Pernod: SCALPEL

Credits & Description:

Category: Books

Advertiser: PERNOD RICARD

Product/Service: PERNOD RICARD BOOK

Agency: AMSTERDAM WORLDWIDE

Executive Creative Director: Richard Gorodecky (Amsterdam Worldwide)

Copywriter/Editor: Stephen Armstrong

Art Director: Jake Noakes

Account Director: Maja Beckman (Amsterdam Worldwide)

Account Manager: Kaming Kho (Amsterdam Worldwide)

Account Coordinator: Jelena Vukas (Amsterdam Worldwide)

Producer: Jordan Kelly (Amsterdam Worldwide)

Media placement: Scalpel 2.1 Book - Internal Distribution Amongst 300 Brand Managers - 30 May 2011 / 6 Months

Media placement: Scalpel 2.2 Book - Internal Distribution Amongst 300 Brand Managers - 29 November 2011 / 6 Months



Describe the brief from the client

Our brief was to create a publication and digital platform that would inspire Pernod Ricard marketeers to find new ways to promote their brands, by exposing them to the very bleeding edge of creativity from the worlds of art, design, photography, music, film, retail design and fashion.



Describe the challenges and key objectives

We didn’t want Scalpel to be a passive read. We wanted to stimulate collaborations between Pernod Ricard and the very best emerging talents. We could not simply ‘showcase’ the work of artists, it needed to be a live directory that gave full contact details and promoted dialogue. Persuading contributors, who are often cynical and sceptical about the world of advertising and marketing to share their work and contact details, is a constant challenge. Each issue needs to represent the very highest standards in terms of design, craft and production. It needs to inspire.



Describe how you arrived at the final design

Dimensions aside, we entirely redesigned each new edition based on a current trend, movement or school of thought that emerges through the editorial.



In Scalpel 2.1, interviews with experts and artists revealed a belief that Modernism was dead and the organic spirit of Art Nouveau was re-emerging. We represented this shift by combining the rigid grid and functionality of Modernism with 3D generated decorative type forms, best described as 'Modernouveauism'. Scalpel 2.2 offered a handmade issue of the authentic, the individual, and the crafted, in a nod to the artisan approach to culture and belief now at the leading edge.



Give some indication of how successful the outcome was in the market

Each issue features the opinions of guest ‘surgeons’. From Tyler Brule to Jefferson Hack, opinion formers and experts of the highest order have contributed their time for free. Collaborations are being formed between brands and incredible individuals that would not have previously found a platform on which to meet. This has contributed to some radical work emerging from Pernod Ricard. A Scalpel Award has been created to recognise the highest achievements of creative marketing within Pernod Ricard. Scalpel has become the North Star of a cultural shift within Pernod Ricard, leading to a more creative and progressive attitude towards marketing.