Small Business Big Game, a competition by Intuit Quickbooks and Intuit’s creative agency, RPA, created and will run an epic cinematic Viking ad for Death Wish Coffee.
Small Business Big Game was launched last year by Intuit Quickbooks and Intuit’s creative agency, RPA. The campaign invited small companies to compete to win a free commercial that would air during the Super Bowl – where the cost of running an ad spot most likely hugely exceeds their advertising budgets.
The inaugural winner was Goldieblox, a company that produces toys, entertainment and games for girls, that aim to develop early interest in engineering and confidence in problem-solving.
This year, more than 15,000 small business competed in a nine month competition process. New York coffee brand, Death Wish Coffee, has won a spot in the 50th anniversary Super Bowl. The company generated US$6 million in revenue last year. A 30 second spot in this year’s Super Bowl is reported to cost more than the US$5 million.
RPA presented three ideas to Death Wish Coffee owner, Mike Brown, who chose the most difficult and expensive.
The ad, called Death Wish, is quite an ad – a cinematic nautical blockbuster with incredible VFX, that highlights the caffeine hyperload of Death Wish Coffee in story about a group of Vikings who sail bravely through treacherous, stormy waters knowing that their journey will end in death…
..a death that comes when they plunge into the mouth of a coffee drinker.
Joe Baratelli, chief creative officer RPA, stated, “It’s incredibly gratifying to create a Super Bowl spot for a small business — the unsung heroes of the communities where we live and work every day. And Death Wish Coffee has an incredible brand personality and a great team driving the company. We were able to create a spectacle of Vikings sailing to battle to show off the fiercely caffeinated coffee and ultimately help QuickBooks with its mission of fueling small business success.”
The production required the building of a 13 metre Viking ship and a massive mechanical gimble, high-powered water canons, hurricane-simulating fans and a cast of 25 Vikings in authentic costumes. The team had only two days to shoot the whole ad.
The spot was directed by Prettybird’s Isaiah Seret. DoP was Oscar-winning cinematographer Claudio Miranda (“Life of Pi”). VFX were by MPC New York. Actor, Diarmaid Murtagh, plays the main Viking. He also played Leif in History Channel’s Vikings.
