Venables Bell & Partners have an off-center campaign for Skyy Vodka, introducing the new tagline “West of Expected” for the California brand.
The new campaign sees improv actor Paul Welsh play a spokesman for the brand, lecturing in some kind of planetarium setting and using cosmic terminology as an analogy for drinking/bar culture. In the 30-second “Tipping” for example, Welsh explains that tipping (in this case giving a mouse in a maze a piece of cheese, for some reason) brings order to chaos, forming a connection with the bartender and getting you good service all night. In the similarly-toned “Attraction” a wing lemon (used to exemplify a wing man) bring together opposites: apples and oranges. It’s a strange approach, for sure, but then Skyy Vodka is an unusual brand — a California company with mostly Old World competition. The “West of Expected” tagline fits Skyy perfectly, and leaves room for a wealth of different approaches going forward.
“In the industry as a whole, and especially vodka, everyone is trying to out-cool themselves and appeal to people’s ego and vanity,” VB&P Executive Creative Director Will McGinness told Adweek. “We wanted to push off the industry norms and the Russian or Eastern European vodka companies and do our own thing and celebrate this different kind of vodka.”
Stick around for “Attraction”and credits after the jump.
Credits:
Client: Skyy Vodka/Campari
Agency: Venables Bell & Partners
Executive Creative Director: Paul Venables and Will McGinness
Creative Director: Will McGinness
Associate Creative Director: Eric Boyd
Art Director: Alex Rice
Copywriter: Daniel Bonder
Director of Integrated Production: Craig Allen
Agency Executive Producer: Joyce Chen
Account Director: Robert Woods
Account Manager: Katie De La Hoya
Design Director: Cris Logan
Designer: Angie McDonald
Production Company: Biscuit Filmworks
Director: Mike Maguire
Director of Photography: Nigel Bluck
Executive Producer: Colleen O’Donnell and Shawn Lacy
Line Producer: Tracy Broaddus
Editing Company: Final Cut
Editor: Matt Murphy
VFX: The Mill
VFX Producer: Kiana Bicoy
Telecine: Sean Coleman @ Company 3
Sound Design: Barking Owl
Sound Designer: Michael Anastasi @ Barking Owl
Music: Mophonics
Mix: Loren Silber @ Lime Studios