Title	#NEXTFRAME
Brand	THE ABSOLUT COMPANY
Product/Service	ABSOLUT VODKA
Category	A01. FICTION: SERIES OR FILM
Entrant Company	SID LEE Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS
Contributing Company	SID LEE Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS
Production Company	JIMMY LEE Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS

Name	Company	Position
James Yeats Smith	Sid Lee Amsterdam	Creative Director
Gillian Glendinning	Sid Lee Amsterdam	Associate Creative Director
Roger Leebody	Sid Lee Amsterdam	Associate Creative Director
Sebastien Partika	Sid Lee Amsterdam	Creative
Edouard Olhagaray	Sid Lee Amsterdam	Creative
Andrew Peet	Sid Lee Amsterdam	Senior Designer
Emily Creek	Sid Lee Amsterdam	Group Account Director
Simon Wassef	Sid Lee Amsterdam	Head Of Strategy
Jonah Dolan	Sid Lee Amsterdam	Account Manager
Ezra Xenos	Jimmy Lee	Head Of Production
Justin Townsend	Jimmy Lee	Producer
Mario Ucci	Red Knuckles
Rick Thiele	Red Knuckles
Rafael Grampa	Rafael Grampa	Writer/Director
Monica Domanska	Field Trip	Producer

The Campaign

In 2013, Absolut’s challenge was to engage and entertain a new generation of millennial spirit drinkers who had forgotten about the brand and its rich heritage of artistic collaboration. In the meantime, our audience of 20-something drinkers is the most connected, most digital-savvy generation in history, consuming online content like fast food. If it’s not original or entertaining it’s not worth 30 seconds of their time. Our industry now knows that ‘content is king’. But with traditional broadcast viewing in decline and hours spent online (and particularly on social media, via mobile devices) increasing every year for our audience, the need to heed that adage has become more urgent. Absolut is a global brand, and with #Nextframe forming the key collaboration piece of the global Transform Today brand platform, we knew that our branded content had to cut through across all markets by appealing to the same universal insight: we’re all born creative.

Results

Absolut’s challenge was to engage and entertain a new generation of millennial drinkers who had forgotten about the brand. Absolut practically invented the artist collaboration, but in 2013 faced a new reality. The launch of the new global brand platform - Transform Today – marked a moment to open up these collaborations to the most connected generation in history; millennials who believe, rightly, that the future is for them to create and the brands that welcome them behind the curtain are worth their time, money and respect. Our strategy was to develop artist collaborations that opened up the creative process so a global audience could participate and explore their own creativity. #NextFrame is Absolut’s first collaborative project with Brazilian graphic novel creator Rafael Grampá. A crowd-sourced animated film project which invited Grampá’s social audience and Absolut’s five million social fans to help co-create the story and transform their ideas into film. The collaborative project began with a blogger outreach program. Influential bloggers in the graphic novel world, to whom Rafael was a hero, helped announce the project and drove fans to his and Absolut’s social channels to take part. During a live interactive three-week period on Facebook, Rafael asked for inspiration and thousands of people submitted their ideas and original artwork. Fans could influence the action, design characters, choreograph moves - even design the lead character’s tattoo. Rafael responded to fans in real time, which encouraged them to stay engaged throughout the process. Rafael’s team worked around the clock to incorporate fans’ ideas into the film. The animation was premiered in Berlin to global media and together with the bloggers from the outreach program it was released online. With a narrative inspired by thousands of social fans, it’s strangely apt for a tale about stolen ideas.

The project began with a blogger outreach program. Influential bloggers in the graphic novel world, to whom Rafael was a hero, helped announce the project and drove fans to Rafael’s and Absolut’s social channels to take part. Here, a hype film, key visuals and social posts teased the arrival of the project. Rafael asked for inspiration on Facebook and thousands of fans submitted their ideas. Rafael responded and encouraged fans in real time throughout the whole creative process. The animation was premiered in Berlin to global media and together with the bloggers from the outreach program it was released online.

The final animated film quickly generated over 25 million impressions and within a week had picked up a Vimeo Staff Pick badge of honour. It was also selected by Vimeo Staff Picks Cinema Series to be screened around the world at live events like Sundance and SXSW. With over 500k views in the first week alone, the film received hundreds of glowing reviewsand had fans demanding that it be turned into a series and asking when episode 2 was going to be released. NextFrame merchandise started to roll out. 22cm high models of Vincent Black, the lead character were made and the five main characters from the film were transformed into a range of NextFrame cocktails, to suit each character’s personality and named by Absolut’s Facebook fans. The final co-created animated film not only introduced a whole new generation of drinkers to the Absolut brand, it inspired thousands of people from over twenty different countries to realize and explore their own creativity.