Wine Group Sends One Hell of a Direct Mail Piece to Sommeliers Nationwide

Here's an interesting wine campaign from Washington state that's as versatile as a Chateau Ste. Michelle Chardonnay.

The Washington State Wine Commission wanted to reach wine influencers nationwide—sommeliers, editors, bloggers—and tell them about the state's quality product. So, GreenRubino in Seattle devised a solution that's equal parts elegant and pleasantly goofy.

The agency got Whose Line Is It Anyway? comic Greg Proops to play a character called the Recommendeuer—at once a wine aficionado and a light parody of one. (He calls himself an "International Wine Mastermind and Authority Person slash Emperor.") They got him to film a series of amusingly quirky instructional videos about the state's wines.

Then, for the pièce de récommandation, they packaged the videos along with tons of minutia, data and facts about Washington wines into 100 iPad minis, wrapped them in fancy Recommendeuer boxes and shipped them to the influencers nationwide—a fun and comprehensive digital taste of Washington wines that they can knowingly swish around in their mouths and nonchalantly spit out again.

Check out videos, a poster and a case study of the campaign below.