Taittinger has hit the ground running in 2019, launching a new, decidedly intimate advertising campaign and bringing an uber-chic and contemporary look and feel to its website. At the heart of this campaign is the very essence of this champagne house—family. The style remains typically Taittinger, consummately elegant and refined with that touch of zest, liberty and innate sense of art de vivre that has set them apart.
Stylish, life-affirming and bursting with light, Taittinger’s new advertising campaign catches the eye and draws you in (see the international campaign visual here). In this visual, the champagne house’s historic signature, the “Taittinger Instant”, is depicted in its own #TheInstantWhen moment captured by Italian photographer Massimo Vitali, famed for his choral compositions. By letting us into such a private scene (the house busily preparing for Cochelet, the annual end-of-harvest celebration), Taittinger reveals itself to us in a tribute to family in the widest sense of the word: the Taittingers, of course,—Pierre-Emmanuel, Clovis and Vitalie seen in the foreground, but their employees too, Taittinger’s extended family who personify the warmth, sense of community and joyful energy which runs through the house. The photograph, as intricately detailed as a Bruegel painting, depicts countless instants of celebration as if to symbolize the multitude of efforts, big and small, which go into the production of champagne for the benefit of Taittinger aficionados everywhere. A subtle nod to the values of legacy, generosity and loyalty so dear to Taittinger. Getting before the camera, revealing these behind-the-scenes moments is like a call to action from the champagne house for everyone to experience their own moment of togetherness and emotion, their own Taittinger Instant. The famous #TheInstantWhen hashtag that is now the brand’s signature across all their social media platforms. Eschewing all trends, this timeless campaign returns to the house’s family roots, against the backdrop of the Château de la Marquetterie, where the Taittinger family saga all started in Champagne. Bold, but extraordinarily successful, in the image of this unique family-run business.
The history of Taittinger is inextricably linked with artist collaborations. Vasarely, Zao Wou-Ki, Arman, Lichtenstein—innumerable famous names who have helped to bring a different perspective to Taittinger’s indomitable spirit of freedom. This year, the Taittinger family commissioned Italian photographer Massimo Vitali to represent the “Taittinger Instant” in an image unbound by temporality or perspective, but instead focused on memory and place. After all, isn’t memory an art crafted by every instant? The eloquence of the instant is expressed here through the gestures and figures caught in a single shot. Why a photograph? The space in perspective, immortalized by Massimo Vitali’s lens, produces a scene in which we are witness to countless interactions, not bound by hierarchy but freed by the pleasure of the instant. For this new campaign, Taittinger did not want to content themselves with a simple figurative medium. Hence the idea of rapprochement, the overlaying of separate instants. Here, time and space are connected and seem to champion the rising trend of appreciating the moment, the present, the fleeting, while letting go of the past and everything that is constant and unchanging. All of this is reconciled by Taittinger in its new ad campaign. Past, present and future moments are simultaneously reunited, drawing the spectator’s gaze upwards as it follows the perspective. For Taittinger, it is important that each individual has a subjective and open interpretation of the aesthetic experience. This new campaign was not simply designed to be seen but contemplated long and often. It gives free rein to the imagination. The more detail we notice in the photo, the more it inspires us; the more we are inspired, the more we want to step into the scene and see more. The Taittinger instant becomes another time dimension in which the photograph’s narrative unfolds. Yet rather than representing different instants, successively, they are merely suggested and embellished by the spectator’s imagination. In fact, the spectator is almost beckoned into the picture itself. With this new campaign, Massimo Vitali transforms the “Taittinger Instant” into a sensorial and emotional experience and draws us in again and again.
Alongside its visual ad campaign, Taittinger has totally revamped its website, bringing it up to date with a contemporary look and feel that makes it read like an online magazine. The oh-so-Taittinger black and white colorway is the essence of chic, the carefully selected visuals that wouldn’t be out of place in a fashion magazine are stunning, and the sparkling texts teeming with information. Throughout the stylish layout we find the family imprint in the campaign, with its resolutely human character and radiance transcending from every page. The epitome of elegance and success that firmly positions Taittinger in the universe of luxury, luxury that is as timeless as it is refined.
As we look to the year ahead, Taittinger calls on all of us to step into its light, leaving us with an irresistible urge to create our own #TheInstantWhen moment as we enjoy one of its sensational champagnes.
