Vikings Help Introduce Heineken Silver to the U.S. Market

You know you’re having a bad day when an irate Viking pins you to a tree, puts a blade to your throat and hisses, “Your family tortured my first wife and stole my second favorite goat. Now you want to marry my daughter?!”

Luckily, you’re just a commercial character introducing low-cal/low-carb Heineken Silver to the U.S. market. So, there’s probably a quick, painless and silly way out of your predicament.

You escaped unscathed! Now that wild dude’s going to be your father-in-law. Family gatherings will be awkward, even stabby.

It’s basically just a set-up and punch line. But director Tim Godsall delivers the joke and brand message with brevity and flair, mixing Monty Python vibes with slick visuals worthy of an HBO series. Godsall’s humor often wields a sharp edge, and he’s no stranger to historical tales, having helmed Sainsbury’s holiday pudding romp (set in the Middle Ages with a similar storyline). He also led quirky work for Halo Top and Liberty Mutual.

“‘All the Taste, No Bitter Endings’ was born out of the product’s key point of difference and then brought to life in a way that allows for endless cultural opportunities,” says Erica Roberts, CCO at BBH USA, which helped develop the campaign.

“Under this platform, Heineken Silver is poised to re-write culture’s most bitter endings, past and present,” she says. “This epic Viking saga is just the beginning.”

CREDITS

Client: Heineken
Chief Marketing Officer – Jonnie Cahill 
Marketing VP – Borja Manso Salinas
Senior Brand Director – Tonia Mancino
Senior Brand Manager – Roxanne Mercado
Senior Brand Manager – Joe Conti

Client: Heineken Global
Chairman of the Executive Board/CEO – Dolf Van Den Brink
Chief Commercial Officer – James Thompson
Global Head Heineken Brand – Bram Westenbrink
Global Heineken Communications Manager – Guilherme Retz
Director Communications Global Heineken – Agnieszka Gorecki

Agency: BBH USA
Chief Creative Officer – Erica Roberts
Executive Creative Director – Kasia Canning
Executive Creative Director – Estefanio Holtz
Group Creative Director – Ryan Paulson
Creative Director – Yohan Daver
Creative Director – Sapna Ahluwalia
Senior Copywriter – Greg Bruce
Senior Art Director – Jack Graham
Head of Design – Hernan Ibanez
Senior Designer – Jin Kim
Group Account Director – Shana Honig Horowitz
Account Director – Cam Thomas
Account Supervisor – Callum Leitenberg 
Account Executive – Carly Chaskin
Head of Strategy – Joe Burns
Strategy Director – Paola Ortega
Senior Strategist – Harry Guild 
Executive Producer – Shelley Giera
Associate Producer – Beiyi He
Director of Business Affairs – Daniella Vargas
Senior Business Affairs – Eugene Gandia
Associate Director of Business Affairs – Max Novick

Agency: Le Pub
Global CEO of Le Pub, Global CCO of Publicis Worldwide and CCO of Publicis Groupe Italy – Bruno Bertelli
Global Chief Strategy Officer – Bela Ziemann
Global Client Lead – Kirk Johnsen
Business Director – Elianne Vermeulen
Account Director – Derek Muller

Production Co.: Anonymous Content
Director – Tim Godsall
VP Commercials / EP – SueEllen Clair
Co-Head of Production – Ena Nicole Abadjian
Line Producer – Shannon Barnes

Edit House: Arcade Edit
Editor – Geoff Hounsel
Assistant Editor – Max Hoffman
Producer – Andrew Cravotta

Post House: Blacksmith
Producer – Ashley Goodwin
Production Coordinator – Joey Witten
VFX Supervisor on Set – Chris Schnitzer
Lead Compositor – Robert Bruce
Compositor – Dhruv Shankar
Compositor -Yebin Ahn
CG Lead – Olivier Varteressian
CG FX – Kushal Das
Matte Painting –  Marc Samson

Music: Human 
Creative Lead – Mike Jurasits
Composers – Tom Keery & Matthew O’Malley
Executive Producer – James Dean Wells

Audio Mix & Sound Design: Post Human
Chief Engineer and Sound Designer – Sloan Alexander
Post Producer – Rob Suchecki