ZARB: ZARB

Credits & Description:

Category: Alcoholic Drinks

Advertiser: ZARB

Product/Service: CHAMPAGNE

Agency: THEY

Date of First Appearance: Nov 25 2009 12:00AM

Entrant Company: THEY, Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS

Entry URL: http://zarbchampagne.com/

Media placement: Bottle - Http://zarbchampagne.com/, Several Liquerstores - 25-11-2009



Describe the challenges and key objectives

How can we design a brand identity that defies champagne conventions, while maintaining champagne credibility? And how can we stand out in an overcrowded champagne market, appealing to a broader, more extravert target group? Objective was to create a design that would generate lots of free publicity among this target group: in fashion and lifestyle magazines, weblogs and on social networks.



Describe the brief from the client

It's time for true innovation in the champagne market! Not by making a limited edition bottle for a classic brand like Moet & Chandon, but by launching a completely new brand. A real champagne that tastes as good as classic champagne, but defies its conventions of conservatism and changes a notorious introvert category into an extravert feast of the senses.



Describe how you arrived at the final design

First of all the name: The word Zarb means 'bizarre'. It originates from the 17th Century French street language of Argot, a form of wordplay used to disguise the actual intent of the speaker. Therefore mixing an underground feel with French heritage.

To bring the bizarre world to the bottle, we made the 'everyday' strange by creating new context and meaning of everyday symbols. The lips gave the bottle a sensual voice and the navel a seductive body.

Every year, a new collection of special designed bottles will enter the market.



Give some indication of how successful the outcome was in the market

The launch party attracted over 1200 influentials from within the creative industry and journalism. The launch party alone resulted in a massive wave of coverage in diverse print and digital media. In addition, the brand by itself sparked a lot of attention in the weeks that followed, reaching over 30 times the total PR budget in total media value. In just over half a year after the launch, the whole first year collection had sold out.