “Relax,” theme, Jakes says the brand is reaching out to time-starved consumers who want to maximize summer enjoyment, without having to plan. The POS materials, Jakes says, reinforce solutions (i.e. its various wine and ciders that can be used for entertainment and gifts), rather than to promote one specific brand.

Wine Rack has extended the campaign to other channels to support in-store sampling and promotion. The creative for the broader digital campaign was leveraged to promote a POS “buy two rosé-brands (wine or cider) get a free glass promotion” to “Make Mother’s Day a Breeze,” that will continue throughout the summer. Artwork will change over the course of the next few weeks, with new promotional posters and offers every month, maintaining the look and feel of “Relax,” with the different colours and the parachute motifs.

Jakes says Wine Rack is continuing to sample a wide variety of brand products in stores, and is offering wine-based summer cocktail recipes. The aim is to build excitement about new product launches, both in-store and through social, and to showcase the breadth of the retailer’s product offerings.

Before “Relax. We’ve Got You,” the brand had used traditional free-standing inserts, but decided to change its marketing strategy to appeal to a younger demographic, according to its agency The Mark.

The shop was tapped to help build brand affinity, generate awareness of the brand as a go-to summer socializing space, as well as increase in-store transactions from May to August. The agency did a 20-store pilot program in 2018, targeting street-level stores rather than mall locations, which would provide a more ideal sample representation, before rolling out the campaign en masse to its 164 locations province-wide.