A second life for Amsterdam bikes

Made with love in

Amsterdam

V2C Dutch Dry Gin

The Drowned Bottle Openers

OUR THINKING

The gin market is a crowded one. So for a young, independent gin label from Amsterdam like V2C, we were looking for something cultural and locally relevant to help them gain attention. The starting point was our ‘Make it Memorable’ positioning. Could we create something physical? Something that will make you remember V2C  and connects well with our post-advertising approach, in which we apply a range of activities on different customer touch-points to gain attention for brands.

THE IDEA

We created V2C Drowned Bottle Openers, a limited-edition series of bottle openers made from different parts of discarded bikes that were dredged up from the bottom of the Amsterdam canals. In close collaboration with Amsterdam artist and designer David Kroupa, we created 4 different types of bottle openers, each coming from a different part of a drowned bike and finished off with V2C’s trademark red seal. The result is a unique handcrafted set of tools for both bartenders and gin lovers.

AMSTERDAM & V2C

V2C is from Amsterdam, where the company makes gin in small, handcrafted batches. The V2C Drowned Bottle Openers pay homage to the city in a way which also demonstrates V2C’s love of their craft and attention to detail. As well as sending limited-edition openers to a selected group of bartenders in Amsterdam, we launched the promo film to give a wider group of bartenders the opportunity to pre-order it. It led to 100 new leads for long-term retail partners. Originally starting as an activation, the bottle openers will now also be sold through shops across the world.

AND THE RESPONSE?

Retailers like cocktail bars were able to pre-order the bottle openers with V2C directly. This led to 100 new sales leads for the gin brand to follow up.

The greatest impact didn’t come from sending out the physical packages to selected cocktail bars, but from the international media coverage on the promotional video. The sight of the dredged up bikes resonates well with an online audience and this led to many pre-orders on the special microsite.