Last Updated on April 14, 2021 by Drew Thomas Hendricks

Companies Who Have Revolutionized the Wine Unboxing Experience

There are always frontrunners for new and effective marketing techniques, and since wine unboxing experiences have been growing in popularity for some years now, we can take a look at some of the best examples of a successful unboxing experience and what individual brands are doing.

Empathy Wines

Empathy Wines does a great job as we can see in the above video of creating an exciting unboxing experience. To start with, they have utilized a branded box that lets customers know exactly what it is so they can anticipate the experience before opening it up.

What is really useful too is that they also have their social media address on one side. While the color of the exterior of the box is standard brown, the interior of the lid has their brand message with clean, white lettering over a vibrant orange background. And best of all, their message is directed right at the customer, saying:

“Hi there! We are Empathy, and we are rethinking wine from grape to glass because more empathy for the farmer and more empathy for you tastes better for everybody”.

Their box is also ergonomically designed so that the bottom edge folds down, allowing the interior box holding the wines to easily slide out. When customers fold down that bottom edge, they also see the company’s hashtag “#cheerstoempathy”, giving customers a cute little surprise branding that they can add to their social media posts.

In addition to the design of the box itself, Empathy Wines also included customized cards that provide the customer with information on the specific wine’s flavor profiles, background on the brand, and interesting info about the farmers who made the wine so that customers can immerse themselves in the story of the product they have purchased. They have even included quotes that reflect the philosophy of their brand on the corks of each bottle, so customers can collect corks that each have a unique quote.

Outshinery

Outshinery is a company devoted to wine photography, giving wine brands the best shots possible that would put their label on the front page of any magazine. And although the perfect shot of a bottle of wine isn’t necessarily going to revolutionize the unboxing experience, their additional “perfect together” wine-food pairing recipe kits will. Outshinery gives brands the ability to create their own wine-food pairing cards in either printed or digital formats, combining the best professional shot of the particular wine with a chosen recipe and tips on flavor combinations to ensure that customers aren’t just drinking the wine, but are using it in the kitchen as well.

Outshinery is really doing something special for wine brands with their production of unique pairing recipe kits, allowing both small and large brands to add a little something extra to the wine package.

Vine Oh!

Although Vine Oh! is a subscription-based provider of a wide range of products, not just wine, they are a great example of how to make an awesome unboxing experience. In the video, we can already see that from the very start, they have their brand printed in a large font on the side of the box, as well as custom packaging tape featuring their brand as well.

As the wines are unpacked from the box, along with the other items that are part of the subscription, we can see that Vine Oh! have included cards which have information about the wines, along with discount coupons which customers can use for ordering wine individually if they like what they received.

Since this particular package is Christmas-themed, they also included a wine tote bag with Christmas colors perfect for the season when you need the right bag to take your wine to a party. It is a great idea to customize packages and unboxing experiences for the season to tailor them for activities that the customer will likely be involved in.

Bright Cellars

Like our other examples, we can see straight away that Bright Cellars have their brand printed on the outside of the box so that customers can start getting excited before they even begin the opening process. And as the box is opened, we are greeted with a vibrant aqua-blue color that showcases the general vibe of the brand rather than boring and ordinary brown cardboard.

Atop the stack of wine bottles, we can see that there is a card with a message for the customer that says:

“Finish your happy dance! Your wine experience has arrived.

Pop the cork! This wine needs to breathe.

Taste like a pro! Add wine cards to your collection with every shipment.

We love your feedback. Rating helps fine-tune future matches.”

Bright Cellars have included in this package a collection of wine cards, one for each bottle in the order. These wine cards are like collectors’ items, similar to baseball cards, with the names and characteristics of each wine printed on them so that even after the bottles are empty and recycled, customers can focus on building their collection of wine cards and have a visual record of what they have tasted.

The specific design of the box is also a great example of how to design in anticipation of an exciting unboxing experience. Like the Empathy Wines example, the bottom edge of the box folds down, revealing the wines packed into two cardboard drawers for easy access. It may seem like a minor detail, but ensuring that the wine can be easily retrieved from the box in a novel fashion enhances the unboxing experience, since it shows that the brand has thought about making the entire experience easier for the customer.

Sandbox by Loupe Graphics

Rather than being a wine producer and vendor, Sandbox by Loupe Graphics has taken advantage of the unboxing movement and has based its business specifically on producing packaging for companies focused on a great unboxing experience. This removes the hassle for smaller brands in particular where printing anything, from boxes to brochures, can be a hassle when they can’t afford to have their own printing operations onsite.

Through Sandbox, wine producers can order branded boxes, customized brochures, cards, newsletters, and many more packaging items that place their brand front and center while telling a story.