Arterra wine brand Saintly is seeing if it can find its fit in a downtown Toronto laundromat, which it has transformed into a pop-up in honour of National Rosé Day on June 11.
“Saintly Sip N’ Suds” is a limited-time wine sampling bar pop-up hosted at Hollywood Coin Laundry on the city’s trendy Ossington strip.
The unconventional event space – resplendent in over-the-top pink the brand used for a merch drop last summer – was chosen to announce the new, limited-edition Saintly Collective Capsule Collection designed in collaboration with Canadian designer and creator, Natalya Amres. The space is also being deployed to launch the new wine, The Good Sauvignon Blanc, for those not rosé-inclined.
“We are kicking-off the summer by celebrating the beauty in anything and everything,” says Gurston Allen, senior brand manager, Saintly. “The spirit of our Saintly brand is all about embracing the imperfect, trusting our instincts and challenging the status quo.”
Joseph Bonnici, partner and ECD at creative agency Bensimon Byrne, which is behind the initiative, tells strategy it’s always set out to have Saintly act more like a fashion brand than a wine brand.
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Across the Arterra brands the agency works on, Bonnici says it’s moving all its brands away from perceived wine brand stuffiness and into a more open and inclusive way of communicating. Saintly, he says, is the latest version of that, eschewing “flavour notes” and “terroir” insider vernacular and instead talking about lifestyle and enjoyment.
Part of this lifestyle component, Bonnici explains, means coming alive physically. Because of the pandemic, the brand has only existed in the digital arena and now it can connect Saintly to an actual experience to meet Gen Z and millennials.
“We did create some high quality items around the brand and for us this year, it felt like the right step forward was an experience,” Bonnici says.
According to Bonnici, Saintly is always about the unexpected, and having an Insta-worthy pop up in an old laundromat is a pretty cool, interesting and unique experience. “Why do a wine tasting in a traditional space?” he posits.
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Saintly, he says, is the fastest growing VQA, a testament to rosé being a longstanding habit, rather than a passing fad. “Since we’re the fastest growing, we should be the loudest.”
The team up with designer and “fashion remixer” Natalya Amres also fits into Arterra’s sustainability positioning, which has included designing lighter weight bottles for other brands to minimize energy demand, transportation and CO2 emissions.
The pop-up will be open to the general public on the weekend of National Rosé Day from Friday to Sunday. In exchange for using the space and inconveniencing locals, there’s also been an investment made to improve it to leave it better than it was found.
Golin assisted with public relations.
