Bertrand Cesvet
Sid Lee has been added to Absolut‘s roster of global advertising agencies.
According to a release from the agency, it has been tasked with “developing a new communication platform that seeks to recruit new consumers from around the world through experiences—real and virtual. Sid Lee will lead the development of creative work across advertising, branded content, digital and a significant body of experiential work.”
The account will be handled primarily by Sid Lee’s Amsterdam office, but will be managed day-to-day by the two executives who led the agency’s discussions with Absolut: chairman Bertrand Cesvet and Eric Alper, partner and vice-president at Sid Lee Toronto.
Absolut first began discussions with Sid Lee earlier this year when Alper made a presentation at the offices of Pernod Ricard (the French company that owns Absolut). The presentation struck a chord with the company’s marketing team.
“It was about the role of advertising, the declining role of our business and the need for our business to re-invent itself,” Alper told Marketing. “There was some affinity between our points of view around the role of brands in the modern world. Brands have to compete with pop culture today. If the content being put out by brands isn’t as entertaining or useful as something they can get on YouTube, Netflix or the street, then brands don’t have a chance.
“We shared the point of view that brands—especially for millennial consumers, which are critical for Absolut—can’t just put wallpaper on the air. They have to create experiences for the consumer. From that conversation, we got to workshopping some ideas together.”
Many of those workshopped concepts will appear in-market over the coming months. An experiential execution is expected shortly from the agency’s Montreal office.
Alper describes the size of the Absolut account as “one of the largest” at the agency.
Absolut has had a long relationship with TBWA, an Omnicom-owned agency. The two companies began working together in the early ’80s when TBWA debuted the still-running “bottle shape” campaign. TBWA is reportedly still working with the brand on its global advertising.
