A label is a confetti. “The communication surface is very limited to talk about the content”, underlines Stefan Gendreau, founder of AR Winelabels. Emanation, in 2018, of a communication agency which worked for Yves Rocher and France Loisirs, the start-up uses augmented reality to immerse the buyer in the universe of the producer. How ? Approach your mobile, and the label comes to life: the medals appear; the technical sheet reveals a myriad of details, suggests food-wine pairings; the winemaker tells his story in a video and makes you explore his cellars in 3D.
Until now, you had to download the Argo Play application to have access to image recognition, but AR Winelabels now favors the QR Code, widely popularized during the pandemic. For Maison Ravoire, in the Rhône Valley, digital content geolocates return points for returnable bottles. The griffin of De Watère champagnes takes off and lands on a merchant website.
Like Stefan Gendreau, the founders of SmartBottle were inspired by the marketing stunt of Australian brand TWE. In 2017, it was the first to use augmented reality to script – successfully – its 19 Crimes varietal wines.
The lesson has been learned. Pierre Jeanne, former IT director of Cultura, and Anthony Chicheportiche, communicator in the world of wine, offer the winemaker “to address the consumer directly by transforming his bottle into media”. SmartBottle has already attracted around forty customers and carried out around a hundred innovative and “experiential” projects. Among the spectacular creations: the faces of the emblematic wine consultants Stéphane Derenoncourt and Michel Rolland speaking on the labels of their Bordeaux cuvées Tell Me or a 3D animated film illustrating a year of work at Château Jaubert. “SmartBottle conveys values, authenticity, emotion”, assures Pierre Jeanne. And even humor, with the little cartoon of Rosé de Robert (Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert cellar) and its disaster barbecue.
The creative agency has developed its own application, which must be downloaded to take advantage of the bonuses. It requires a monthly subscription of 50 euros in addition to the design budget (from 3500 to 20,000 euros). At AR Winelabels, we lower the bill (from 1,000 to 5,000 euros per project) by reusing existing content produced for websites as much as possible. “The great interest of this technology is to offer an international communication support,” says Stefan Gendreau. Because it has the ability to adapt to the language of the telephone user.
