Orchard Thieves and Rothco Launch Innovative Reversible Commercial

This week sees the launch of Orchard Thieves’ second TV campaign ‘Start Bold/End Bold’. Created by independent agency, Rothco, for Heineken’s cider brand, it is a fully reversible commercial which has a narrative that works in both directions.

“Orchard Thieves is all about finding our own bold way to do things and when the idea of a TV commercial that could be watched forwards and backwards was presented we were instantly intrigued,” comments Emma-Jane McKeown, Senior Brand Manager, Orchard Thieves.

Directed by Stevie Russell of Russell Curran, the spot follows a group of friends on their night out, seeing them party from day to night. In reverse, the spot sees them start their night in darkness and party straight through into the morning.  Viewed either forwards or backwards, the commercial is one piece of film that, whichever way you view it, delivers the same cheeky story. The narrative is built around Orchard Thieves’ simple worldview that if you start bold, you’ll end bold, and if you end bold, you obviously started bold! 

“Our audience’s world is increasingly complicated and filled with so much choice that often they are paralysed and, as a result, end up doing the same old thing,” comments Account Director at Rothco, Miriam Hendrick. “We want to keep it simple; choose bold and you’ll always end up where you want to be. We’re even encouraging our audience to rewind the ad in broadcast - it’ll work!”

The spot revolves around the original brand mantra ‘Be Bold’ and aims to attract more drinkers to the cider category.

“After such a successful launch, we really wanted to continue to deliver against the brand mantra of ‘Be Bold’ and be seen as a brand that continues to push boundaries and finds new and interesting ways to engage our audience,” adds Hendrick.

Ray Swan, Creative Director at Rothco, adds: “Whilst we wanted to shoot a single film that worked forwards and backwards, it was also important that it worked as an engaging story. We didn’t want the technical part of the commercial to ever get in the audience’s way. I think we’ve really achieved that.”

The ad launched on Thursday 4th May and both versions (day/night and night/day) have aired.