New Augmented Reality App Allows You To Personalize Your Wine

A collection of Loco Por Ti Pinot Noir from Qvivo Brands Inc. Photo courtesy of Qvivo Brands Inc.

Kali-Ray Skinner / Staff Writer

Wine aficionados can now use an app allowing them to personalize wine labels with animation, text and even videos through the wonders of augmented reality. 

FIU alumnus and founder of Qvivo Brands Inc., Tony Haber, first gained the idea for his app after attending a class with well-known poet Richard Blanco back in 2017.

Moved by Blanco’s poetry, Haber decided to bring his brand of wine into the 21st century with an artistic twist.  

“Wine has been around for thousands of years,” Haber explained. “It’s a very traditional, conservative movement in the wine business. Most labels are the same.”

Having graduated with a degree in business administration and marketing from FIU in 1998, Haber has worked in the alcohol industry for years and is currently about to graduate with a Bachelor’s in Fine Arts in creative writing.

Qvivo Brands Inc. app animating a wine label through smart phones. Photo courtesy of Qvivo Brands Inc. 

Haber’s app, launched March 6 of this year, allows a personalized experience for the buyer depending on the wine purchased.

Since Oct. 20, the app allows users to upload and send either homemade videos or links to videos from various platforms, and has proved to be quite handy in an age of social distancing.

“Now with COVID going on you know people are not supposed to be so close to each other–this is a great option,” said Haber. “You can send somebody a bottle of wine in Texas and send them a link and say ‘hey, happy birthday’ and instead of you not being there, they can see you on the bottle with the video.”

Operations with FIU students during the spring semester had to be suspended due to the ongoing pandemic.

Despite the setback, Haber is determined to market and expand his wine business.

Marketing manager, Alejandro Morales, works with four FIU students selected for the project to come up with a new look for the fall semester.

“We made a structure,” said Morales. “We already have a plan for social media, [and] a plan for a photo-shoot to make new professional pictures for the website.” 

They have also devised give-aways and contests to bring traffic to the businesses’ accounts and make connections with buyers. 

“We are growing our social media engagement,” explained senior business and analytics major Brandon Galindo, “we are having to discover ways to really get out there and get noticed and break the search engine optimization on Instagram.”

Because of the pandemic, the team had never met one another in person, making it difficult at first to coordinate the project all via Zoom. 

“Ever since we finally got to talk to each other in person it’s been easier to get ideas across and to schedule better when to get things done,” Galindo said. 

Junior international business major, Youjin Jung, also works on marketing Qvivo and its app, and has found her experience to be a welcome and exciting change.

“I have a personal Instagram account towards skincare but creating content for wine was definitely different from what I am doing so far so I learned different backgrounds, different analytics views, and searching for different ideas as well,” said Jung. 

The project also acts as a stepping stone for the students, providing them with real-world marketing experience and internship credit. 

“Also, to get the experience in their life so that when they go out of FIU, they can say we were the ones who built that brand to be a national brand,” explained Haber.

Along with the launch of the video component to the app, he also launched a new promotion as a part of purchasing his wine bottles from supermarkets, Fresco y Mas and Winn Dixie.

With the purchase of the bottle, the buyer will receive a wine bag and greeting card from here on out.

Haber’s wines are currently being sold in restaurants, supermarkets and stores around Florida. He plans to branch out and sell his merchandise and wine across the U.S.

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