A legend in brand-building with millennials

19 Crimes Snoop Dogg Cali Red has crossed the Pacific and finally arrived on Australian shores. Labelled with its sepia soaked sketches of Australian convicts, 19 Crimes launched in Canada in 2011 before travelling south the following year to the United States.

Treasury Wine Estates' Chief Marketing Officer, Angus Lilley says that the brand was a success from the start for TWE, even before Snoop Dogg and his 60m Instagram followers were brought into the mix.

In particular, Lilley says, it was a hit with a younger generation of wine drinkers; a demographic whose imaginations winemakers need to capture to ensure future category growth.

“At times, the wine industry takes itself too seriously. We needed to recruit a new generation of wine drinkers who want a shared experience, entertainment and fun,” he said.

In 2017, TWE was the first wine label to use augmented reality (AR) on its labels. The technology proved to be an innovation that propelled 19 Crimes into the spotlight.

The AR was intended to lure techno-curious millennials, but in fact it captured the imaginations of smart phone users more broadly, eager to interact with the technology as the stories of these convicts turned colonists came to life within their hands.

In 2020, it was time for an update. With the convicts, TWE had tapped into a “cultural trend of rebelliousness and now needed to unlock a more modern version,” says Lilley.

The transition from roughed up 18^th century convicts guilty of one of 19 crimes to a contemporary, bling-wearing, weed-smoking gangsta rapper may be visually dissonant, but Lilley suggests there is an essential commonality.

“Both share stories of redemption, perseverance, law-breaking and rebelliousness... it was quite obvious when we got there that Snoop Dogg stood for the same attributes,” he said.

TWE’s US brand management agency, Cashmere, brokered the introduction and a multi-year deal was reached. In 2020, 19 Crimes Snoop Dogg Cali Red – made with TWE Californian fruit - became the most successful wine launch of the year, hitting its yearly sales target within two months and selling 125,000 cases. Today, TWE have sold 800K cases of the 19 Crimes Snoop Dogg Cali Red drop.

Snoop Dogg brought thousands of brand new consumers with him to the wine category. In those first two months of sales, TWE says 17 per cent of 19 Crimes Snoop Dog Cali Red consumers were new to the wine category and 77 per cent of consumers were first-timers to the brand.

19 Crimes Snoop Dogg Cali Red launched in the US last July and Snoop Dogg Cali Rosé has just hit the shelves there.

19 Crimes Snoop Dogg Cali Red is now available in Australia, retailing for AUD$18. No date as yet on when Snoop Dogg Rosé will arrive on our shores.