Steinlager raises a toast to New Zealand’s finest in latest campaign via DDB Aotearoa
Steinlager has this week launched a new brand platform championing New Zealand’s finest, led by an epic new 90” spot created by DDB Aotearoa.
The spot, directed by celebrated Kiwi filmmaker Lee Tamahori, follows some of New Zealand’s finest exponents – the plucky members of the 1995 Peace Flotilla who sailed to Mururoa atoll to protest French nuclear testing in the Pacific. This rag-tag fleet of homegrown legends caused enough of an international stir that the French never tested in the Pacific again.
Says Geoff Kidd, senior brand manager for Steinlager, says the Peace Flotilla story is a great example of New Zealand’s character. It was an act of selfless bravery that united the nation, with all the hallmarks of Kiwi resourcefulness and spirit: “As a brand Steinlager has grown to encompass a range of products for a range of tastes, but as we diversify our range, the challenge is to ensure the core essence of Steinlager isn’t diluted.
“In collaboration with the exceptional strategists at DDB Aotearoa, we landed on New Zealand’s finest as a way of capturing both the essence of the brand and the feeling we want to champion for Kiwis.”
DDB Aotearoa and Australia regional chief creative officer, Damon Stapleton, says the Steinlager team gave them a very ambitious brief: uniting New Zealand in pride: “It’s an admirable goal, but how do you actually do it? We had to ask ourselves some pretty big questions like what does it mean to be Kiwi and in this increasingly fractured time how do you find and celebrate a moment we can all be proud of?”
Stapleton says that in exploring the problem, the team were increasingly drawn to the idea of an independent streak that runs through the heart of all Kiwis: “There’s a reason why we chose the track we did [‘Go your own way’]. If you ask Kiwis to pinpoint the moments we’re most proud of, they often crystalise as these moments of defiance, often on the world stage. New Zealand’s finest are people who take a stand – a voice of defiance from the edge of the world.”
To capture the Peace Flotilla story authentically, the team consulted with Dan Salmon and Marty Taylor, two Kiwi blokes who joined a Peace Flotilla crew and set sail aboard the Chimera all those years ago to unknowingly become embedded in New Zealand’s history.
Says Salmon: “For me, the original Peace Flotilla captures the spirit of who we are in Aotearoa New Zealand. We’ll take on pretty much anything, including spending months at sea in small yachts to stare down a global nuclear power. It’s part of who we are and I’m really pleased to be sharing that story 25 years later in this film.”
New Zealand’s Finest, Peace Flotilla, launches 6 December via TVC, Print, OOH, social, digital and PR.
Commercial Director: Craig Baldie
National Marketing Director: Rachel Ellerm
Brand Director – Classics and Lagers of the World: Jeremy Meech
Senior Brand Manager – Steinlager: Geoffrey Kidd
Brand Manager – Steinlager: Kate Abercrombie
Agency credits: DDB Group Aotearoa
Chief Creative Officer: Damon Stapleton
Executive Creative Director: Gary Steele
Creative Director: James Conner and Christie Cooper
Business Partner: Jennifer Travers
Business Director: Megan Wailes
Business Director: Michael Doolan
Business Coordinator: Maddie Page
Chief Strategy Officer: Rupert Price
Executive Planning Director: Lucinda Sherborne
Executive Producer: Judy Thompson
Lead Integrated Producer: Samantha Royal
Integrated Producer: Melissa Ching
Production Company: FISH
Executive Producers: James Moore and Samantha Attenborough
Producer: Samantha Attenborough
Director: Lee Tamahori
DOP: John Toon
Production Designer: Bruce Everard
Costume: Barbara Darragh
Offline Editor: Luke Haigh @ MANDY FX
Colourist: Matic Prusnik @ MANDY FX
Online: MANDY VFX @ BLOCKHEAD
Music Arrangement: Peter van de Fluit, Liquid Studios
Sound Design: Craig Matuschka, Liquid Studios
Music and Sound Producer: Tamara O’Neill, Liquid studios
Music Licensing: Jonathan Mihaljevich, Franklin Road
PR Agency: Mango
General Manager: Sean Brown
Senior Account Director: Max Burt
Account Manager: Rebecca Dawson
Account Executive: Elysha Taylor
Media Agency: MediaCom
Business Director: Stephen Larsen
Senior Account Manager: Amy MacKinnon
Digital Account Manager: George Coslett
Investment Manager: Holly Shaw
Investment Specialist: Lauren Turner
Investment Specialist: Jessie Cramond
Investment Graduate: Ashley Smith
67 Comments
Ka pai DDB & Fish
Great idea. Great story. Great craft. What advertising should be.
Nice.
Steinlager work since Harvey. I love how the strategist for years have tried to move everyone away from NZ taking on the world/NZ being small/NZ being challengers to NZ being apart of the world etc but we still jizz out pants when we get global praise etc which is why the NZ taking on the world and this work still resonates so well. Pretty sure thats where Steinlager Toyko Dry product came from.
This could of been a story about our covid response, the springbok tour protests etc.
Lovely stuff DDB.
Great idea. Great craft. Great storytelling. Beautiful work.
Can all agencies follow this credit list format please?
S&S and Colenso not calling out the individuals that worked on it of late – which I understand the logic of not wanting to offend my missing some out and potentially being too long but I love seeing who has touched the work.
So sorry but this lacks proper set-up, tension, stakes or pay-off. Great strategy and creative. Dull execution. Bronze.
Let’s see some of your work so we can learn how to do the right way. I will wait.
This this is storytelling at its best. Well done DDB and Fish.
I love this
This is ratshit. Straight up. Lame.
Nicely done team. Epic.
Agree with previous comment. The ad needed more tension, other than the old hard weather segment (a mandatory when doing maritime ads), the idea needed a climax.
If I remember correctly, the French government was concluding its blasts around that time. The fleet had minimal affect other than a bit of PR globally. The French didn’t give a toss what the rest of the world thought, especially during the beginning of the end of the Cold War. This is reflected in the rather retracted final graphic, other than trying to allude to the fact that they stopped the testing – which it didn’t.
So, not a fan, it’s a bit selective in its recollection of history tagging a brand on to the end of it.
On a more positive note, great to see the client putting rehashing the classic Steinlager strategy from the past few decades, for me it was a no-brainer.
Additionally, well done to the Fish team for getting a great Kiwi director to make it, a great visual result.
I disagree. It’s a great story that deserves to be told and Fish and DDB have done a great job of telling it.
Well done to everyone involved. It’s a beautifully crafted story. Many a kiwi will remember this, and many will have learned something new. The music takes it up another level. Hats off to Liquid. I have to disagree with some of the negative comments on here. Ask yourself, how bad will the consequences be if the problem isn’t solved? If that’s not tension, then I don’t know what is. To everyone who had something to do with this ad, you’ve all done something great.
It feels like a made-for-TV doco montage. Fails in the feels department for me.
Nice!
Beautifully shot. But super contrived. Isn’t this just the same ad as that Zane Lowe one they did 3/4 years ago?
Emotion went AWOL at the end. Shoot more there, less in the middle.
No comment about the storytelling or creative – it is beautiful craft for sure.
Agree on the strategy – no brainer for steinlager to return to the “challenge the world”. I would question why they just dont re-run the Harvey Keitel ad? would still be relevant today about NZ place in the world.
History lesson aside, back to your catalogues.
Some people are so easily impressed with a big budgets and lots of seconds. But really there’s nothing we haven’t seen visually in this spot before, it’s a low budget mash up of lotto dog, that silver farms ad and the Hauraki radio movie all of which are forgettable except lotto dog. This is not a classic, it’s a couple of made for TV scenes banged together nastily.
Saatchi smacked it out of the spark with Hilux. Just goes to show no agency is at the top for long.
Beyond the painfully flaccid execution – what right do offshore owned businesses have appropriating Kiwi social-history to sell more piss from a company that had exactly zero to do with the struggle when it was happening? I don’t remember Lion stepping up to fund, endorse or encourage anti-nuke lefties in the 90’s, the 80s’ or before when the struggle actually happened. In fact, at this point Steinlager was the major supporter of a rugby team who had unofficially toured apartheid South Africa barely a decade before. The Kiwis who stood up and took those actions were not supported by breweries – so it seems a bit off to stick a beer logo your logo on the end of this story. Just plain lazy.
You are putting a lot of time and effort into hating this. Is it because you are not doing any good work of your own? Thought so.
No, trust me – this is not a case of jealousy. I suggest you not give up your day-job to pursue a career in psychology. (unless you’re in planning – in which case – my commiserations on your career prospects). This is just deeply superficial work. If Steiny wants to run with the hunted, then how about growing a pair and sticking up for today’s underdogs? There are plenty of blowhards taking credit for battles they did not fight already.
Deep down you love it and you can only express that love through massive anger and pure fear.
Pure Fear – sounds like Lion’s new line extension for a dying brand being eased into the grave with creative that’s aligning itself with ancient history.
To Fish, DDB, Liquid, and everyone involved. You should be proud. Ignore the nasty, small dicked bottom feeders. I highly doubt they have done anything good since the 90s. It’s funny when you’ve been in this industry awhile, you certainly recognise how people talk, the language they use, the humour or lack of. I could almost put a face to it. Anywho, play nice xxx
Thanks for the career advice. Take a deep breath, it’s going to be ok. There is room for everyone to do well.
The claws are out! The sign of a great ad.
Agreed! great work to the team, from those who are happy to see others succeed.
Looks like a lot of snowflakes can’t take criticism.
Love the comments, they were incredibly hurtful that I almost cried into my over-priced carbon-neutral organic granola.
But I stand by my comments.
The brand is trying to pigtail off a great moment in history of which it had nothing to do with.
The ad isn’t dramatic, it’s a documentary with the brand awkwardly shoved in as a rolling pin.
The drama was all about taking on the French government who were being arrogant and dismissive of NZ.
This fact is carelessly danced around when it should’ve been the thrust. Remember how we are so proud of Lange’s ‘Uranium’ comment when he was taking on the United States at Oxford?
The final graphic explaining the idea is woeful and not at all powerful. A big opportunity missed.
If the brand wanted to show real balls they would have sided with the sailors on the two frigates NZ sent to protest years earlier – that would’ve been a lot scarier. The politics at the time were diabolical.
We all know a lot of Gen X and Millennials are clueless about history, but if they read up about this moment in time then they’d quickly realise that Steinlager had nothing to do with this protest, they’re were more interested in yacht races, rugby and promoting the last rites of the They’re drinking our beer here/NZ’s premier beer strategy.
But hey, at least the brand is spending money.
And, once again, well done to Fish.
So, come on snowflakes and the easily offended, throw some more insults.
So angry! It’s just a piece of film. You are going to be ok.
DDB have returned to “Good on ya mate” for Speight’s and now “NZ’s Finest” for Steinlager, both brand ideas from the past. It takes a classy agency to rise above their own planning egos and recognise the right platforms for each brand already exist. And an even classier one to then bring them back to life with great storytelling. Nothing but admiration for this work.
Yeah / Nah. ‘Returning to the right platform’ implies authenticity. There’s nothing authentic about Steinlager claiming they’re an anti-colonialist protest brand. It’s about as legitimate as Lion Red sticking its logo on a story about the Bastion Point protests. Or is that already in pre-prod?
The claws are out pure and simple because DDB spends it’s entire time on this blog posting comments about how good it’s own work is, sometimes it is sometimes it just isn’t.
Second that ?
this isn’t a bad spot. Maybe just not as great as all the DDBers would have you believe. I love that the classic response to critique on this blog is “well what have you done?”. So what? Even if I haven’t done anything, I’m still allowed to have a non-fanboy opinion.
Or you could spend that time doing something interesting of your own. It may even make you happy. Worth a try?
To the crew and stuff but I don’t get it at all, 0 % feels
words here. Flaccid is correct.
Are you speaking from experience?
You know you’ve made a great ad when you get more than four comments.
Or a shit one homie, lol
No one can deny the craft of production. Well done to the team on that, it’s beautifully done. But for Steinlager to jumping on the back of something the beer had zero to do with, is just wrong. Where were they at the time?
The CB comments are alive again. Long may it continue.
do you remember the best steinlager work of all time being the Harvey Kietell work? Yeah Steinlager had nothing to do with women getting the vote, or GE free stance, or climbing everest. What is does have is a history of taking on the world and backing kiwis who do to.
it is pretty simple logic that will appeal to mainstream NZ. esepcially the audience i imaigne the brand are talking too in terms of 35-50 year old kiwi males that they have lost to the likes of heineken ec.
Yes Mojo’s work for Steinlager Pure with HK was creatively excellent. Their strategic leap was to tap into the love of plucky challengers among Kiwis and celebrate the attitude. What DDB has delivered is a mansplaining history lesson with a logo slapped on the end. This strategic brand leap is backwards: from ‘They’re drinking our beer here’ to highlight the fact that ‘They weren’t drinking our beer there.’
wow the out of home is terrible. Why do we always put all the time, energy and money into TVC and not out anything into OOH. Such an important media channel.
The Heineken OOH right next to the Steinlager one dominates.
At last we have a Kiwi answer to Pepsi’s Kendall Jenner protest ad.
Given Steinlager’s proud heritage sponsoring NZ Rugby, maybe DDB could suggest they support the players in their class action against World Rugby about the concussions causing their premature dementia? Or would that be too much like standing up to the big guys to be on the right side of history? Nah, way too risky. Let’s just keep quiet and fake we were there well after the event.
Not one to throw the cat amongst the pigeons, but why doesn’t anyone use their actual name when they comment anymore?
Most ads works through salience/association, rather than explicit communication, so it is more important that ads are noticed & liked than believed & trusted.
Les, you are correct.
But last time I looked Hershey gave American soldiers chocolate during WW2, but I don’t think they tried to associate their chocolate with being the brand responsible for defeating Hitler and Imperial Japan.
The nuclear protesting was a big issue. France could’ve refused our butter and meat. At the time NZ couldn’t afford to lose the order. There was a lot at stake. Let’s not forget that.
But hey, Fish did a great job and the soon to be Aussie client was willing to spend.
See you at Prego, Kim.
“There are few things more destructive than an unsound idea persuasively expressed.”
Get to 60!
Need as much if not more love than DDB has put into these comments.
If you are going to PR the work, show it all.
Not sure the music helped the storytelling on this one. Yes, it’s a remake of “Go your own way” by Fleetwood Mac but it feels like it’s missed the mark. Perhaps a kiwi track from that time would have worked harder?
Herbs – Nuclear waste
https://thespinoff.co.nz/media/16-12-2020/this-steinlager-ad-distorts-the-truth-about-anti-nuclear-protest-in-the-pacific/
TLDR:
The ad was made with the support of two members of the peace flotilla, but others are hugely upset by it. Thomas Everth, who sailed to Moruroa in 1995, is among those who are angry about the peace flotilla being used to sell beer. He’s calling for Steinlager and DDB to donate $1 million to help counter drug and alcohol abuse. “I am angered that you abuse what was an important political effort for a cheap beer ad,” he wrote. “I am not letting you abuse the sacrifice and hard work of the hundreds of people who sailed thousands of miles to make our voices heard for selling a drug that is addictive and causes death, ill-health and misery in our communities. I challenge you to make up for it, by donating.”
Interesting story retold as a coma-inducing trope fest with a connection to the product that exists only in the mind of the planner. No memorable characters, no conflict and no attempt to establish the stakes. Production far too epic for the script. A hash job of an expensive song that doesn’t fit the film. “Couple of celebrities onboard” is a good line of dialogue though so good work whoever put that in there.
Phoenix Cola has a right to align its brand with this story, as this is when it came from and what it stood for / against at the time. This is an epic brand fail from Steinlager. You can stick Aotearoa on your logo, but it helps to have local knowledge in senior roles to avoid mismatches like this.
Activists upset by Steinlager beer ad. https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018778305/activists-upset-by-steinlager-beer-ad
Shame on you Steinlager! So offensive
If you want to use French in a campaign you should at least get someone who speaks French to check the spelling and grammar before putting it on TV.
The message on the boat should say “Quittez le Pacifique”.
It annoys me everytime to read “Quittez la Pacifique” on television.
Situation vacant posted for Steinlager Brand Manager.
My favorite type feeling when I watch this ad.
Love it everytime.