Thierry Albert Meets His Match for Heineken

Heineken's new TV spot, The Match, launched to celebrate the return of the Champions League, has gone live today [see below] and here we talk to Thierry Albert [above centre right], one of the W+K Amsterdam creatives behind the Heineken ouevre, alongside Faustin Claverie [above centre left], about their work for the brand, Fredrik Bond's impact on the spots and why crazy ideas are welcomed.

Tell us a bit about the idea behind this and what the brief was from the client.

Well, the thought behind the campaign is pretty straightforward, the best football deserves the best beer. So when you're watching the Champions League, you should go the extra mile, invite your best friends, puts some nice clothes on and offer them some ice cold Heineken. Not in your pants on a streaming site. We just took it a bit further than your usual living room.

How hard is it to come up with ever-more interesting and unusual approaches for the Heineken campaigns?

Well, it's always a challenge to come up with fresh and noticeable ways in such a cluttered world, but Faustin and I have been working on Heineken for two-and-a-half-years now and we have a pretty good understanding of the brand and where to take it.

We always try to start with a very insightful idea and then we work our ass off to make it the most crafted work around and some of the most entertaining ones to watch. And we don't give up till it's done.

Does the client give you a lot of freedom to come up with unusual and exciting ideas?

As I said, Faustin and I have been the CDs on Heineken here at Wieden for quite a while now and we are lucky enough to work with clients who know us quite well and trust our creative judgement.

They know that if we push them to buy some brave work, it's always for the sake of the brand. So yes, they are eager to hear any crazy ideas we have that would push the brand forward. Luckily, any idea sounds less scary told with a French accent. Including lifting a propeller onto the deck of a ship.

You've worked with Fredrik Bond on these spots a number of times; what is it that he brings to the project?

Fredrik shot so many of those Heineken ads that we're always surprised he still wants to read the script. But he's not one of the best directors in the world by accident and he always manages to re-invent the wheel on this.

For example, on this one, he always wanted to shoot it as real as possible. On a real cargo ship, with the real crew, with a real crazy Russian DP. And he pulled it off.

Although it still belongs to the same campaign, it looks very different from the previous Heineken ads, which is very refreshing (pun intended).

It's an eclectic cast in the spot; how did you find all the people in the commercial?

Most of the people you see in this commercial are the real crew of the cargo ship we shot on. And it shows. You can't make up those kind of faces. We are so grateful they all came on board with us and agreed to be part of it. It's not an easy job.

The hero was cast in France where they seem to have an unlimited supply of handsome, charming men who love nothing more than hang around Heineken sets all around the world... Merci la France.

What were the main challenges on this particular shoot?

The main challenge was definitely to shoot on a real cargo ship, off the coast of Istanbul, for eight days with a huge crew and cast. Hats off to Sonny and Fredrik for pulling it off!

We all had to cram into tiny cabins all day long, fighting gasoline smells and being seasick. That's when it gets very handy to get along so well with the client.