Life in Tangerine: Sumptuous Ad for Orange Wine Shakes Off Category’s Stuffy Image

Fans of orange wine—a fast-growing tipple that’s become a darling of social media and a must-order at trendy bars—may know about the production process that gives the antioxidant-rich beverage its name and distinctive color.

For anyone outside that cocktail loop, a short primer: orange wine is also known as “skin contact” wine, so called because it’s made with white wine grapes that are left in contact with their skins. The resulting shades of orange change as the fermenting time varies.

By latching onto this technique, it might seem that canned wine startup Nomadica intends to speak mainly to the oenophiles among us in a just-launched ad campaign. But that’s far from the truth. 

For its most significant marketing push to date, the young brand brings the origin story to sultry life in a video series shot by director-actor-producer Lake Bell.

The campaign, dubbed “Skin Contact,” introduces Nomadica’s newest product, an Italian-inspired orange wine with a California twist, via a diverse cast of characters getting up close and personal with each other in friendly and romantic ways.

‘Tangerine-inspired world’

To communicate the drink’s cheeky vibe, the sustainably-minded brand’s founder and CEO Kristin Olszewski wanted the ads to be “sexy without being too serious” and “show people that wine doesn’t need to be pretentious or intimidating,” she told Adweek.

The message to consumers intends to be simple and approachable: “I don’t need to be a wine expert to enjoy this,” Olszewski said. “I just want to have fun and live in this tangerine-inspired world.”

The exec, one of the few female sommeliers in a largely male-dominated space, aimed to shed the stuffy image of wine marketing and related ad tropes, targeting the 25- to 35-year-old consumers who are fueling the ready-to-drink boom. 

“The big reason the wine category has been struggling in recent years is that brands are using the same old tricks to try to bring in new audiences,” Olszewski said. “We wanted to reinvent and do our own thing.” 

Tactile marketing

Bell, who’s now a creative advisor to the Los Angeles-based company, worked with Nomadica’s creative director Aiden Duffy on the hero ad and its vignettes.

“I really wanted this to be kinetic, to have a sense of movement, play and sensuality,” Bell told Adweek. “The idea of skin contact was a fun way to be quite literal and also symbolic.”

The campaign, shot in L.A.’s San Fernando Valley this spring with a female-heavy crew, features an age, race and gender-diverse cast, handled in a way that “didn’t feel contrived or pandering,” Olszewski said. That mix was a priority for the creatives and founder, who identifies as queer, because “it’s not a Pride month thing for us.” 

A few senior citizens also get the spotlight because Bell wanted to include young and older consumers, even though the promo push is intended mainly for millennials and Gen Z.

“I feel like the older generation gets lost in advertising,” Bell said. “They don’t get invited to the party, and it was important to me to represent a couple that’s at a different time in their lives.”

8,000-year overnight sensation

Also called macerated wine—which has ancient roots in Eastern Europe—orange wine has grown in popularity alongside the natural and organic wine movements.

Bon Appétit recently called it “an easy-to-order, 8,000-year overnight sensation” and “a welcoming deviation from the strict, impenetrable nature of a lot of corners of wine culture,” especially for casual drinkers.

Drizly orders have leaped 167% year over year, with researcher Fact.MR predicting it will be a $67 million global product in the next decade, growing from $40 million in 2022.

Nomadica—which also has rosé, whites, reds and sparkling wines in a product line that features custom-created artwork—sells direct to consumers in 46 states. Brick-and-mortar distribution has grown to 20 states, including Whole Foods, boutique wine shops, music venues, hotels and restaurants.

For its “Skin Contact” campaign, the company is buying out-of-home ads in New York and L.A., with Bell and the on-screen talent sharing videos and other assets on their social channels to amplify the paid social and digital media.