THE STONELEIGH PROJECT
BRIEF
In 2016, The Stoneleigh Hotel took patrons into a world where nature had claimed back an entire building — highlighting how the elements and the passage of time combine to change an environment.
Despite the success of converting Sydney’s abandoned Chippendale Hotel into a fairy tale garden of overgrown natural wonders — lush flora, creeping vines, moss-covered furnishings, grass — the ‘bar’ was set even higher in 2017.
Something more was needed. Something innately tied to the truth of the product. Something real.
STRATEGY
100% wild fermentation.
Made according to principles similar to that of sourdough bread, Stoneleigh’s Wild Valley™ range relies on naturally occurring airborne yeasts to activate the fermentation process that turns the juice from crushed grapes into wine.
The process is wildly unpredictable and can take three to four months — compared to three to four weeks with conventional fermentation — but produces wines of great complexity and textural depth.
It was this story we had to bring to life.
SOLUTION
The Stoneleigh Project — an art gallery happening that brought wild fermentation to life and let wine to go wild in the city.
An immersive and interactive wine tasting experience, pop-up vino bar and cellar door in the heart of Melbourne, The Stoneleigh Project was conceived as a visceral embodiment of the unique fermentation process comprised of flowing virtual rivers, ancient sunstones, rays of sunlight and floating wild yeast bubbles.
In collaboration with internationally-acclaimed artist Susi Sie, the exhibition interpreted natural elements chosen for their crucial role in the formation of Wild Valley™ wines. The juxtaposition of an empty warehouse in Flinders Street transformed into a choreographed sequence of haptic spaces showcasing the winemaking process was all part of the marketing strategy aimed at young, urban, foodie, professionals and the confluence of art and science.
On their journey through the exhibition, visitors could sample the Stoneleigh Wild Valley™ range — which included Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir — and could purchase more of the range from the Stoneleigh Pop-Up Wine Bar and Cellar Door.
WILD VALLEY
Susi Sie (1982) is a Berlin-based artist whose work moves between the fields of art and science. Her mission is to explore the physical and mathematical nature of unusual forms, substances and materials to show the hidden beauty and magic of our natural world that constantly surrounds us.
Handpicked for her strict devotion to the use of analog techniques (over computer animations or digital effects), Susi was commissioned by The Project Stoneleigh to create a study of the Wild Valley™ world of wild fermentation — a dance of droplets entwining the human circulatory system itself.
Mesmerising macro video art projections made from microscopic movements of Stoneleigh's Pinot Noir provided the backdrop for mist-filled bubbles and a floor-to-ceiling yeast strand installation that told the story of indigenous microflora, while a collection of prism mirrors in meticulously curated rooms channelled a 360-degree walkthrough of New Zealand’s Marlborough sub region.
WILD VALLEY, SUSI SIE (2017)
Director/Visual Artist: Susi Sie, Shooting Assistant: Remo Gambacciani, Producer: Lars Wagner, Music & Sound Design: Nikolai von Sallwitz. All scenes filmed with a RED Dragon and 100mm macro lens.
EFFECTIVENESS
Entry to The Stoneleigh Project was free to the public upon registration and ran from 13 October to 5 November 2017 at 524 Flinders Street, Melbourne.
Featuring a guest list of creatives, musicians, influencers and media powered by the Twitter handle @stoneleigh_au and #thestoneleighproject, this innovative 'viniculture' experience drew just under 1,000 unique visitors, as well as 3,886 mentions on social media.
All in just over three weeks.
Such was the success of Melbourne's The Stoneleigh Project that a limited-time Sydney experience is already in planning for March 2018.
MEDIA
BROADSHEET • CITY OF MELBOURNE • CONCRETE PLAYGROUND • TIME OUT
“THE STONELEIGH PROJECT IS A GREAT WAY TO CONCEPTUALISE THE WINEMAKING PHILOSOPHY OF STONELEIGH. THE ANCIENT RIVER STONES THAT PAVE THE VINEYARDS, THE RADIANT MARLBOROUGH SUNSHINE AND THE THOUSANDS OF NATURAL, WILD YEAST STRAINS IN THE VINEYARD ALL PLAY A PART IN GIVING STONELEIGH WILD VALLEY ITS RICH TEXTURE AND LUSH FRUIT FLAVOURS.”
Agency: Society • Role: Campaign Development, Artistic/Architectural Strategy & Curation, Experiential Design • Production: Electric Collective
cultivate what matters
BRIEF
The story behind St Hugo is steeped in mythology.
The Kyeema Air Disaster. The Best Friend. The Last Letter.
What was missing was a story for the story. Or more specifically, a strategic insight — a way into the brand, the bottle and the man himself.
Much like a viticulturalist’s careful consideration of soil, topography and climate, a strategic terroir was sought to elicit a top line creative rubric for initial ideation that would inform the final executions of a national campaign.
STRATEGY
In 1983, the St Hugo brand was created in memory of the late Hugo Gramp – inspired by the charming European tradition of naming vineyards after saints in order to bestow good fortune.
Continuing in his father’s earthen footsteps and driven by a vinous vision of producing exceptional vintages, Hugo’s son Colin immortalised a family dynasty — equal parts triumph and tragedy — with a modern interpretation of its legacy: outlast yourself.
SOLUTION
Working from this proposition, creative territories lead to thought starters, mood boards, manifestos and headlines that were underpinned by a proof of concept showing how each idea could come to life in key communications channels.
A mix of traditional and non-traditional ideas matured as campaign key visuals and print executions (including portrait and landscape variants based on personal anecdotes) — as well as digital formats, social videos, static social posts, and retail (bottle shop) POS extensions.
VIDEO VIGNETTES
Every bottle of St Hugo is sealed with patriarchal perpetuity grown from the roots of the Gramp family tree. Branches like Johann who cultivated the original vineyard, and his grandson Hugo who cultivated ambition by taking the company reins and those of its sacrosanct cellars.
And what does every hallowed wine cellar have in common? Dust. A fine, reverend film of powdered earthly particulate, resting upon contoured glass. In this way, the coating of settled dust was chosen as the medium upon which to dramatise the lineage of Hugo, with the very bottle itself becoming a canvas.
To commemorate this patrimony, the visceral omnipresence of dust and air captured beautiful, timeless portraits of Johann and his succession of sons (Gustav, Hugo and Colin) throughout the ages, with each unique vigneron’s face — unaffected by the passage of time — coming to life via the visual vocabulary of wine.
PRINT AND VIDEO EXECUTIONS BY ANALOGFOLK CREATIVE DEPARTMENT
EFFECTIVENESS
Just like a flagship bottle of St Hugo Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon, it’s what’s inside that truly preserves the legacy.
For Hugo Gramp, it was the next generation. For Colin Gramp, it was the grand narrative. And for our commissioned dust artist Nikita Golubev, it was a rarefied opportunity to eternalise a famous timeline of milestones, lessons and traditions as told by four generations of legendary Australian oenologists.
The campaign went live in the second quarter of 2017 with metrics yet to show fruition.
“REALLY GOOD STUFF AND THANKS FOR TURNING IT AROUND SO QUICKLY. GOOD PRESENTATION…THE CLIENT REALLY LOVED A LOT OF ELEMENTS FROM ALL THREE ROUTES. WE ARE IN A REALLY GOOD PLACE TO TAKE IT FROM HERE.”
THE ORIGINAL BARON OF THE BAROSSA — VALE COLIN GRAMP AM (1921-2020)
Agency: AnalogFolk • Role: Ideation, Creative Territories, Campaign Development • Production: AnalogFolk