Insight from Affinity Creative Group

Once again, Affinity Creative Group has received a bounty of accolades for their clients from several design competitions, including WBM PACK and Graphis Design Awards. To shine light on creating an award-winning package, and why it matters, we spoke with Ed Rice, President of Affinity Creative Group, a oneteam™ partner agency.

Awards DO Matter

Mr. Rice explains the very act of entering a design competition communicates confidence, reveals commitment to creativity and shows the value in making a marketing ‘statement’. Branding is all about differentiation. The willingness to compare your brand’s visual presentation to a range of other contenders says you’ve done your homework, you believe in your brand’s positioning and are unafraid to be judged, whether by professionals, the public or by the competition. Winning a design contest says a lot about your ability to partner with a creative agency, add appeal to your offerings and ‘know’ your customers. It also doesn’t hurt getting the recognition, honors and attention that accompanies award anointment. Great visibility, messaging and content are valuable incremental benefits of achieving recognition, particularly in today’s challenging marketing environment.

Same Principles Apply, Regardless of Segment

Ed emphasizes the principles for achieving success in design award accumulation apply across all segments of the wine category, albeit with modifications relative to your ‘home’ on the competitive landscape. “It’s all about understanding your customer, assessing your competitors and crafting a meaningful story, verbally and visually,” says Rice. To explain further, he reviewed recent competitive Affinity ‘wins’ for clients across a range of market segments: off premise, both popular and premium, and DTC/Luxury offerings.

Winning Awards Means Winning at Retail

“For instance, if you sell your wines off-premise in the highly competitive $10 to $20 range and you’re winning design competitions, you know your package design is working for you—attracting attention, creating intrigue and motivating purchase”, remarked Mr. Rice. Here, are a few examples of current Affinity client wins:

Coppola’s Vibrance Pinot Grigio, recently receiving Medal recognition from the 2024 WBM PACK Design Awards, exemplifies successful packaging in the premium retail category. With its focus on "better for you" attributes—low calorie and low alcohol—the judges commented on how Affinity’s design effectively and prominently highlights these features. The use of the distinctive brandmark and diamond device, with embossing and foil accents, underscores attributes of attention to detail, high quality and broad appeal.

Acidity Trip, with a Silver Medal win from Graphis, features a trio of wines with labels effectively telling the brand story, creating smiles and capturing attention on the shelf. The Graphis judging panel recognized how the vibrant colors and unique font choices aligned with the lively brand identity. They also noted practical considerations, like a screwcap closure, for consumers to enjoy the wine in casual settings.

Old Soul, another Silver Medal Graphis winner, presents a nostalgic yet playful design. Judges appreciated all aspects of the completely redesigned package featuring a custom illustration and embossed, gold-foil effects, (a big departure from the previous mono-color screenprint design). The new label design highlights both heritage and quality while appearing new and fresh in its retail competitive set.

Winning at Luxury Means Superior Signaling

“If you’re operating at the luxury level, selling your wines in the $80 to $150 range, and winning awards, your packaging design is truly sending the right signals. Collecting Medals from competitive creative contests suggests you’re doing great at conveying authenticity, exclusivity and narrative,” says Ed. He provides these two luxury success stories:

Paul Hobbs Wines garnered four awards via Affinity Creative’s delicate design treatments: From WBM PACK Design Awards, First Place in the Luxury category, a People’s Choice Award in the same category, and a People’s Choice Award in the Packaging Series category; plus a Silver Medal bestowed from Graphis. The judges noted the tasteful design refresh, while preserving all of the brand’s core identity elements. By updating leaf illustrations, color palettes, and incorporating gold foil, the packaging evolution improves and clarifies the portfolio tiering system, attracting new customers while retaining the brand equity relationship with existing loyalists. Ed added, “The four awards earned by our work on Paul Hobbs Wines, and other positive feedback in the industry, is proof positive of the close collaboration, clear communication and trusted partnership we’ve established together. We are incredibly honored to have influenced the continued success and increased trajectory of this storied brand.”

Force & Grace, a Graphis Silver Medal recipient, for their launch kit designed by Affinity Creative Group. Graphis judges noted the elegant use of black, the unique opening feature and the clever accommodation of a complementary silk scarf and detailed information card. All components work together in enhancing the unboxing experience.

Awards Aside, Design Does Matter
In conclusion, Mr. Rice adds, “Whether or not you elect to enter creative award competitions, I recommend you manage your packaging design efforts as though you are doing so. Paying attention to every square inch, every element and each word on your label, bottle and closure, will pay dividends, regardless of where, how or when you compete.”

About Affinity Creative Group:

Affinity Creative Group is an award-winning, multi-disciplinary agency dedicated to delivering exceptional work for great clients. With a focus on brand development, packaging, content creation, websites, and retail activation, we have spent the last decade overdelivering on objectives and producing exquisite results.

As we enter our next decade, we are proud to announce our strategic alliance with kabookaboo—a digital-first agency founded in 2001 by Ari Rollnick. Together, we form oneteam™, a modern partnership of two world-class agencies working together to capture attention and drive amazing results.

For more information about Affinity Creative Group, visit AffinityCreative.com or call 707.562.2787