New ‘no politics’ party spruiks independent wines

Forget the democracy sausage, a bold marketing campaign from online wine retailer Naked Wines is hijacking the election to urge Aussies to support local independent wines.

The world's largest direct to consumer wine retailer Naked Wines has launched an election-inspired campaign to promote its brand to consumers.

Forget the democracy sausage, Aussies are being urged to join The Naked Wines After Party in a bold new campaign to promote local independent wines on election day.

Created by the online wine subscription company Naked Wines, the campaign is targeting voters in the lead-up to, and on, election day to join “a party without the politics”.

The campaign, which sees roaming human billboards take to the streets in high polling areas such as Martin Place, Manly Wharf and Bondi Junction, is sponsoring hundreds of post-election celebrations across Australia, to help Aussies toast the end of the election.

Created by independent creative agency Supermassive, the campaign also incorporates cinema, radio, print and social media advertising as well as a film starring comedian Matt Okine as the spokesperson launching the party which calls for “less whining, more wining.”

The activity aims to tap into consumer fatigue around the election and a desire for more authenticity in politics, according to Supermassive creative partner Adam Smith. “Scandals, political spin, attack ads… and you thought wine gave you a headache? In the spirit of making stuff people actually want, we took aim at the one thing every Aussie didn’t want - more bloody politics,” said Mr Smith.

Naked Wines general manager Paul Connell said the campaign is part of the company’s long-standing mission to disrupt the traditional wine industry and support local independent winemakers against the dominance of the Coles and Woolworths-owned wine retailers.

“We were founded because the two people that should matter most in wine, the drinker and the winemaker, we’re getting a raw deal. We want to change that.”

“The Naked Wines After Party is our way of challenging the status quo,” said Mr Connell. “It’s often the little guys who get squeezed — whether it’s independent winemakers trying to make a living, or Aussies trying to get a fair deal at the bottle shop.”

“[The campaign] is about cutting through the noise and getting back to what really matters - quality, fairness, and people. We’re building a community of wine lovers who care about where their wine comes from and who made it and want to connect over shared values or a glass of something honest.”

The UK-owned company, which launched its wine subscription model in Australia in 2012, works with 57 independent Australian winemakers to provide its 90,000 members, which it calls Angels, with significant price reductions through its direct relationship model.

Naked Wines general manager Paul Connell

The campaign aims to help the brand “own the election night party” much like the democracy sausage owns the election day experience and bolster awareness following two consecutive years of decline that were caused by cash pressures and global inventory issues post-Covid.

Mr Connell said the business is currently seeing growth in members again, which is being driven by a new strategic focus on enlisting and retaining high quality customers, rather than acquiring new customers “at any cost”.

“We were spending a lot of money on customers that were never gonna be great Naked Wines customers and not necessarily telling them why they should be here. It was pretty wasteful on all levels,” he said.

While the business had previously focused on a widespread deal-led acquisition strategy, it has now doubled-down on enriching its customer experience focus for its 90,000 members, and targeting its core customer base of 40-plus consumers who enjoy wine and entertaining - but are not wine obsessed - who like to support local businesses and know the story behind the wine.

“In the early days, [vouchers and deals accounted for] 60 per cent to 70 per cent of our acquisitions, and the rest was word of mouth, which was really positive. Now, we spend significantly less on vouchers and deal-led channels, and even in those channels, we are changing how we talk to people. It’s far less about the offer and much more about the why.

“We’d lost a little bit of what made us great in terms of our customer value proposition, which is this strong community and this Naked Wines tone of voice. That is makes people love and stay here,” said Mr Connell.

Naked Wines boasts 85 per cent retention across its mature customers, and now “only spends money on our best potential customers”. To achieve this it has reduced discounting, removed the channels delivering poor return-on-investment and increased testing to optimise its marketing activity.

Naked Wines after party campaign has put human billboards at polling booths in a bid to generate awareness of the subscription wine brand.

“What we are now seeing is that we can spend 30 per cent less and only lose about 10 per cent of value, in terms of members that actually stick around. This isn’t about suddenly spending lots more money on brand activity, it’s actually about spending less. But investing in better quality customers who want to be here, versus just money for nothing,” he said.

The strategy is being rolled out across the business globally as it seeks to achieve sustainable underlying revenue growth of 5 - 10 per cent, reach a £10m-£15m EBITDA through a profitable, high-retention core and generate £75m in cash.

“We are a challenger business and here in Australia we are up against a duopoly, we’ve got a lot more to gain than to lose. If we were 70 per cent of the market, you might be worried about the 5 per cent of people you’re not quite right for. But when you’re 10 per cent in the market, I only need to find the next 50 per cent of people that look like the community we’ve got and bring them into the fold and we’ve got 50 per cent growth. To do this you need to have a really clear proposition and a mission, and that drives you to great quality, because if it’s not working, you won’t see it in results, you won’t make the impact,” Mr Connell said.

A key element of the customer engagement program saw the brand partner its members with winemakers to create a mid-strength wine range, the result of which sold out in four weeks. As a result the UK arm of the business has added one of the wines to its range.

“There’s still a lot of work to do. There’s still 5 million more independent drinkers out there that have never experienced this. There’s 2,000 wine makers and 6,000 growers, who are all asking for better. Our new growth strategy is looking at how we fulfill that potential,” said Mr Connell.