A
first in the company’s 97-year history
Issued by - Tin Can PR for KWV
Cape Town, 23rd March 2015 – KWV,
an award-winning, proudly South African brand, is reawakening the spirit of the
brand with the launch of it’s first ever consumer trademark brand
campaign, ‘Finish Great’ that communicates the company’s proud
heritage and product innovation across spirits and wines that KWV has embodied
since 1918. The emotive integrated campaign kicks off today with the flighting
of KWV’s first ever TV ad.
KWV has a long tradition of
crafting some of the finest wines and brandies in the world. This is the
company’s first consumer brand campaign that stretches across the product
worlds of wine and spirits to deliver a consistent brand theme that works
across all touch points; providing the foundation for a bold distinctive brand
message.
Tyrone Beck, Creative Director
at Saatchi & Saatchi Brandsrock, the ad agency tasked with developing the
pioneering campaign for the brand explains: “This is a tribute to the great
legacy of KWV, but also demonstrates that by standing on the shoulders of
giants, we are inspired to aim higher, to reach even greater heights and
inevitably ‘Finish Great’.”
He adds: “The campaign idea
was based on a core insight that through persistence, character is revealed and
in everything we do, we strive to finish great,” says Beck. “The
heart of KWV is Proud Pioneers brought to life through the spirit of:
respecting tradition while challenging convention and through persistence
character is revealed. We are telling this story through the campaign theme
of ‘On the shoulders of giants’.”
Beck continues: “Giants have
stature, they are larger than life and undeniably impressive. We revere them
and in South Africa, KWV is a giant, it’s a brand that has a 97 year-old
history and credible credentials to support such a bold statement.
“The story line follows an
affirmation to the giants who enable us to Finish Great,” he adds. “We are
bringing to life this story with a 360 degree approach, which we will aim to
further build on the ‘Giants’ theme through a product-centric print and fully
integrated user generated social and digital campaign.”
Beck says that the integrated
campaign includes the brands first ever television commercial, amplification
via a full PR rollout, experiential activations, iconic out of home billboards,
point-of-sale and in-store promotions.
He admits that the task was
not easy. “The alcohol marketplace is extremely cluttered, with premium liquor
brands playing heavily in the world of inspiration,” he says. “Therefore we
strived to achieve a well considered and creatively consistent visual theme to
work across all touch points and to be the foundation for a bold and
distinctive message.”
“This campaign literally
dramatizes how, as individuals, we take inspiration from the past – our legacy,
our forefathers,” he says. “We look up to them. They inspire us to have the
courage to break new ground. Essentially we are all on a journey to master our
own crafts, as young South Africans, as young people we work hard at mastering
and we follow in the footsteps of masters and pioneers that come before us.”
KWV’s Head of Strategy, Peadar
Hegarty, says that KWV is a company and brand that respects tradition, with a
proud legacy of craftsmanship and excellence that stretches back to the early
1900’s. “KWV is a brand that innovates and constantly pushes itself to achieve
greater things and this is encapsulated in its entirety in the Finish Great
campaign elements,” he adds.
He says that any great
campaign has to have a number of iconic elements but firstly should be rooted
in human truth, KWV’s being that persistence reveals character.
“The finish great message is
universal and supports our global growth strategy with a truly international
campaign,” Hegarty adds. “KWV is a place where innovation comes alive, where
fresh ideas are made possible by building on the great work of yesterday’s
pioneers, where convention is constantly challenged, and where new ideas and
fresh perspectives are always given the space they deserve.”
He continues: “We believe
this, our first brand trademark campaign, is a campaign worthy of KWV’s
pioneering spirit and we are truly excited to deliver this to the world,” he
says. “It’s about reawakening the brand spirit through connectivity, innovation,
and sustainability and by continuing to produce award-winning wines and
spirits,” says Hegarty.
However, Hegarty adds that
this trademark campaign is not only consumer facing. “From a business
perspective, the company is switching distribution strategies in a number of
global markets and we are working hard to adapt our product offerings to suit
the needs of specific markets as well as channel management strategies,
ultimately enabling us as a company to continue to Finish Great.”
In recent years KWV has
transformed itself into a global commercial player, exporting award-winning
wines and brandies from its main cellar complex in Paarl all over the world.
“We distribute our brands in over 100 markets globally, with some of our brands
having been available in these markets as far back as the 1920’s,” he adds.
With one of the largest
production capacities of wine and spirits in the Southern Hemisphere as well as
being chosen as a distribution partner for some of the world’s most iconic
spirits - most recently, Stolichnaya Vodka, Hegarty says, this demonstrates how
the company is transforming itself to compete against other brands.
Through an extensive business
strategy and market positioning, KWV has been recognised for producing some of
the world’s best wines and brandies.
“Our attainment of globally
recognised awards is testament to this. In the last 4 years we have won over
858 awards of which 307 were achieved in the past year alone,” he says. “We are
constantly improving our products to push the boundaries, being at the
forefront of winemaking and brandy making innovation and demonstrating great
attention to detail and balance.”
In recent months KWV has been
creating industry waves with a number of Finish Great moments,
like the launch of the world’s first ‘natural’ Pinotage – Earth’s Essence, made
possible by utilising a world first technology; the launch of KWV Heritage XO,
SA’s first Cognac brand; and the launch of Nexus, the world’s first 30-year old
commercially available potstill brandy.
KWV’s First Ever TVC
“The TVC brings across the
notion of getting to a destination and achieving greatness, whatever the
journey may be, that in essence is the meaning of a Finish Great moment,”
says Beck. “These moments are demonstrated through vignettes of past and
present: a mountaineer summiting the highest peak, a runner sprinting across a
finish line and a musician strumming the greatest chord right to the end scene
where the current branding and winemaker at KWV toast the pioneers of the
past.”
The final scene in the TVC
showcases KWV’s journey to finish great, representing the pinnacle
of its brand journey and showcases its products from vine to glass, a proud
fulfilment of an incredible odyssey that represents KWV’s master craftsmen.
The iconic TVC is directed by
Sam Coleman of Giant Films. “What makes this commercial so different is that
it’s about human endeavour, in past and present, in one frame,” says Coleman.
“The production didn’t come without its challenges. We shot for over 18 hours and
while shooting one scene other teams had already gone ahead and moved location
to create the next ‘world,’ so we could just step into that world and start
shooting.”
According to Coleman, the
most challenging aspect was the idea of one of the giants mountaineering,
modelled on Sir Edmund Hillary, summiting a snowy peak; and that obviously
being in the Southern Hemisphere this presented challenges in successfully
replicating the conditions and the ascend of the peak.
Watch the TVC here: https://www.youtube.
“From business growth, to our
awards, to the talents of our brandy and winemaking teams through to this new
campaign, Finish Great is our story of a journey of ups and
downs true to the journey our wonderful products embark on as they mature to
perfection,” concludes KWV’s Hegarty.
For more information
visit: www.finishgreat.co.za
Get a behind the scenes look
at the making of here: https://www.youtube.
-Ends-
