Dear Mr Sarkozy, Give Domaine Lous Grezès to Belgium

Background

Domaine Lous Grezès is a vineyard in the south of France owned by a Belgian couple. Their wines are organic, well-made and not cheap. With Christmas coming up, they wanted to mail Flemish-speaking people back in Belgium about their products.

Idea

6,000 people were mailed a letter, which was not addressed to them. It was addressed to the President of France. A Post-It note was attached, which said: ‘Please could you send this on to M. Sarkozy?’. The recipients were also asked to sign the letter before sending it, thereby ensuring it was sent in their name. A translation of the letter and an envelope addressed to the Elysée were enclosed.

What the letter said was, in effect: 'Dear Mr Sarkozy, there is a small part of France which is a source of great national pride to all Belgians. Domaine Lous Grezès. It’s only a few hundred square metres, so why not give it to Belgium?' The letter also made it clear that Belgians could buy Lous Grezès wines with a 15% discount.

Results

11% of the target group went online and placed an order. The French President received well over 100 letters asking him to declare that small patch of France to be Belgian. He hasn’t answered yet.

Target audience

Dutch-speaking Belgians, social class 1-4.

Our Thoughts

650 responses. That’s around 10,000 bottles sold. €100,000 of income. Not bad for a mailing which cost little but was big on cheek. It would have been all too easy to concentrate on the wines and how delicious they are; on how the grapes are lovingly nurtured, etc etc. That’s what everybody else does. Instead, the agency thought they’d try to make Belgians feel proud of what is, after all, their wine. They call themselves Famous – which is a wonderfully bold declaration of intent. More work like this and they will be.