How To Make A Vodka Commercial? This Is How I Did It!
A few years ago, during the Amsterdam Dance Event, I directed an online vodka commercial for Absolut Vodka’s limited edition bottle, Facet.
The design of this blue diamond-shaped bottle symbolizes the different and unexpected angles of nightlife and the idea that the best things happen out of the blue.
Over the years, I’ve shared bits and pieces of this production on social media, but never the whole story.
In this article, I wanted to rewind the clock and explain how to make a vodka commercial by breaking down this project from start to finish.
I will explain how this vodka commercial project landed on my lap, how we brought it to life, and what I learned from this film production.
Table of contents:
How this Absolut Vodka Commercial landed on my lap
In the months before this production took place, I collaborated on several commercial projects with the same producer.
While I was finishing the Bible-inspired fashion film, the producer called me and explained that he had been in close contact with the Dutch brand managers from Pernod Ricard—a global wine and spirits group.
One of the company's brands was Absolut Vodka, known for releasing yearly limited edition bottle designs.
The people from Absolut were planning a release party during the Amsterdam Dance Event for Absolut's next limited edition bottle and were looking for help capturing the event.
I liked adding a liquor brand to my portfolio and saw an opportunity to elevate the project to a different level. Hence, the producer forwarded me the project details, and I went to work.
A few pages of my original director's treatment for this Absolut Vodka commercial.
The Absolut Vodka Commercial client brief
As expected from a corporate company the size of Pernod Ricard, the client brief for this online commercial project was about five-six pages long.
It included many details and lots of brand and project guidelines. Below, I'll briefly summarize, in simple terms, what the job description was:
"Create two aftermovies of the FACET release party, 15 & 30 seconds in length, for YouTube ad broadcasts to use after Amsterdam Dance Event. Both videos should highlight specific moments of the night and show Absolut Vodka branded visual elements.
The target group for both videos is Urban Creative Millenials—looking good, being seen in the right places, and having a good time with friends is what life is all about."
The year before this project crossed my path, I had sworn never to do an aftermovie project again. I had worked in that scene for more than ten years and was creatively exhausted by it.
Therefore, I wanted to try something different by approaching this project as a scripted commercial. Because I knew I went off brief with this idea, I had to put together a strong director's treatment to outline my vision for the project and convince the marketing directors to follow my lead.
I knew I risked not getting the job by doing this, but I was OK with that.
My director’s vision for this Absolut Vodka commercial
Instead of just capturing the event, I thought adding a few staged storylines would give the project more allure, making it more in line with the brand’s commercials produced in the States and Sweden.
To reveal the new limited edition bottle in style, I thought adding a storyline of a DJ directing the reveal through light effects, sound, and visuals would be a cool idea.
Another storyline could be four/five Millennials experiencing their Absolut night out—as the brand likes to refer to it.
With these Millennials, I wanted to create a few short scenes that captured the cast members in Amsterdam and eventually going to the launch party of the FACET bottle.
I wrapped my vision in a director’s treatment, and with the producer, I went to the marketing managers of Pernod Ricard in person to pitch my concept for this project.
Luckily, they liked the idea and gave us the green light to start the film production train shortly after.
Filming the Absolut Vodka commercial during the Amsterdam Dance Event
To bring this spot to life, we choose to film this project on three separate days. The first was a full day of filming the bottle and the DJ performance in the Schram film studio in Amsterdam.
For the second day, we choose to film the Millenial characters on the streets of Amsterdam. The last day of filming occurred in the Supperclub, where the official launch party of the new Absolut Vodka bottle took place during the Amsterdam Dance Event.
Filming the vodka commercial in the film studio
In the film studio, we hired a giant LED wall where we could show custom-made visuals by Hessel Stuut in the background. Instead of just placing the FACET vodka bottle in front of the LED wall, we placed it on a motorized rotating cake display turntable to give the bottle some dynamics.
To create an underground club feel for the DJ setup, I thought it would be cool to place the turntables on top of a rusty metal plate. Unfortunately, rusty metal was hard to find, or the plates were extremely heavy.
So, the art director proposed to fake the effect with a checker plate, lots of paprika powder, and other liquid effects to create a rusty brown texture.
Movie magic! <3
Filming the commercial in Amsterdam
To find the Millenials for the second storyline, we used Instagram to find our cast. I've done this on multiple occasions, and although this approach usually takes a little longer, you can often get people on board a lot cheaper than via a casting agency.
So if budget is an issue, which it was for this project, I advise embracing Instagram's casting possibilities!
In my experience, you can often get a far better understanding by looking at photos and videos on someone's Instagram as to how they will look on camera compared to casting sheets from a casting agency.
In Amsterdam, we found several locations around the Volkshotel and Eye Film Museum, which we used as a backdrop in true guerilla style (meaning: no film permits, limited props, and a bare-minimum crew).
Filming the absolut vodka commercial in the Supperclub
On the last day of filming the Absolut Vodka commercial, we gathered together at the start of the evening in the Supperclub. Before the venue opened for the public, we used the club to get close-up shots of the cast dancing and interacting with branded Absolut Vodka material.
Later we captured some shots of the main event to mix it up with stylized close-ups of the cast and called it a night.
The Absolut Vodka Commercial Post Production
Once we finished filming, I jumped into the edit suite to edit this project myself.
Because the timelines for delivery were very short, it was impossible to bring an external music composer on board, so I decided to go for a stock audio track from Artlist.
It only took a couple of days to find the proper flow before I sent the project to the sound designer, who added many audio effects to the commercial that brought the whole project to life!
For the finishing touch, the color grader made the colors of this project pop off the screen, and the project was ready to see the light of day.
Final Thoughts On making A Vodka Commercial
Although the marketing managers greenlighted my off-brief idea at the beginning and liked the quality of the video, they eventually never used the final film.
Instead, they just wanted us to create a simple 30-second aftermovie of the event to use as a YouTube advertisement.
Luckily, the producer had hired a few aftermovie camera guys during the night as a backup because he had already sensed the marketing manager’s doubts in the days before the event took place.
Another editor jumped on board and sliced a simple corporate event recap from the additional footage.
The wrong mindset
Reflecting on this project a few years after its release, I think I should never have jumped on board this opportunity.
Not because of the client or the project but because I had the wrong mindset at the time. The client wanted an aftermovie, and I should have answered that request.
But I was desperately looking for new commercial opportunities and adding established brands to my track record. I had just started in the commercial world and knew I had to build a body of work to get my hands on the projects I wanted.
I grabbed every possibility to turn the video into a fiction-driven narrative, so I could add the final result to my showreel. I was too focused on expanding my portfolio with cool brand names and neglected the client's desires far too often.
As a result of that mindset, clients didn't get what they asked for, they never hired me again, and the projects never reached their full potential.
The project takeaways
One of the big takeaways for me from this project was that it's very tempting to get lost in the idea that people hire me to be an artist and want me to rebel against their corporate briefing.
But when someone pays me to create something for them, it's my job to deliver a product that serves that client. They want me to create something that ultimately isn't mine, and I had to learn to respect that.
I think this project helped me better asses opportunities at an earlier stage of the sales cycle and determine whether or not I can help specific clients with the challenges they are facing.
I now believe that if someone decides not to work with me because what I can offer them is not in line with what they are looking for, I should be ok with that.
The goal is not to make money or build an incredible artistic portfolio but to help someone visualize their story ideas.
