Naked Wines launches ‘a party without the politics’ via Supermassive
Challenger wine brand Naked Wines has launched “a party without the politics” ahead of the election weekend, via a campaign starring comedian Matt Okine by Supermassive.
Hoping to cut through the election noise and spotlight the brand’s position as a category challenger, the campaign, ‘The Naked Wines After Party’ spotlights Naked Wines’ business model of “putting people before the politics”.
It taps into increasing voter fatigue and consumer desire for authenticity. This has long been Naked Wines’ mission, according to a media release, as it stands to disrupt the traditional wine industry and shift focus from vouchers to values.
Matt Okine, who fronts the campaign, encourages Aussies with the call out of ‘less whining, more wining’.
“This kind of work has been and will be instrumental to our success,” Naked Wines’ CEO Paul Connell told Mumbrella.
He said campaigns like the ‘After Party’ give the brand the cut through it needs.
“They allow Naked Wines to speak up, stand out, and draw in the right customers — when we don’t have the marketing budget of the big retailers. However it’s also about how our community and people show up every day — Angels [members], winemakers and our team behind our mission.”
Globally, Naked Wines has a new strategy, investing in brand storytelling to “help fulfill” its potential. According to Connell, the brand has had “two years of double-digit decline” in members — or ‘Angels’, so it hopes to come back to growth this year.
“In 2025 we reignited our community and the connection between Angels and winemakers in ways that not only improved retention but also created innovation, for example, a range of mid strength wines co-created by two winemakers and 50 Angels that sold out and has gone global.”
Connell said the brand is also taking a more disciplined approach to where, and how, it invests, and has also looked into its supply chain to better opportunities.
“Australia’s turnaround has been instrumental in validating this plan, but equally so has applying our own challenger mindset to ourselves to challenge, test and validate what we really need to do to unlock Naked’s potential,” he told Mumbrella.
While we hear that marketers sometimes like to keep their distance from politics, Naked Wines saw the upcoming election as an opportunity to “outsmart rather than outspend”, according to its creative agency Supermassive’s creative partner, Adam Smith.
“It was always going to be one of the biggest talking points of the year – so if we could hijack it in a way that didn’t politicise the conversation, but added to what Aussies were already laughing at, then we’d be on to a winner,” he said.
‘Human billboards’ feature as part of the campaign
“Beyond that, it was a lateral step that made a lot of sense for the brand. Naked Wines has almost 20 years of experience cutting through the nonsense of big wine retailers, and funnily enough, political parties practice a lot of the same guff. False promises, misleading claims, sneaky tactics designed to manipulate us into doing stuff.
“So we used the Naked Wines After Party as a way to not just cut through the nonsense of politics (and wine retailers), but as a vehicle to convey all the transparency, honesty, and fairness Naked Wines is famous for.”
Smith also acknowledged that the election would be a “divisive topic”, so the campaign was never about “having a go” at specific parties, politicians, or the democratic process.
Instead, what Supermassive and Naked Wines wanted to do was poke fun at the “guff” that surrounds it — much of which Smith said is represented through the political tropes throughout the campaign.
“It was one of the reasons we decided to go all in on creating a political party, from the branding and symbolism to the language we chose to subvert. The absurdity of Naked Wines creating a political party only added to the humour of it all too.”
The 60-second hero spot is supported by a radio and print ads. The campaign also features guerrilla-style roaming ‘human billboards’ which will hit high traffic political polling areas — including Martin Place, Bondi Junction, and Manly Wharf — in the lead-up to, and on, election day.
Credits:
Client: Naked Wines
Agency: Supermassive
Production: Mint Films
Director: Andrew Seaton
Design: Common Design
Audio: Sonar Music
PR: Supermassive
Influencer: Ernie
Media: Jac Media and Naked Wines in-house
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Lauren McNamara is the associate editor at Mumbrella, covering the agency beat. She joined in November 2022 as editorial assistant, after completing a Bachelor of Communications (Journalism) at UTS.
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topics
Adam Smith
Campaign
election
federal election
Matt Okine
Naked Wines
Paul Connell
supermassive
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