The scope didn't fit. The shoot didn't cooperate. The wine never noticed.

The wine had spent years on a clean background. We shot it like a fashion campaign instead: a curated scene of a life you want in on, and a wine you buy to open with someone rather than to keep.

ROLE

Creative Direction · Art Direction · Social and E-Commerce Content · Scope and Resource Planning · Production Leadership · Client Partnership

CLIENT

Silver Oak

AGENCY

BASIC/DEPT

SCOPE

Photography, stop motion, email, social, e-commerce

THE CHALLENGE

Silver Oak had always kept it clean visually. A new marketing director wanted to shake it up, attract a more youthful audience, and show people this was the bottle you bring when you want to impress someone who actually knows wine. That meant reading aspirational, timeless and on-trend at once, without losing the people who already took the brand seriously. And the budget didn't match the ambition of the work.

WHAT I DID

Two launches on one launch's budget. The client wanted the new world across two launches and could afford one. I restructured how the account was scoped, stacking projects into a tandem, layered waterfall schedule with the producer, and both fit, including the holiday campaign they actually wanted.

Set a direction that made it a social wine. Rich jewel tones, lived-in and youthful propping, and a voyeuristic camera, with an art director on the account handling day-to-day execution. A quiet status symbol you'd want in on, rather than one to shelve.

Kept it upright when it fell apart. Early on day two, with the client already in the hotel lobby, our photographer tested positive for Covid. We faced the decision to reschedule or make a heroic effort to salvage the shoot. The call was mine to make, so I made it. New photographer sourced, on set and up to speed by midday, four days of shot list compressed into three, and the full product list still covered by repurposing setups and swapping bottles against the client's own knowledge of which products would never appear together. As the only creative representing the agency on the ground I ran every role on set, including line producing.

IMPACT

Two launches delivered against the budget for one

Grew the scope of work on the account

Multiple campaigns delivered on time and on budget, against a scope the agency's standard model could not accommodate

The content came out beyond expectations