INSITE
Strategy, brand creation & design.
Mason Vineyard
We came in before the name, the location, and the licence. Here's what we built.
Dillon's Small Batch Distillers is one of Canada's most celebrated craft spirit brands — sold nationally, expanding internationally, and acquired by MarkAnthony Group in 2021. We were there from day one.
Client
Mason Vineyard
2021–2024 (3 years)
Engagement
Beamsville, Ontario, Canada
Location
Brand Strategy — Naming — Visual Identity — Label Design — Packaging — Portfolio Strategy — Hospitality Experience — Digital Strategy — Customer Relationship Strategy — Allocation Strategy — Customer List Management Program
Services
Each vintage complete sellout before next, National recognition and Media attention
Outcome
They had a dream – Their strategy wasn't going to work
What you don’t see
The reality of our business, this strategy and brand solutions gig, is that few people know what we do as a result of our work being mostly invisible.
Sure, you can thumb through our insta and web feeds to see familiar successful wine labels, delicious beer cans, progressive retail interiors, and loads of design work — but the larger extent of what we do is in the lead up to those designs, which you don’t see.
So if you have a moment, the following is a case study of one unique brand build and support contract. And I say unique because our solutions are always bespoke, tailored to suit each client's needs and challenges.
The challenges we identified
Challenges:
Break Norms: Startup winery needing to fast track the typical startup winery slow growth cycle
Business Efficiency: Mason was a self financed, founder operated business which meant resources were precious so the winery was needing faster than industry norm paths to: visibility and recognition, near instant ultra premium respect and trust, audience adoption without trial, ambitious year over year growing sales targets
Business Control: To become a healthy established winery by year 5 so as to be able to shift from startup development/implementation phase to on-strategy operation/refinement phase
Insite process chalkboard for Dillon's brand development in 2012. The original architecture of the brand’s character and promise. The birth of craft, “doing it right” and Made the Right Way.
Our Strategic Approach
Insite’s initial exploration and photography of an ingredient driven brand, steeped in the Canadian identity.
Solutions:
Strong Foundation: Create a strategy and brand that would support the new top tier artisanal winery and its ultra-premium Canadian wine, and which would have the strength, trust and visibility of a successful 10th year brand almost right out of the gate
Be ‘truly’ well defined: Design a brand with a well defined compelling story from which to project a clear message, strong personality rich voice, well defined purpose with deftly aligned visual design and imagery so as to not waste time and energy clarifying and repeating weak or confusing messages
Business focused Brand: Present a magnetic brand which audiences could quickly relate to, adopt and become themselves ambassadors of
The Scope of Work.
Insite naming and personality process chalkboard from 2012 — where we rationalized the naming to use “Dillon’s” and “Small Batch Distillers” to emphasize the people, family, honesty, craft, care and truth.
Insite’s Goals were achieved:
Anticipated and Planned: Developed and implemented strategy and process towards overcoming anticipated startup challenges
Strategic Releasing: Created strategy and implemented process for wine release launches with the goal met of selling out majority of wines within the first 60 days of release period
True Customer Management: Created strategy and implemented process for building an effectively segmented client allocation email database, from which majority of release volume was purchased
Considerate Customer Clienteling: Created strategy and process for a precise, on brand, repeatable, bare minimum communication and marketing system customized to 3 tiers of client relationships which facilitated successful sell-outs and consistent growth in the top most engaged tier as well constant increase in average spends
Lean Strategic Communication: Created a strategic on brand social media system that conserved resources by being strategically subject and message focused resulting in gaining 3k highly engaged and sales supportive social media followers who consistently purchased remaining cases available after initial email list allocation
Sales targets as solutions: Surpassed year over year increasing case sales goals, allowing introduction of special release projects beyond initial case volume targets
Sell-through as a brand strategy: Created strategy and implemented process for selling out each vintage before next release thereby avoiding aging inventory burden; storage costs, future labour and future marketing costs associated with marketing the same wine multiple times
What We Built
Insite’s solution for asserting the concepts of hand crafted while skirting restrictive regional signage laws by using traditional farm country barn painting.
The first releases and the start of packaging revolution that stated ingredients and sense of place within the spirit industry.
Summary of achievements:
(inside our 3 year contract period)
Delivered strategy and brand that positioned winery as among best in class, helped attract national acclaim, gained passionate loyal following and built a reliable customer base that allowed the business to grow with confidence
Created strategy and process that lead to a healthy loyal repeating client list plus 3k social audience supporting 3 consecutive complete vintage sell-outs
Multiple highly regarded wine review coverage (both traditional and digital)
Best in class exposure with multiple National traditional media / magazine articles
So there you have it. That’s what we do behind the scenes and that’s what a successful strategy and brand build is about. If your business or brand can use strategic thinking, design, systems and execution, reach out.
Outcomes & Impact
What the brand achieved
The results speak with specificity:
Women became 50% of the customer base — in a category that had historically made women feel like an afterthought. This was strategy, not accident
Influenced the LCBO to create entirely new shelf categories — Craft Spirits, Seasonal Spirits, and Premium Prepared Cocktails — categories that didn't exist before Dillon's demonstrated there was a market for them
Achieved national distribution with substantially less investment than comparable brands that came before or after
One of the fastest-growing Canadian craft spirit brands in its decade of independent operation
Permanently changed the Canadian distilling and spirits landscape — new distilleries that followed did so in a category Dillon's defined
Recognized internationally — gaining traction in the US and other markets with a clear pathway for continued expansion
Acquired by Mark Anthony Group in 2021 — one of Canada's largest beverage alcohol companies — in the brand's tenth year
Maintained brand focus and consistency across 12 years without a costly rebrand, audience confusion, or significant brand management missteps — proof that a well-built strategic foundation pays dividends long after launch
FAQ
Common Questions
Who built the Dillon's Small Batch Distillers brand?
Insite, a brand strategy and design company based in Burlington, Ontario, built the Dillon's brand from pre-startup in 2011. The relationship spanned 12 years and included the brand's 2023 repositioning for international expansion.
What services did Insite provide for Dillon's?
Insite led brand strategy and positioning, naming, visual identity, label design across multiple product ranges, packaging illustration, product portfolio strategy, hospitality experience design, brand story and messaging architecture, and the 2023 brand refresh.
How did Dillon's become successful in Canada's craft spirits market?
Dillon's succeeded by creating Canada's craft distilling category rather than entering an existing one. Insite strategically defined craft distilling with enough rigour that Dillon's became synonymous with it — building the brand around authenticity, local and seasonal ingredients, transparency, and a genuinely inclusive audience approach.
What made Dillon's different from other Canadian spirit brands?
Dillon's was built from a belief system, not a product brief. Every decision — from ingredient sourcing to packaging to go-to-market strategy — was anchored in craft principles. The brand was intentionally gender-neutral in an industry dominated by male-focused marketing, and it went to mixologists first, building credibility from the inside out.
Did Dillon's Small Batch Distillers get acquired?
Yes. Dillon's was acquired by Mark Anthony Group in 2021, in its tenth year ofoperation.
What is Insite's expertise in the alcohol beverage category?
Insite has been building premium alcohol beverage brands since 1993. The agency specialises in brand strategy, visual identity, label and packaging design, and hospitality experience for craft spirit, wine, and beverage brands across Canada and internationally.
Can Insite help a new craft distillery build its brand from scratch?
Yes. The Dillon's engagement began before the business had a name, a location,or a distilling licence. Insite's process works from the earliest stage of business formation through to full brand expression and market launch.
Related Work
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Building a brand that needs to own its category?
If you're building a craft spirit, premium food, or lifestyle brand and you need astrategic partner and a design studio that think together.