Client Spotlight: Naked Wines
Naked Wines USA is one of the most recognized names in direct-to-consumer wine, with a subscription model that connects over 500,000 members with independent winemakers around the world. At that scale, product photography is not just a creative exercise, it is a core business asset. Every bottle on their website, every email campaign, every paid ad, every social post, every printed gift card depends on imagery that is consistent, compelling, and ready to deploy across every channel simultaneously.
Before partnering with Left Coast Marketing, Naked Wines was navigating the same challenge that burdens many high-volume DTC brands: the cost and complexity of managing photography in-house, compounded by inconsistent results across a product lineup of over 150 wines.
In 2014, that changed and more than a decade later, the partnership is still producing results every single week.
“We have worked with Left Coast Marketing and Stacey for the past 12 years. Stacey is extremely easy to work with. She handles urgent requests promptly and always meets deadlines. She accepts feedback easily and is keen to update the aesthetic of our beauty shots as our brand needs change. She does a great job of keeping the backgrounds and props fresh. The photography speaks for itself.”
Andrea Martin
Director of Customer Happiness, Naked Wines USA
Looking to build a professional photography system for your wine brand or DTC business?
The Challenge
Managing photography at the scale Naked Wines operates is no small task. With a rotating catalog of over 150 wines, spanning reds, whites, rosé, sparkling, and non-wine merchandise, the demand for fresh, on-brand imagery is constant and unrelenting. Before engaging Left Coast Marketing, Naked Wines faced a set of interconnected challenges that were limiting both their output and their brand quality.
Key gaps included:
- High and unpredictable cost of maintaining in-house photography resources full-time
- Inconsistent image quality and visual style across a large and growing product catalog
- No cohesive brand aesthetic to unify imagery across web, email, social, and print channels
- Lack of a scalable, repeatable system capable of keeping pace with weekly inventory additions
- Limited range of shot types, insufficient variety to support diverse marketing placements
Primary Goal: Outsource photography to a skilled, agency-led team that could deliver consistent, professional, multi-use imagery at volume while continuously evolving the aesthetic to match the brand’s growth.
Our Strategy
Left Coast Marketing built a dedicated, high-output studio photography system designed specifically around Naked Wines’ catalog depth and multi-channel distribution needs. The approach was centered on four pillars.
1 Dual-station studio setup
To maximize output without sacrificing quality, we established two dedicated shooting stations running simultaneously. One station is configured exclusively for single-bottle hero shots with controlled, consistent lighting. The second handles group shots, beauty shots, and lifestyle compositions with custom interchangeable backdrops and surfaces, allowing for variety and creative range within a single shoot session.
2 Full-range shot type library
Each wine in the catalog receives a complete set of production-ready images covering every placement need: single bottle hero shots, group arrangements, beauty and glamour shots, lifestyle compositions, lay flat overhead shots, packaging and case photography, and non-wine merchandise. This ensures Naked Wines has the right image format ready for any channel, from a product page thumbnail to a full-bleed email header to a social ad.
3 Food, wine & lifestyle merchandising
Every product receives a individually tailored lifestyle composition. We source and style props including perishable food, fresh flowers, seasonal accents, and curated surfaces to create pairings that feel authentic and aspirational. No two bottles share the same setup. This level of individual attention elevates the perceived quality of every wine in the lineup and gives the brand a visual richness that generic product photography simply cannot achieve.
4 Repeatable weekly production cadence
To keep pace with a catalog of 150+ wines and continuous new arrivals, we established a structured weekly workflow. An average of 10–12 bottles are shot per week, with all final images delivered within five business days. This predictable cadence means Naked Wines always has imagery ready to support new product launches, seasonal campaigns, and promotional needs. without delays or backlogs.
Execution Process
Discovery & briefing
Each production cycle begins with a review of incoming products and any specific creative direction from the Naked Wines team. Label artwork, varietal characteristics, and planned marketing placements all inform the prop and backdrop selection for that week’s session. This pre-production discipline is what allows us to maintain quality and variety at high volume without creative drift.
Creative & merchandising
Our studio lead, Stacey, handles all art direction, prop sourcing, and composition on shoot day. Perishable props, fresh herbs, seasonal fruit, artisan cheeses, florals, are sourced specifically for each product to create complementary food-and-wine pairings that feel curated rather than generic. Backdrops, surfaces, and accent colors are rotated regularly to keep the library fresh and visually diverse across the full catalog.
Production & delivery
Both studio stations operate in parallel during each shoot session, maximizing the number of SKUs processed per day. After shooting, images go through a consistent post-production workflow, retouching, color correction, and file formatting, before delivery. All final images are delivered within five business days, fully retouched and production-ready for immediate deployment across any channel.
Ongoing refinement
Over more than a decade, the visual aesthetic has evolved continuously alongside the Naked Wines brand. Feedback from the client is integrated immediately, and our team proactively refreshes backdrop selections, prop palettes, and compositional approaches on a regular basis. The result is a photography library that always feels current, even as it grows to hundreds of images per year.
The Results
After more than ten years of weekly production, the impact of this partnership extends far beyond the images themselves. Left Coast Marketing has become an embedded visual production partner for Naked Wines USA, one that delivers reliable, brand-consistent photography at a pace and quality level that in-house resources simply could not match cost-effectively.
150+ Active wines supported with fresh imagery
10–12 Bottles photographed per week, every week
5 days Turnaround from shoot to delivery
+20% Increase in sales conversion & brand impressions
Why It Worked
This partnership has endured for over a decade because it was built on more than just good photography. It was built on a system, one that could scale, adapt, and deliver without disruption week after week.
The key factors:
- Dual-station studio setup maximizes volume without compromising quality or creative range
- Individually tailored food and lifestyle compositions give every product a distinct, premium feel
- A structured weekly production cadence eliminates backlogs and keeps pace with catalog growth
- Consistent five-day turnaround means imagery is always ready ahead of campaign deadlines
- Continuous aesthetic evolution keeps the library fresh and aligned with the brand’s direction
- Single agency relationship replaces the cost and complexity of in-house photography management
Naked Wines didn’t just need better photos. They needed a reliable creative partner who could operate like an extension of their own team, month after month, year after year. When process meets craftsmanship, the results compound over time.
What This Means for Your Wine Brand
Naked Wines is a large-scale operation, but the lesson here applies equally to boutique wineries, growing DTC brands, and any business where visual content drives purchase decisions. You don’t need an in-house photography department to maintain a professional, consistent image library.
For wine and DTC brands looking to elevate their visual content:
- Outsourcing to a dedicated photography partner is almost always more cost-effective than in-house staffing
- Consistency across your catalog matters as much as the quality of any single image
- A structured production cadence, not one-off shoots, is what keeps your imagery current and campaign-ready
- Individual product styling, not generic setups, is what separates premium brands from commodity ones
- Multi-channel image variety (hero, lifestyle, flat lay, packaging) should be planned from the start, not added later
The Takeaway
With the right studio partner and a disciplined production system, Naked Wines USA achieved:
- A fully scalable photography operation supporting 150+ wines with no in-house overhead
- Fresh, brand-consistent imagery delivered every week for over a decade
- A 20% increase in sales conversion and brand impressions driven by elevated visual content
- A multi-channel image library covering every placement from product pages to gift card artwork
- A trusted agency relationship that evolves with the brand, year after year
That’s the power of treating photography as a system, not a project.
