Avery’s Soda • One Show Shortlist
I’m into soda the way some people are into craft beer. (I realize that’s weird.) It troubled me that I didn’t have a soda brand to work on. So I went out and got one. I drove down to the Avery’s Soda bottling plant with little more than an elevator pitch in my head.
There was good news and bad news when I asked the owner if he’d like a new ad campaign. “Go ahead. I have no money.”
Back at the office, I put together a team of volunteers. This would be night and weekend work, but we’d have total creative control.
We talked about the moment when a voice inside your head says you’re craving soda. What did that sound like? What did it look like?
Could that moment be portrayed by an owl sitting on someone’s head? It could. This brought to mind the work of London-based illustrator Ashley Percival, and we tapped him for some unique characters.
With a huge assist from our in-house motion graphics team, our script came to life in an offbeat 15-second spot that matched the quirky culture surrounding Avery’s 120-year history.
Extending the idea to social, c-store clings and out-of-home, the campaign helped Avery’s go from local bottler to super-regional distributor. (A bottle has been detected as far away as New Mexico.)
