ESCAPE ORDINARY

Decoy, a wine brand beloved since its inception in 1985, was on the hunt for help breaking out of the wine industry’s standard advertising mold. Offering a wide array of top tier varietals, the brand holds top 10 positions for many of them (and even sits atop the hill as the best-selling premium cabernet sauvignon). While the wines were top notch the brand wasn’t building a mythology to match.

Enter Here Be Dragons. We tapped our Creative Collaboration™ approach to work hand-in-hand with our clients exploring, refining, and executing a campaign that elevated the beloved duck that stars on every label Decoy. Coming to life straight off the label, our Decoy sought to inspire drinkers with moments of authentic originality that brought some more zest to their gatherings. The same spice for life the Decoy brand originally inspired as a unique expression of the Duckhorn portfolio.

We thought as strategically about production as campaign development. Joining the Holiday and Spring campaign productions together, we were able to efficiently deliver assets that maximized the production investment. In executing we also built assets for maximum flexibility so that Holiday Campaign learning could be applied to Spring Campaign finalization against a new set of media formats.

The Holiday Campaign—rolling out across OLV, on and offline radio, outdoor, digital display, and social media—launched in November to kick start the brand’s holiday season sales push. The campaign (video in particular) delivered CTRs at some of the highest rates Decoy had ever seen and delivered elevated shopping cart additions and online wine shop purchases.

The Spring Campaign launched in late March 2025 with CTV, digital, and outdoor components. Stay tuned here for results this Summer.