Launching Penfolds Collection Virtually
Over the past 175 years, Penfolds has become renowned for its unique style of wine from its beautiful home in South Australia. When the time came to launch its new Californian Collection to the US and world, it was only natural that South Australian companies would work hand in hand with Penfolds and its global partners in spreading the news to the world. Adelaide’s 57 Films and Novatech Creative Event Technology were engaged by American marketing firm, 9Rooftops to work with their partners and ensure that the closure of international borders was not a restriction in bringing a unique introduction to the new collection.
With international borders closed, a solution needed to be found on how to ensure Penfolds’ winemakers in South Australia could talk to the world about the historic journey of creating the Penfolds Californian Collection. Penfolds engaged 9Rooftops in the US to design a campaign and launch that would engage key stakeholders across the globe and give them a fitting introduction to the wine. 9Rooftops in turn engaged 57 Films in Australia to produce the Australian side of the event, which required the use of a custom studio to base the presentation out of for the livestream.
As a long-term partner of 57 Films and having worked on some of South Australia’s most unique events such as the Business SA 175th anniversary dinner, it was a natural fit that Novatech would provide the technical production for the livestream studio in Adelaide. Novatech has been involved in a variety of high-profile livestreams, virtual events and hybrid events, so they understand the risks, challenges and technology needed to stage a reliable and successful online event.
With 57 Films based at the South Australian Film Corporation’s Adelaide Studios, it was a natural fit to base the livestream in Studio 2 of the Adelaide Studios. Novatech then overlayed the necessary infrastructure required including all lighting, audio and vision systems which featured a unique curved 9m x 2.4m ROE Visual LED screen that formed the backdrop of the studio and allowed for stunning imagery from both South Australia, Napa Valley and the wines themselves to be displayed throughout the stream.
Novatech then fed the live Adelaide feed to Market Partners in the UK who compiled the streams from Adelaide, San Francisco, and Napa Valley. This enabled interactions between the sites before being mixed into a full production broadcast quality livestream that could be viewed around the world. Being able to interact live with the various sites was key to the interview and live wine tasting components where the winemaker tasted the new wines and took Q&A’s from participants live.
“Contracting Novatech for the technical production on this nuanced and multi-stakeholder job was a no-brainer, our businesses have a history of collaborating on successful projects over the years and Novatech always delivers an excellent technical set up for live events. It was a challenge to get this complicated project synced around the globe, especially with the different time zones, however the joint effort of both teams resulted in a seamless and polished live-stream event. We received a lot of commendatory feedback on the launch and working with the Novatech team made the process streamlined and efficient,” expressed 57 Films Producer, James Moody.
Organising virtual events involves a multitude of aspects, which require thorough planning, professional, high-performing technology, as well as flexibility and preparation for a variety of scenarios, all of which Novatech understand and are experienced in. The partnership of Novatech and 57 Films working together with the global firms on this campaign just demonstrates how strong collaborations across the globe can stage events such as livestreams even with international travel restrictions.
