Objective

Wine.com's pandemic-era growth surge was real. And revealing. As more people bought wine at home, the company saw a major spike in customers and revenue. But the surge exposed a structural problem: Wine.com was still largely associated with one-off transactions. People used it for a special bottle or a gift, then went back to their usual habits. The company had the ambition to become the first billion-dollar online wine retailer. Getting there required moving from a transactional store to a brand people would build a relationship with over time.

Strategy

Research into Wine.com customers and the broader category surfaced a high-value growth audience we called the Discoverer: wine buyers who are not just purchasing alcohol, but looking for exploration, stories, and something worth sharing with friends. This audience accounted for a disproportionate share of wine spending and over-indexed heavily toward online buying. We also identified the occasions where Wine.com had the clearest right to win, specifically those smaller social occasions at home, which were more planned and slightly elevated, the moments most likely to reward discovery. That insight became the foundation for repositioning Wine.com as the spark for a lifelong journey with wine, and led directly to the creative platform "This is Wine.com Country." The strategy shaped not just advertising but the full consumer-facing system: site experience, CRM, content, OOH, packaging, box inserts, and retail and shopper marketing.

Results

The work moved Wine.com from a transactional eCommerce retailer toward a more coherent, discovery-led brand. "This is Wine.com Country" was adopted across the full business, influencing what the company said, sold, shipped, displayed, emailed, advertised, and handed to customers. Internal marketing became more consistent and creatively expansive, with teams operating from a single strategic center. Brand awareness, purchase intent, and lifetime value all showed positive movement following the launch.