Gentlemen, this is vodka
The Ketel One ad campaign of a few years ago was a quiet triumph for copywriters everywhere. The first time I saw one of their billboards in Soho, it stopped me in my tracks. Just a few words in the corner of a big white billboard. No photos. No drawings. Not even any color.
Plus, the ad made the brave assumption that it was addressed to the single, solitary drinker of this particular Dutch vodka. It picked one of the seven classic emotional motivators*—exclusivity—and ran with it.
The writers behind this campaign must have had nerve—and so did the executives who approved it. (It couldn’t have been a committee.) The campaign had its critics, but I’ll bet it worked.
Maybe the old campaign had run its course, but it’s now been replaced by one that could be for almost any liquor. I don’t hate it as much as some do, but in trying to target its audience, it starts by excluding all women and apparently focuses on young white guys with creative-type office jobs (in an ad agency?) who feel some nostalgia for the Mad Men days. Not a big group.
*The seven are Flattery, Fear, Greed, Anger, Guilt, Exclusivity, and Salvation.
This probably was about the time that agencies were shifting, against their will, to a time based fee compensation system. Traditionally agencies derived a significant portion of revenues from commissions on media AND production. Clients were hiring procurement managers to screw down escalating production costs, and went further to cut out production commissions (which had been mark ups of 18.75% on production costs). The production of this Kettle One campaign cost very little, and therefore would not have created much production revenue. Not so much of a loss, as the writers were probably drinking at a bar, writing a line or two, and billing excessive salary plus overhead plus markup fee. And, getting giddy at how easy it all could be. (But, sadly, they passed up wonderful shoots on location in Holland!)