Case Study: Living Wine Labels - AR Innovation That Transformed an Industry

Company: Treasury Wine Estates
Project: Living Wine Labels AR Experience
Role: Product Manager & Technical Lead - Full product ownership including roadmaps, engineering leadership, data analytics, and celebrity collaboration production
Timeline: 2018-2020
Impact: Industry's first large-scale wine label AR implementation, 2.5M+ activations, celebrity partnerships with Snoop Dogg and Martha Stewart

The Challenge

Treasury Wine Estates faced a critical market positioning challenge in an oversaturated wine industry:

• Market saturation: 4,000+ new wine brands launched annually in a $63B market

• Consumer decision-making: 64% of wine purchases based solely on label appeal

• Demographic shift: Need to engage millennial consumers in declining wine category

• Brand differentiation: Standing out among hundreds of thousands of competing wines

• Retail environment: Clean store policies limiting traditional marketing approaches

Core Problem: How do you create memorable brand experiences that drive purchase decisions in a commoditized market where visual appeal determines success?

Strategic Approach

Market Analysis & Opportunity Identification

• Identified AR as emerging technology with untapped potential in CPG

• Analyzed competitor landscape: no major wine brands leveraging immersive technology

• Consumer insight: storytelling drives emotional connection and brand loyalty

• Technical feasibility: smartphone AR capabilities reaching mass adoption threshold

Product Vision

Transform static wine labels into interactive storytelling experiences that:

• Differentiate Treasury Wine Estates brands at point of purchase

• Create shareable, viral marketing moments

• Build emotional connection through historical narratives

• Establish TWE as innovation leader in traditional industry

Implementation & Execution

Technical Product Development & Leadership

Full Product Ownership: Led complete product lifecycle from conception through launch, managing all product roadmaps, technical specifications, and engineering team coordination

Multi-Brand AR Platform: Developed comprehensive AR framework supporting 5 separate brands with multiple labels and varietals within each brand (19 Crimes, The Walking Dead, Chateau St. Jean, Beringer Bros., Gentleman's Collection)

Engineering Leadership: Directly led engineering teams through complex technical challenges including real-time computer vision, 3D animation rendering, and global content delivery systems

Data Analytics & Insights: Implemented comprehensive analytics using MixPanel to track user engagement, activation rates, and conversion metrics. Created executive dashboards and presented data-driven insights to C-level stakeholders, demonstrating ROI and informing product strategy decisions

Core Features Delivered:

• Real-time label recognition and tracking

• High-quality character animations and voice narratives

• Social sharing integration with viral amplification

• Multi-bottle recognition capability

• Global content management system

• 25 unique AR experiences across 11 global brands in 10 languages

Celebrity Integration & Production Management: Led full production coordination for celebrity partnerships including Snoop Dogg's Cali Red line and Martha Stewart's Martha's Chard, working directly with Cashmere agency to manage talent coordination, content creation, and AR experience development

Go-to-Market Strategy

Phased Rollout: Started with 19 Crimes brand featuring historical convict stories Channel Integration: Seamless retail experience requiring only smartphone camera Content Strategy: Authentic historical narratives creating educational entertainment

Cross-Functional Leadership

• Engineering: Led technical teams through AR tracking algorithms, performance optimization, and scalable architecture decisions

• Creative: Directed character development, narrative scripting, and celebrity content production

• Marketing: Pioneered "Brand in Hand Marketing" - a new category of experiential marketing that transforms product packaging into interactive media experiences

• Celebrity Management: Coordinated high-profile partnerships with Snoop Dogg and Martha Stewart, managing production workflows with Cashmere agency

• Legal: Navigated complex celebrity licensing, historical accuracy requirements, and international trademark considerations

• Operations: Managed global content localization, deployment, and ongoing platform maintenance

• Analytics: Owned all data strategy and stakeholder reporting using MixPanel, providing actionable insights that drove product iterations and business decisions

Key Decisions & Trade-offs

Technology Choice: Selected marker-based AR over markerless for reliability

• Trade-off: Required specific label positioning vs. more flexible interaction

• Rationale: Prioritized consistent user experience over convenience

Content Approach: Historical accuracy over dramatic interpretation

• Trade-off: Educational tone vs. purely entertainment focus

• Rationale: Built authentic brand story supporting premium positioning

Platform Strategy: Custom app vs. web-based AR

• Trade-off: User acquisition friction vs. technical capabilities

• Rationale: Advanced features required native app performance

Results & Impact

Business Metrics

• Massive Scale: Over 2.5M+ activations since mid-July 2020 for celebrity collaborations alone

• Category Leadership: Became "wine industry's most loved augmented reality app"

• Celebrity Impact: Successfully launched Snoop Cali Red as 19 Crimes' premiere California entry through multiyear partnership and Martha Stewart's Martha's Chard line

• Brand Innovation: Created "Brand in Hand Marketing" - new experiential marketing category adopted across CPG industry

• Global Scale: Successfully increased awareness and sales globally through immersive bottle experiences

• Industry Recognition: Won multiple innovation awards including Effie Awards

Product Performance & Analytics

• User Engagement: MixPanel analytics revealed 85%+ completion rates for AR experiences

• Viral Amplification: Social sharing features generated organic reach exceeding paid media campaigns

• Celebrity Multiplier Effect: Snoop Dogg collaboration drove 300%+ increase in brand awareness among target demographics

• Cross-Platform Success: Seamless experiences across iOS/Android with 4.8+ app store ratings

• International Adoption: Successful localization across 10 languages and global markets

• ROI Documentation: Presented comprehensive analytics to stakeholders demonstrating clear correlation between AR engagement and purchase intent

Strategic Outcomes

• Positioned TWE as technology innovation leader in traditional industry

• Created competitive moat through first-mover advantage

• Established scalable platform for future brand activations

• Influenced industry adoption of AR marketing strategies

Lessons Learned

Product-Market Fit: Successfully identified the intersection of celebrity culture, premium wine positioning, and emerging AR technology to create unprecedented consumer engagement

Data-Driven Iteration: MixPanel analytics enabled rapid product improvements - user behavior data revealed optimal interaction patterns that informed UX decisions and drove 40%+ engagement improvements

Celebrity Partnership Complexity: Managing high-profile talent requires specialized production workflows, legal frameworks, and content approval processes that traditional product development doesn't address

Technical Scalability: Early architecture decisions around computer vision and content delivery proved critical when celebrity partnerships drove 10x traffic spikes

"Brand in Hand Marketing" Innovation: Established entirely new marketing category where product packaging becomes the primary media channel - approach now adopted across multiple CPG categories

Cross-functional Leadership: Success required unprecedented coordination between traditional marketing teams, celebrity management, AR engineering, and data analytics - experience taught me to bridge diverse expertise domains effectively

Next Steps & Evolution

The success of Living Wine Labels demonstrated the viability of AR in CPG and established framework for future innovations. This project laid groundwork for expanded immersive experiences across Treasury Wine Estates' global portfolio and influenced industry-wide adoption of interactive packaging technologies.

Key takeaway: By identifying the intersection of emerging technology capabilities and unmet consumer needs, we created a breakthrough product experience that redefined category expectations and delivered measurable business impact.