The average Austrians are wine drinkers. The fact is: Two-thirds of Austrian wine are already consumed domestically — the local population is serious about it. What is less known: Just as delicious as Austrian wine is also the local sparkling wine. Once immersed in the world of Austrian sparkling wine, there is no turning back. Because Austria — as well as the Sparkling Wine Committee — is a bonbon box of different styles, production methods, and signatures.

In order to make Austrian sparkling wine competitive in the international competition of top sparkling wines, such as Champagne, Cava, Franciacorta, Prosecco, and Crémant, the association responsible for Austria (ÖSK) desired a stronger flavor profile for Austrian sparkling wine. This was tied to a production pyramid with three levels: Sekt Austria, Sekt Austria Reserve, and Sekt Austria Grand Reserve.

Before the design phase, it was about getting a comprehensive impression aside from a briefing. We quickly realized that within the committee, there were two large camps with firm opinions and attitudes. Within this process, it was important to develop a consensus for large sparkling wine producers as well as small winemakers. For this, we reflected on personal dispositions with our market research, found unified ways for the fundamental brand distribution, and individual approaches on stages serving different target audience milieus. The result was a brand model that allowed sparkling wine to be a changing product. Just as wide as the range in the lower part of the production pyramid is, so is the diversity of different target groups.

In our studies, we found that average consumers did not know the difference between Prosecco, sparkling wine, Frizzante, and other sparkling wines. It was also little known that sparkling wine almost always has a more elaborate production process than Prosecco (and therefore: usually better in quality) and that Frizzante is just a wine with added carbon dioxide. The basis for a deeper sparkling wine culture, which we needed to build in Austria, therefore had to be a deeper understanding of the product. For this, we needed the help of gastronomy and markets. A plan was created in several stages.

This goal, actively developing its own culture around a product that was dustier in the minds of consumers than its siblings who often possess less quality, is a difficult task to master. What it needed was a design system that performs at several focal points and creates the stage for a holistic experience.

Thus, beside a band for the bottle, a modular system of the components that were important was created: A signet for the bottle, the respective quality level of the sparkling wine in the form of the sparkling wine pyramid, a combinable logo that adjusts depending on the field of application without losing the look, an overarching concept for a dramaturgy in image and video, and a tone for initial campaigns.

This project was developed within the framework of strategic workshops and a subsequent pitch and currently rests with several sister strategies at OESK. We look forward to further implementations.