THE BRIEF
Halloween is one of the biggest commercial moments for alcohol brands, making it a fiercely competitive battleground. To reinforce its bold, unconventional brand spirit, 19 Crimes needed more than a conventional Halloween campaign. We created a culturally relevant experience inspired by a simple truth about its audience.
THE KILLER INSIGHT
Gen Z has fallen out of love with modern dating. Endless swiping, repetitive conversations and, above all, being ghosted have made dating feel predictable and uninspiring.
Halloween gave 19 Crimes the perfect opportunity to bring that insight to life. Instead of simply talking about ghosting, we turned it into an immersive dating experience that only a rebellious wine brand like 19 Crimes could deliver.
THE RED THREAD IDEA
Introducing Read & Buried – a Halloween-inspired antidote to dating apps that turned ghosting into the ultimate dating experience. Designed for singles ready to break free from the swipe cycle, it offered a refreshingly unconventional way to find love.
In partnership with a celebrity medium, we transformed a London crypt into an immersive matchmaking event where guests were paired with ghostly suitors who had quite literally moved on, each searching for the love of their afterlife.
The result was a disruptive brand activation that reimagined modern dating through the lens of 19 Crimes, creating a Halloween moment unlike anything the wine category had seen before.
THE IMPACT
Read & Buried sold out completely, generated more than 40 pieces of national coverage and reached almost 200 million people, with Londoners queuing for a dating experience unlike anything they’d tried before.
By turning a relatable dating truth into a culturally relevant brand experience, 19 Crimes proved that breaking category conventions is what gets people talking.
