Wine Brand The Prisoner Defies Conventions to Launch First Ever Lifestyle Campaign
On a mission to shatter conventions, The Prisoner, a wine brand known for defining the red blend category of wine and its visually provocative labels, is launching a lifestyle campaign titled 'Own the Night.' The campaign brings codes from the ever-changing world of high fashion to a fairly traditional category, normalises the surreal and depicts figments of the brand’s imagination to bring the creative ethos of the brand to life.
This is the first campaign created with branding and design agency BASIC/DEPT®, creative agency of record for The Prisoner.
“We were beyond excited to partner with BASIC/DEPT® on this. Their team understood our ambitions for this brand so well, and found a way to elevate the expression to an artistic level,” Bukky Ekundayo, GM and VP The Prisoner Wine Company. “The Prisoner has always been a brand that looks to stand out and break away from traditional barriers in the space. With this campaign, we do just that - creating a unique aspiration unlike anything else in the world of wine.”
The campaign, which rejects the formal tropes of the traditional wine world, is built on the belief that individuals can be their truest, most free selves when the sun goes down. While the rest of the world is winding down, drinkers of The Prisoner are just opening up, gearing up for whatever the night brings. To showcase this, BASIC/DEPT® shot the entire campaign by moonlight, showing consumers everything a typical wine brand isn’t - ultimately giving them permission to defy what is typical in their own lives.
When the inaugural vintage of The Prisoner Red Blend was first released two decades ago, it quickly became a cult-classic that pioneered the luxury red blend category and permanently changed American perceptions of what a red blend wine could be. The Prisoner portfolio of wines now includes their flagship Red Blend, a Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir and Chardonnay in addition to a slew of DTC-exclusive wines. Modern in style and flavour profile, their wines buck the single-varietal trend of today’s wine landscape in favour of blending traditional grapes first planted in Napa Valley over a century ago. All labels for The Prisoner portfolio are inspired by the classic sketch Le Petit Prisonnier by 19th century Spanish artist Francisco Goya. The sketch is part of Goya's series entitled, 'The Disasters of War', created to be a visual protest against the injustice and brutality of the Spanish War of Independence in 1808.
"We don't often see brands reach this level of prominence without any marketing, and we didn't take that lightly. It was important to us that we didn't try to sell wine, but simply give the brand a new dimension that didn't exist yet," said Matt Kipper, creative director, BASIC/DEPT®. "We saw the campaign as a flare for The Prisoner to send up and show the world an alternative vision of luxury wine - what the brand sees when it closes its eyes"
'Own the Night' will be showcased across social and digital channels in the form of powerful moonlit photos and short films, shot by fashion photographer Vince Aung. Follow The Prisoner on Instagram to watch the story unfold.
