Heineken

I’ve been fortunate to work on some projects that have transpired in a less “traditional” manner. Truly, “creative collaborations” for lack of a better term.
Back in December of 2006 I got a call from a friend of many years, Jason Peterson. Jason and I have shot together for close to 2 decades. He is currently the CD at Berlin Cameron United. They were in the process of pitching the Heineken business. They already had Heineken light and wanted the bigger piece of business valued at $80m. It was down to them and Wieden + Kennedy (herein referred to as Wieden).
The pitch process had been gong on and on. Wieden had previous beer experience on Miller and well, Wieden is Wieden. Berlin had an existing relationship as they were already responsible for the very successful Heineken light launch. Realizing a considerable part of the media would be outdoor and print, Jason wanted to tip the scales and wow them with some real “eye candy”. He called me. We met. He explained that he felt Heineken had lost the cache they previously held. Their visuals got lost in the clutter of the beer category. Nothing differentiated them. My mission was to shoot the bottle in a way that we had not previously seen, to elevate the brand using a simple, elegant, classy representations of the bottle. Everyone knew what the bottle looked like…so have some fun with it. He went on to show me a picture of some snakes in a black box. “Something kinda like this…”




Ok…?
We looked at other reference and talked briefly before he had to run off. (This took place on a Tuesday). In parting he mumbled something about this being a little tight, they were presenting to the client on the following Tuesday… but needed some time to work with the visuals. He knew he could do this to me. He knew that I would not disappoint. I left that meeting thinking “WTF am I going to do?” First things first, I crossed the street and headed directly for Lupe’s (goodish Mexican food) for a combo plate. No sense getting all nervous on an empty stomach when you can be all nervous on a full one. Just as I was starting to formulate a plan, two other CDs from Berlin approached me from another table to say how much they were looking forward to seeing what I was going to come up with and how much they appreciated my help. Great. Just great. Not only was my reputation with Jason on the line, now it included a good portion of the agency. I wish I could say after all these years that I don’t get anxious, but I do, because I care. The day I don’t is the day to hang it up.
This story is starting to get a little long winded…
Basically the reference evoked a “ feeling.” The strategy for something different made sense and the time frame was what it was. I kicked into gear and started pulling resources and ideas together. I had one day before they would be coming to the studio. We shot for two days, with several ADs and emailing images back and forth for feedback. I’ll never forget one of Jason’s main comments, “Steve, cool it with the condensation on the bottle, it makes the thing look like a big dill pickle.” Things were looking pretty good. The direction was coming together. They took the files and pulled a few late nights. In particular, an AD named Malco Kim was really good at seeing different ways of cropping and such. The agency made huge presentation prints as well as comps of how it would look in various existing outdoor locations.
Jason called me from the car on his way home from the presentation to the client. It went well.
Several weeks later, the entire business was awarded to Berlin. They threw a party… kegs as goody bags? You bet.
... and despite industry gossip, they do have women that work there....




Almost immediately we went to work on shooting the actual campaign. I had the pleasure of working with a terrific AD, Jon Bunning.
This is how the final visuals looked:




Surprisingly, one of the hardest things is to get the label on the bottle. Straight.

I always love the visual "chaos" on a set that surrounds one perfect place...
(this was the setup for the upright bottle shot)


We went on to shoot for several other parts of the business and even did an exploratory for Heineken light. Everyone really liked the work...



Sadly, in late December, Heineken internally restructured, fired their CMO and well… we know what usually come next. Berlin was out... Heineken was moved to Wieden + Kennedy.
I was told it was purely political and nothing to do with the work. One would like to think if the work is strong, they wouldn’t have done that. Who knows? What I do know is that it is hard to watch people work so hard and genuinely care so much lose something that big. Of course, being the professionals that they are at Berlin, they moved on not skipping a beat. In the past year I’ve also had the good fortune of shooting ad's for NY life, Silk Soymilk and working on a pitch for Moet with them. Tara Santangelo is the Art buyer at Berlin. She is one of the best in the business and an absolute pleasure to work with.