Brew Dog is a craft beer company operating out of Aberdeenshire in Scotland. They were one of the first small british craft breweries to start out in 2006 and have ridden the crest of the wave ever since and have gone from being a tiny brewery in a rented garage to one of the market leaders in the field in the Uk even moving into opening their own small chain of pubs.
Brew dog pride themselves on their "punk" aesthetic and quirkiness. James Watt CEO and co-founder calling their ethos “an audacious blend of eccentricity, artistry and rebellion” adding they were all about “disrupting conventions and breaking taboos".
There are some similarities with the Bishop Nick brand the packaging, the humble beginnings and even slight common themes between the packaging and branding. Bishop Nick is however a little tamer, less in your face and more steeped in history and associations of the brewing family behind them. However it provides a good starting point for what can possibly be done (and not done) with the brand and will be good to show to my clients to incite discussion about their aims and objectives with the video content I will be creating for them.
The first film I looked at was a short 40 second promo advertising and acting as an intro into Brew dog for the uninitiated.
The titles are a solid and masculine with a weathered look to the white font contrasting hugely with the back background they appear on. Underneath this the music builds slowly from a drum roll, then a solo guitar in the background becoming more rocky as the promo goes on.The voice overs by the two founding members of the company are delivered in a matter of fact statement like style of the companies manifesto "We are Brew Dog and our simple mission is to make other people as passionate about great craft beer as we are". We do see one of the Brew Dog founders delivering some of this line and he is holding a beer and shot from a low angle making him look powerful with a neon sign in the background saying love hops and... The anarchy continues visually over the above the images represent he two founding members larking about and piggy backing and one giving the rock sign of horns hand gesture. Editing wise jump cuts are used to add an edge and also super8 film style light flare filters in-between the shots as well as other lens flare techniques and a shot of glasses of beer with the words water, malt, hops and yeast a motion typography on the screen. To end this opening sequence we have an overhead shot of a beer craning out to reveal a table of beer and people bringing glasses to their lips.
The different music kicks in which is uptempo and in your face, with a rock guitar "punk" edge obviously aimed at a youngish 18-35 audience. We then get a sped up shots vastly cut jump cut shots of the impressive brewery plant and time lapsed shots of one of brew dogs busy bars. Both suggest scale, pace, fun and business. Then we see the other founder member of brew dog stating "We are determined to change the world of beer, and we want YOU to change it with us." with old weathered barrels in the background. The images to accompany this start of with the Brew Dog member on screen followed by one of their team members playing 10 pin bowling shot hand held for edge. He has a bowling ball and 10 bottle of Stella Artois (the competition) are lined up as the skittles. These are obliterated in an unsubtle metaphor for the Brew Dog philosophy and give a real anti-corporation/multi-national spin against the big mainstream breweries. This little sequence ends with some split screen shots of the brewing of the beer gorgeously shot and graded to remind us of the craftsmanlike brewing process of Brew dog.
We than have another talking head mission statement from one of the founders stating "We brew beer for punks, bold, irreverent and uncompromising". At then end of the statement the images change to a presentation given by Brew Bog to an audience of many 100's almost preaching to them. As the voice ends the images change to very much Americana and a US classic Dodge looking car with the plates BR3WDOGS and plenty of checked shirts, stars and stripes (shirts and flags) as well as Scottish flags. This is a bit of tub thumping to respect the US who started the craft brewing phenomena and also to the expansion of Brew Dog to US markets and a larger appeal. Selling craft beer from Scotland back to the country who invented it.
The promo them jump sits and sound bridges from crashing dustbin lids to an explosion for real from a Brew Dog mad inventor saluting the audience. Another reminder of the basic ingredients that make up Brew Dog beers are then again flashed across the screen in typography and visuals again heavily graded good looking visuals of water, malt, hops and yeast. The promo ends with the two founder members walking in slo-mo purposefully to the camera
The second clip was a 2 minute overview of the Brew Dog brewing process.
The promo starts with an official sounding voice over talking about the brewing process and how does creating a beer get from the twisted heads of the company owners into a bottle or glass near you. The visuals are a bottles of beer being held out in a pub with a really shallow depth of field focus on the bottle with lots of motion graphics words and images (light bulb) over the top which is in a computer, Terminator style reiterating what is said by the voice over "Bold, irreverent and uncompromising". The sounds a drone but with computer sound Fx too of crackles, whooshes and radioactive crackles as the type and graphics appear on screen. We then have a crane shot worn to the companies owners standing "Bouncer like" at a bar. They then sown the image of a rabbit coming out of a hat and insinuate that they brew great beer my magic, then show an image of a bull and say obviously "thats bullshit" with an only joking caption on Screen.
Dance music with a punchy bass and thrum beat then kicks in under an crafted, bronze looking image of the Brew dog logo and lots of creative cinematography of gorgeous amber coloured well lit beers in glasses pacify cut together to the music. The VO then introduces the "state of the art, eco brewery" in Northern Scotland saying that it is "The worlds first crowd funded brewery, brought to life by thousands of equity punks like you." The statements are very leading and want the viewer to feel included and part of the gang. The images over this complement the statement, brewery exteriors, a map graphic showing the brewery location overlay and images of stakeholders. They also add at the end the "insanity" needed to work there and show people in costumes to add the wacky and "punk" nature of their ethos.
They emphasise that everything in the brewery is there for only one purpose and that is for making top quality beers and a mix of cinematic general views and graphics emphasises this. The promo then introduces the USP's of the product and elaborates on the care and though and "top shelf" ingredients that go into their beers. The VO states proudly "more than twice the amount of malted barley than a typical industrial larger" and "40 times the hops" images of these ingredients shot from interesting angles and over screen graphics hammer home these points. The company philosophy is again mentioned being "innovation and pushing boundaries, both in recipes and in the brewery itself" saying how their huge brew-house runs 24-7. They also show their gimmicks such as the "hop cannon" which blasts hops into their brews and does a demo blasting hops at the camera stating "you swear you'll feel like you just got kicked in the teeth when you taste them". The language for all of this section is provocative as they continue the process saying that in their fermentation tanks the beers plot "world domination" and before being "unleashed on the public" as if it was some sinister, powerful wild animal. Then their centrifuge to avoid harsh filtration make sure "all the flavour stays in the beer". All of this VO is accompanied by images of the brewery tech at work once more beautifully shot with overlay computer graphics and typography. Finally they say about bottling, putting it in kegs or the "occasional deer head" and it and shipping it to a bar or bottle shop near you with a graphic of the world pointing out the market reach. The deer hear is a play on a publicity stunt where they brewed what was then the worlds most alcoholic beer 55% that was a limited run of 11 bottles that were supplied in stuffed animals.
The promo then says how it is a far cry from their humble beginnings "2 humans, one dog and a tiny home brew system, but the goal remains the same, to keep converting new soldiers to the craft beer revolution one awesome beer at a time". The images reflect this an old animated photo of the two founder members and their first home brew kit, then rapid fire shots from the video and brewing process. We end on the two founders walking away from the camera in their brewery in slo-mo into the lights outside a fade to black and the Brew Dog url..
No comments:
Post a Comment