Art and Culture, Entertainment, Explorations, Service Design, Strategic Innovation

More and more, front yards have been replaced by lobbies and leisurely afternoon lawn mowings by quick after work elevator rides. The result? While greater numbers of living spaces are being filled and are under construction, there is a significant underdevelopment in social and spatial relationships.

A partnership between Design Within Reach and Wine.com, Vertical Vines is a series of monthly social mixers that help luxury condo dwellers transform themselves from simply being neighbors to living together as a community.

Drawing on their skill for conjuring intimate, living spaces by guiding customers through exploring and experiencing new and classic products, DWR hosts the evening and Wine.com brings the vintages. For condo dwellers, Vertical Vines presents an exclusive, but accessible, social setting to connect, interact and learn about the best in wine, furniture, lighting and other Tools for Living.

In addition to informal talks, tasting and testing that help them to differentiate Chilewich from Citterio or a carmenere from a cabernet, every guest is given an access card leading to a personalized online portal where they can track wines they’ve purchased or tried, use tools to plan their condo design and receive future invitations and special offers from DWR and Wine.com. For the partners, the access cards and personalized online portals provide a CRM platform to drive online and offline sales, create stronger brand affinity and allow for more granular segmenting and individualized messaging. Vertical Vines is held once a month at select luxury condos. DWR designs and furnishes each room, allowing guests to explore and experience their new and classic products. Wine.com curates a thematic wine menu for each event (paired with hors d’œuvres) that can be voted on in advance.

Guests can also pre-order their favourite wines and furniture for pick-up on site. Guests receive a card attached to their email address to be swiped each time they receive a glass of wine. The card forms the foundation of a CRM program allowing guests to redeem currency earned through product reviews, referrals and on-site purchases. In combination with the online experience, it is also used to deliver frictionless market research. For guests, it provides guests access to Wine.com mixers nationally.

For the partners, the access cards and personalized online portals provide a CRM platform to drive online and offline sales, create stronger brand affinity and allow for more granular segmenting and individualized messaging.

Case Study: Whine and Wine
Getting to know your neighbors is great, and what better way then over a glass of wine? But lets talk new mom’s. Who better to appreciate a nice glass of wine and a chat with, lets face it, an adult? Vertical Vines could provide a supervised play area for children, and the moms could sit, relax and enjoy some delicious wine and cheese while getting to connect with other moms. Considering we’re currently feeling a bit of another baby boom, the new-moms-market is definitely where its at.