RUINART CHAMPAGNE WINDOWS AT JEROBOAMS

Presenting Sustainable Luxury

After 2 years of research and development, Maison Ruinart was set to launch their new eco-designed Second Skin in wine merchant Jeroboams with window displays that would see sales increase up to 144%.

Ruinart Second Skin is a luxurious gift packaging alternative to gift boxes and a sustainable innovation in ‘conscious luxury’. Made of 100% natural wood fibres, the Second Skin paper case is moulded to the shape of the Champagne bottle and entirely recyclable, which reduces the bottle packaging carbon footprint by an astounding 60%.

It also has a greater life span than gift boxes, being suitable for storage for several months in a fridge and able to withstand the humidity of a cellar or up to three hours in an ice bucket. So instead of being disposed of immediately like other gift packaging, the Second Skin can be used until serving or longer, maintaining the integrity of the wine.

A key objective of the windows was to deliver the unique sustainability message of the Second Skin. From customer feedback, Ruinart knew their customers desired something different with more storytelling. This approach to the window displays would see a sales increase of 144% on their Rosé and 94% on their Blanc de Blancs.

Crafting The Window Story

Ruinart asked Impact to bring the product’s story to life in these windows and support in the design, production and installation of the eight elegant displays in each of the Jeroboams’ store windows. The objectives of this retail project were to:

build strong awareness of the Second Skin and its sustainability message,
enhance understanding of the product and its difference,
build desirability with the consumer.

The project targeted the 25-35 eco-conscious millennial and premium goods consumer, who may be an amateur of good wine but open to purchasing something different to enjoy themselves or as a gift. The brief from the brand was to focus on the Blanc de Blancs and Rosé wines in the presentation, and for the displays to appear elegant yet innovative, with a premium and natural look and feel.

An intricate challenge, we worked from inspiration visuals provided by the brand of their vision for the project and designed eight varying Ruinart window displays focusing on natural materials and luxurious details, showcasing the Blanc de Blancs and Rosé wines with the Second Skin packaging and its key messaging.

From customer feedback, Ruinart knew their customers desired something different, less corporate with more storytelling. The brand wanted these windows to be creative and impactful, each one unique that would get shoppers talking. Our designs aimed to celebrate and visually tell the story of the 100% paper-craft of this new packaging and its Ruinart Crayère inspiration with creativity, surprise and elegance.

Our design theme for each store concept was ‘abstract paper’. The Second Skin is a minimalist paper cloak that features a silky yet textured surface, with its colour and texture inspired by the Ruinart Crayère, the historic chalk galleries that act as Maison Ruinart’s wine cellars in Reims. The shaping is inspired by how maîtres d’s present champagne, wrapped in a white serviette to highlight the bottle silhouette. With this in mind, we crafted paper elements with unique shapes and textures, such as concertina layered forms, textural edge details and unique sculptures to bring the Second Skin paper craft story to life. In some stores paper podiums were also constructed with a chalk-like finish to give the impression of the crayeres, presenting bottles atop.

While embodying the sustainability ethos, the Second Skin also maintains every bottle’s luxurious character, and we ensured that while evoking this natural feel, the luxury of the brand was woven into every element of each window story. To make each window coordinated yet unique we varied elements across locations to give each one its own individual feel.

Some stores, like Belgravia, Pont Street, featured a luxurious paper banner backdrop with branding embossments inspired by the Second Skin’s imprint on the closure of the prestigious Ruinart monogram. Other stores like Knightsbridge featured creative layering of paper to form a bottle shape, with messaging featuring on window vinyl to enhance the 3D construction of the display.

Within the intriguing layering, natural wood podiums present the champagne bottles at different heights to create an impressive centrepiece. In the Belgravia, Elizabeth Street, store the Champagne is suspended mid-air within the layered bottle shapes.

The elements offer a simple yet expertly crafted aesthetic to present the product ethos, build desirability and charm shoppers passing by.

Conscious Luxury

This exciting project from Ruinart leads the way in showcasing the need for luxury brands to focus innovation on sustainability and present engaging sustainable stories to shoppers.

While luxury may previously have had connotations of excess and extravagance, a need to flip the narrative and tell authentic sustainability stories is powered by Millennials and Generation Z driving 85% of global luxury sales growth, who desire brands to be aligned with their own values.

One study showed that 73% of Millennials were willing to spend more on a product from a sustainable or socially conscious brand. In addition, 81% of Millennials expect brands they choose to be transparent and actively talk about their sustainability impact. [Luxe Digital, Sustainable Luxury: Millennials Buy Into Socially Conscious Brands].

Crafting ‘a return to nature and to the natural’, the Second Skin innovation aims to reduce waste and recycle materials without compromising the Champagne experience or taste. Staying true to the guiding ethos on natural materials and sustainability, we used recycled paper, non-PVC window stickers and natural wood to craft each creative and impactful display.

Key sustainability messages were communicated with reader-friendly icons, either applied to the window or printed on paper banners. These key product messages included: recyclable, CO2 emission reduction, raw materials savings, FSC certified, made in Europe, water management, and zero air freight policy.

This messaging addresses many of the main issues that resonate with Conscious Luxury consumers, and they are a key focus in each display to educate shoppers on the authentic approach to sustainability with this product.

We love how this project shows that a sophisticated collaboration of aesthetics, authenticity and goodness will prove hugely successful with eco-conscious luxury consumers.

Jeroboams

With a history dating back to 1934 and trading on the high street since 1985, wine merchant Jeroboams’ eight unique stores across London each offer their own unique and welcoming environment for wine shoppers. Each boutique retail space offered the perfect backdrop for its own outstanding and creative window display to launch the prestigious Ruinart Second Skin.

Sparkling On The High Street

An aim of the brand was to achieve an increase in their Champagne sales by 25% and the project smashed this target, with a year-to-date increase of 144% on the Ruinart Rosé and 94% on the Blanc de Blancs. We are proud to have been able to work on such a fantastic example of a luxury brand celebrating sustainability and responsibility. We love how this project shows that a sophisticated collaboration of aesthetics, authenticity and goodness will prove hugely successful with eco-conscious luxury consumers.