Michael Winterbottom Shoots First TV Spot

A year since the British beer industry united to celebrate the best of British brewing by launching Let There Be Beer, the campaign has evolved into There's a Beer For That, a £10m integrated campaign featuring a new advert created by SapientNitro and directed by features director Michael Winterbottom, his first TV commercial.

Winterbottom, who is best known for TV series The Trip and films such as 24-Hour Party People, directed the ad which is designed to show Britons that there is a wide variety of beers that perfectly suit a wide variety of occasions. This is SapientNitro’s first work for Britain's Beer Alliance, since the agency won the integrated advertising account in May.

Below, SapientNitro ECD Mark Hunter and Winterbottom discuss the campaign.

What was the initial brief from the client and how did you decide how to approach it?

MH: As a result of a steady decline in beer sales, SapientNitro was tasked with the challenge of driving the reappraisal of beer and reigniting Britain’s love of beer, by getting the British public to think ‘there’s more to beer’ than just lads, lager and sport.

Did you purposely want to avoid the clichés of beer brand advertising to give the ad a broader appeal?

MH: With limited media budgets we had to tackle the brief differently, opting to use TV to start to push the new message and then using social channels to have more of an ongoing conversation.

Creating an emotive film, showcasing diversity, British characters and surprising occasions based around food provided us with a platform to tell a story celebrating the fact that there is a different type of beer for every type of person and every type of occasion and with such diversity, quality and versatility in beers the film helps deliver the message of "there is more to beer" than one might think. And ultimately moving away from the cliché of beer and sports.

Though it's tone is low-key, it's a huge undertaking in terms of cast and locations; how did you decide where you wanted to shoot and who you would cast in the spot?

MW: There are lots of locations which was one of the attractions. The starting point was to get out of London. In the end, we shot in Manchester, Yorkshire Dales, Lancashire, Wales and London. I just picked places I liked.

What was it that Michael Winterbottom brought to the project and why was he right to direct?

MH: It is in fact Michael’s first commercial which is really exciting for everyone. Michael’s body of work has a huge focus on realism and capturing people and places (usually Britishness) and showing beauty in the everyday. This coupled with the fact he is a foodie and happens to love his beer made him an ideal choice to help realise the TV spots.

Michael, you've not worked in commercials before; what was it that attracted you to this particular project?

MW: I like beer and I like food - it was hard to think of a reason not to do it.

What was your initial reaction when you saw the script and did you immediately know how you would approach it?

MW: The basic idea was very simple, to film people eating food and drinking beer. The agency said that they wanted to have an observational feel. I agreed.

What was the most difficult part of the project?

MH: Broadcast advertising of alcohol is very, very regulated and the trickiest part of the whole project was finding a way to talk about the range, diversity and quality within the confines of the very tight ASA code. We went to great lengths to ensure the campaign complies with all regulations.

MW: Hardest part was finding people. We wanted to try and find natural groups of friends to be in the locations they were comfortable in. Because the advert is for beer, everyone had to be over 25 years old.

What’s your favourite tipple?

MH: Doombar.

MW: Beer, obviously.