Brew Blog

New Ivey’s Campaign, Execution Two and Three

admin — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 15:13:21 +0000

Here are the final two ads in this year’s campaign for the Ivey Awards. Look for them in magazines, bus shelters and billboards all over the Twin Cities over the next month. Thanks again to photographers William Clark and Lucas Saugen. And, yes, you might have noticed that the two Ivey Award winners standing in the corn field look familiar. They’re the Baldwin sisters, Christina and Jennifer, the actors who starred as the long-lost twins with opposite political views in Brew’s Holiday Video last winter.

New Ivey’s Campaign, Execution One

admin — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 15:10:32 +0000

Once again, Brew is doing our part to support the Ivey Awards: The celebration of Twin Cities theater that will take place at the State Theater in September. It’s one of the few true red carpet events in Minnesota (not that we’re the red carpet types). This year we’re continuing the theme we began last year: The juxtaposition of the elegant Ivey award winners on the red carpet against a backdrop of iconic Minnesota locations. Featured here is Dudley Riggs, the grandfather of Minnesota comedy theater and last year’s lifetime achievement award winner. Again, it was a collaboration between Brew and photographers William Clark (the portraits) and Lucas Saugen (the environments). Lucas artfully pieced the two images together. The images will be used in magazine advertising, outdoor, posters and will again be the theme for the event. Speaking of William, he will be co-directing a very cool video/commercial for a very cool car brand that we’ll be producing in August. Stay tuned for that and more Ivey’s executions.

Proud to be a “mistress agency”

admin — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 14:05:55 +0000

We’ve seen the term “mistress agency” used to describe agencies like ours. And, despite the sordid undertones, we’ve warmed up to the term. What it usually refers to is a more innovative, more nimble agency that a big brand calls in even though they have another big (and sometimes, lumbering) agency. That means that we often work “under the radar.” We have two big assignments like that right now. And although we can’t announce the relationships now, you will be seeing the work at the end of the summer. They’re great brands. Stay tuned.

Bruce judges the AICP Awards Again

admin — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 14:34:46 +0000

For the third year in a row, Bruce Bildsten joined a handful of America’s top creative directors in New York to judge the AICP Next Awards. The AICP Show is one of the most prestigious and progressive of the award shows honoring advertising, film and production. The Next Awards specifically focus on work that goes way beyond traditional advertising and were created several years ago, largely in reaction to the groundbreaking BMW Films that Bruce was instrumental in leading while at Fallon. He was thrilled to see so many of his former partners on those films, now at BBDO New York, take home the big prize at the Next Awards for their HBO “Imagine” campaign.

A Digital Cast of Thousands

admin — Thu, 20 May 2010 18:02:25 +0000

We just finished our commercial for Edwards Desserts, after several weeks of painstaking digital effects work. Although the budget was modest, director Peter Chelsom and the special effects wizards at Splice Here made a smaller theater in Los Angeles and fifty extras look like the Oscars. We’re now beginning to plan for next year’s product introductions for Edwards and Mrs. Smith’s pies.

Fashion for The Greater Good

admin — Sat, 08 May 2010 19:12:24 +0000

In partnership with our good friends and collaborators at the Tom Julian Group, we just completed a sizable strategic project for the fashion brand Edun. The brand was launched by the husband and wife team of Ali Hewson and Bono with the mission of helping to build Africa as a viable source of production for fashion. That’s a cause we can believe in.

For your amusement

admin — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 21:25:00 +0000

Yes, we know it’s a cheap laugh, but we never grow tired of dressing up the office dogs in costumes, especially to celebrate important Holidays. At least Ginger and Lola enjoy eating the bribe that comes their way after our photo sessions end. In other news here at Brew we’re busy working on projects for Edwards and Mrs. Smith’s desserts, Edun clothing, Chi Lake Liquors, and more. We plan to begin work on a new website for Neve soon.

A really big show

admin — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 21:37:48 +0000

We just returned from a big production in Los Angeles for Edward’s Desserts. We recreated the look and feel of the Oscar’s, with the help of a large cast of extras and the historical Orpheum Theater. Fittingly, we had Oscar-nominated production designer Kevin Kavanaugh and feature film director Peter Chelsom to help us create the illusion. Now we have several weeks of special effects work to bring it all together.

Edwards TV and Print Production Begins

admin — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 17:26:49 +0000

We’re excited to begin production of the new campaign for our friends at Schwan’s Consumer Brands for their new Edwards Singles desserts. (How does a hot molten chocolate brownie with ice cream sound?) We’ll be shooting this year’s commercial with feature film director Peter Chelsom of Independent Media. It continues a long partnership that Bruce and art director Carol Henderson have had with Independent Executive Producer, Susanne Preissler. Independent brings top feature directors to select commercial projects, with the result being bigger, more cinematic films. Bruce and Susanne worked together on many PBS projects in the past, including the Emmy Award-winning “Goldfish.”

Neve Catalog & Identity

admin — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 18:39:55 +0000

The new identity and catalogs for our sportswear client, Neve, has been rolled out and is receiving a great reception from their customers as the major outdoor, ski and fashion shows hit full stride. We photographed the catalog with Denver-based photographer Jeff Martin (it was Jeff’s first fashion shoot) at three locations all over Colorado. Neve’s new identity has been applied on everything from their clothing to their trade booths, and will be instrumental in their push into European markets. The new Neve will also be seen at the Vancouver Olympics, as they are a US Ski and Snowboard team supplier.