An intoxicating trip through the senses.

The Challenge: Reigniting a Silent Leader with Conceptual Bravery

Once a category provocateur, Ménage à Trois had gone silent, losing shelf visibility to challenger brands like Apothic and Josh, who relied on loud, conventional marketing. The challenge was to sell a high-risk creative strategy that abandoned predictable wine tropes (lifestyle clichés, vineyard shots) and instead used an entirely sensory, conceptual approach to reignite the brand's original allure.​

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The Pitch & Action: Directing the Art of Sensory Persuasion

As the Creative Director, I sold the concept that the brand needed to whisper something unforgettable instead of shouting. My role was to conceive the conceptual breakthrough and meticulously direct the craft to ensure the silent, seductive vision survived execution.

• Conceptual Breakthrough: I conceived and championed a visual strategy rooted in the Rorschach test—using symmetrical, sensory compositions to mirror the emotional ambiguity of taste, desire, and the wine’s signature three-grape balance. This was a high-risk shift from traditional wine marketing.

• End-to-End Craft: I led the full sensory execution, ensuring every element contributed to the emotional pull:

  • Art Direction: Personally directed the mirrored compositions and lush metaphors to translate the wine's mouthfeel and flavor into visual art.

  • Production: Wrote and produced an original, seductive soundtrack to deepen the sensory experience—a crucial detail to deepen the emotional connection.

• Execution for Impact: Designed every frame for maximum engagement across platforms (TV, digital, retail), prioritizing silent-play environments where the visual tension alone had to sell the product

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The ROI: Trading Noise for Unforgettable Engagement

The Rorschach-inspired visuals translated into significant commercial growth and unprecedented brand engagement, proving that conceptual subtlety could outperform category noise:

• Sales Growth: Achieved a 3% overall sales lift and +25% depletions in just three weeks.

• Market Impact: Campaign drove +7% velocity growth and placed the brand in the Top 10 ranking in the 750ml category.

• Efficient Engagement: Generated 25M+ impressions while dramatically outperforming industry CPM norms.

• Cultural Cut-Through: Earned the highest social engagement of the year (+10%) and garnered unpaid influencer praise, including from The Wine Curmudgeon, who rarely endorses ads.​

 

Key Takeaway:

By turning balance into unforgettable art, we convinced the client to pursue a creative approach that was both conceptually brave and deeply satisfying to the consumer. This campaign proved that sensory craft and conceptual tension are the highest form of commercial persuasion.