Wayward Wines (Concept)

Creative Agency: Robot Food
Project Type: Concept
Location: Leeds, UK
Packaging Contents: Wine
Packaging Substrate / Materials: Glass

Introducing Wayward Wines – a new concept from Robot Food that defies typical category cues and shuns industry snobbishness. No region, no year, no individual grape. Just beautifully blended wines in a spectrum of bold, distinctive flavours.

Never the type to sit on our hands, Wayward Wines came to be after witnessing a rather awkward exchange in a wine shop. After asking the assistant for help with a gift, the customer was met with a bamboozlement of knowledge on grapes, regions and years. They left shortly after, empty handed and disappointed, while the assistant was left without a sale. Clearly this approach didn’t resonate, but is it much different to how the rest of wine is operating?

This is a category crying out for some much needed disruption. A trip down the wine aisle will find you lost in a sea of sameness, flooded with information that doesn’t mean a great deal (unless you’re the ‘cellar full of Gran Reserva’ type). Whether you simplify your decision by colour, price or how pleasing you find the logo to be, the fact remains that most wines feel inaccessible. They fail to communicate to a wider audience and final choice (more often than not) comes down to either habit or whim.

It only takes a quick look towards the other, craftier side of the booze aisle to see the benefit of tapping in to the needs and values of a more considerate and demanding breed of consumer. One that may not be the biggest drinker, but is prepared to pay for their alcohol (as long as it’s quality). By drawing on lessons learned from the craft beer and spirit revolution and applying a bit of strategic challenger thinking, we created Wayward Wines. An expressive, accessible brand of wine, positioned to bring some relevance back to a stuffy category.

No name, just flavour; each wine’s identity is dictated by its own unique blend of tasting notes. Bold colour ways, texture and expressive, hand illustrated lines all work together to give consumers an instant hit of what each wine will taste like. A clean, contemporary overarching Wayward identity pulls the range together, with only a simple brand marque visible from shelf view. The big idea? To eliminate pomp and pretence from the decision-making process and design a range that could be shopped purely on taste.

This is not a wine for the connoisseurs and their cellars. This is for the many who drink to enjoy, not to brag. Well, that’s the idea – and it seems to be one that resonates. What started as an exercise in disruption, has now grown legs as a viable business opportunity and talks are in process with a couple of wineries looking to explore bringing the concept to life.