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Penfolds






A DIGITAL WINE EXPERIENCE

The Australian category in the U.S. is generally perceived to be cheap, mass wines – largely driven by big commercial brands like Yellow Tail. Penfolds, an Australian winery with a rich and lauded history, needed a way to tell this story, despite public misconception. As part of the campaign to change hearts and minds (and palates), I led the development of an immersive and interactive touch table experience to help Penfolds improve its brand perception and firmly establish itself as a high-end label through tasting events, experiences, and education in the American market.

Disciplines:
Strategy | Creative Direction | UX/UI 





Our guiding principle for the experience was that people overwhelmingly wanted to be led by an expert for a premium wine tasting, but with the freedom to explore on their own. The table allowed guests to interact independently during a tasting, while the expert poured wine and provided supplementary details about the product.



Guests had access to detailed information about the exact wine they were drinking in real life, plus the ability interact with the table to uncover images, history, tasting notes, and more.



Each experience and presentation is customizable. Presenters were able to tailor their presentation to each group, choosing only the relevant wines. During a wine tasting event, the presenter can slide a coaster to each guest as they join the tasting. Coasters are added at any point in the presentation, allowing a fluid and continuous experience for all involved. Content specific to the wine being tasted are loaded in each participant’s virtual coaster as the experience progresses. This enables a tailored, non-linear experience for each guest. Coasters contain both static and interactive content for the participant to browse. The presenter can activate a presentation mode to showcase video, imagery or maps which temporarily disables the individuals coasters and takes over the entire table.





To complete the experience, each participant would receive a recap email of their tasting with information about each wine they tasted, their own tasting notes and the ability to purchase those wines via the ecommerce site.








RESULTS


Following the successful debut of the touch table wine tasting experience at the Food & Wine Festival in Aspen, Colorado the tables now reside at dedicated retail environments in the Sydney and Melbourne international airports in Australia.