While he is perhaps better known for 'sipping on gin and juice', rapper Snoop Dogg is providing a boost to Treasury Wine Estates' 19 Crimes brand, which sold more than one million cases in the EMEA region in the company's most recent financial year.

Snoop Dogg is the brand ambassador of the 19 Crimes brand, with the rapper backing TWE's Cali Red and Cali Rosé brands – an association that has exceeded all expectations at the Penfolds owner, according to Tim Ford, the Australian drinks group's chief executive.

"We've got a second global brand on our hands," Ford told an analyst call to coincide with the group's full-year results. "Penfolds is a global brand, but clearly 19 Crimes has now become that. [...] It's about a 5-million case business for us globally now."

The group sees the 19 Crimes brand as a springboard for innovation, and offering a different means of engaging with consumers, which to date has proven successful – the wine labels feature augmented reality, while the branding itself (which features a variety of notorious convicts that 'helped to build Australia') is atypical of the wine segment.