The Sfriso Winery is offering cash prizes for designers that can create them a new wine label and then encourage others to sell it as part of its new Project 6000 competition.
Italian wine producers, Reka and Pier Haros, have been putting on a brave face – and entertaining the wine industry – during Covid-19. They’re now looking to sell some wine that had been ordered for the US market – but now cancelled – with its new 6000 Project competition
One of the striking aspects of the Covid-19 lockdown is how it has brought the very best out of people in terms of the level of collaboration, support, and help there has been across the global drinks industry.
Retailers and importers have done what they can to work with their producers to help find new and innovative ways to keep sales and cash flow moving, even when wines are stuck in lockdown. But as more producers across the world, and particularly in Europe, come out of weeks of not being able to move and sell vast quantities of wine, the big worry now is do they have enough time to sell and move it before their next harvest is ready to pick and re-fill those same tanks with the 2020 vintage?
Reka Haros of the small, family Sfriso Winery in Veneto, explains the situation it is in: “During this past 100 plus days (since we started going under the first restrictions) the difficulties were many and never-ending, and now that the storm is passing, we looked around and found ourselves with a rather big problem. Our US importer’s distribution fell through thanks to Covid-19, and we are now left with a 1,000-cases-of-wine problem to solve. That is 6,000 bottles of unlabelled, unnamed Prosecco without a home to call their own.”
She adds: “2020 has wreaked havoc on so many of us. But, as a small, family-owned winery, we still have to figure out what to do with all this awesomeness. We have three choices. Count it as a loss. Drink it. Or try something different.”
Which is exactly what they are doing with their new wine label competition, launching on The Buyer today, that is effectively giving designers an empty canvas on which they can let their imaginations run.
“We are opening it up to the creatives of the world. We are giving our ‘undressed’ bottles up for new design,” is how Haros describes the opportunity. It will then throw the shortlisted designs open to the trade for people to vote on their favourite one.
The concept
(Here Reka and Pier explain in their own words what the 6000 Project is all about and how the wine trade community can get involved)
She explains how the competition is going to run: “We are asking them to design the front label. And get the word out so people pre-order cases of these 6,000 bottles of Prosecco with a brand new label design. The more people buy, the higher the reward for the winning designer and the second and third runners-up. After all, this is a competition with a monetary prize that depends on how many cases we pre-sell. The voting will be online and open for everyone who wants to have a saying in the final choice.”
The competition has been named ‘The 6000 Project’ and Haros is particularly keen to see ideas and creatives that match the times we are all living through. As she says: “The design theme is simple: Let your mind go free. Don’t think ‘wine world’. Think ‘your’ world. Design a Prosecco label you’d be proud to open with friends and family. What’s inside is already extraordinary.”
She admits these are worrying times for the future of their winery, but it is also an opportunity to respond by doing things very differently. “It’s a test, it’s a first, it’s a trial because losing more money is not an option for a small winery like ours,” she adds. “Letting Covid-19 win is totally out of the question. And, to be honest, we are all going to need bubbles to celebrate the end of 2020.”
She adds: “The main audience for the first phase of the launch are the creatives of the world because we need them to participate with the design creation. The secondary audience is everyone else who wants to help us by pre-ordering cases of the Prosecco and find new homes for these 6,000 bottles. The more they do, the more money potentially there is for the creatives.”
How it works
Pier Sfriso with just some of the cases of wine that the winery needs to sell
Finding a good design is only part of the initiative as the project’s success will depend on how many bottles are pre-sold. Sfriso needs to sell at least 900 (150 cases of 6x bottles) in order for it to be viable. Here’s how it is going to work:
- Sfriso is running the project on a break even basis with any profits being passed to the “amazing creatives that help us with the process”.
- The rewards for the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd places will depend on the number of cases Sfriso manages to pre-sell through to August 16, 2020. “The more people buy, the higher the compensation,” says Haros.
- If it sells up to 200 cases the winner will receive €500, 2nd place €250 and 3rd €200.
- If it sells the full allocation of 1,000 cases the winner will receive €3,500, 2nd €2,400 and 3rd €1,900.
- With different ratios between 200 cases and 1,000 cases.
- The top 10 finalists will receive a case of six bottles of Prosecco when it is released.
Sfriso is looking to put all “received and accepted designs” up for public voting to find the overall winner.
To Pre-order
The project will succeed or fail based on the number of pre-orders Sfriso can get for the wines by August 16. If you would like to make a claim for some of the cases you can do so here, each bottle costs €14.50 including taxes. Free shipping in Europe for two cases and more.
The competition is open from now until July 19 and full details on how to enter are available on the www.the6000project.com website.
- If you would like any more information then contact Reka Haros at reka@sfrisowinery.com.
