Cheil Canada Invents History in Funny, Far-Fetched Old Blood Gin Campaign
Rivalry Spirits, a Singapore-based privately held creator and distributor of spirits and beer brands has launched Old Blood Gin in Singapore.
According to John Clark, Partner of Rivalry Spirits, “We looked across the spirits category and really honed in on gin. Our objective was to create a unique identity that dismissed the age-old look that has dominated the landscape. We saw a unique opportunity to make a great gin; a high-quality product that consumers would be proud to drink and associate with as a brand.”
Cheil Canada worked with Rivalry Spirits to create the Old Blood Gin brand, differentiating itself in a category where old was viewed as good – ultimately leading to an integrated campaign that included packaging design, TV, online, social and websites. All broadcast and video production was led by Radke Films in Toronto and directed by Sean Frewer.
The campaign grew out of a realisation that being new to the market meant that Old Blood Gin did not actually need a history, but could instead simply invent one (or many) if they used the Internet to verify the stories they told.
They created several intriguing, far-fetched histories and reinvented them over and over again, according to changing time periods as they went along. Then, to make it even harder to determine the truth, they mashed up the various histories online as part of a story web that included sites and profiles for fictitious organisations and characters that were featured in the histories. And there you have it – Old Blood may just be launching, but it’s history is as rich as any rival.
To see the brand in action and the #orisit video campaign directed by Sean Frewer, click here.
To fact-check the origin stories of Old Blood Gin, see for yourself the evidence here:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/alf-alf-dødsen-556738162/
“This campaign is as much about challenging the saturated category norms of heritage and time-honoured process, as it is about recognising that we live in a time where fake news and alternative facts have become the norm,” says Cheil Canada’s Executive Creative Director, Michael Murray. “#orisit? is a provocation to be curious. In the case of Old Blood Gin what you’ll find is a gin that parallels, and in many cases, exceeds, its competitors’ quality, who have been in the business for years, decades and in some instances, centuries.”
