HERTOG JAN
Hertog Jan’s Grand Prestige Vatgerijpt is a renowned name in the Netherlands. Each year, brewers Gerard and Micha set out on a journey to explore and test barrels from all corners of the world, seeking the perfect ones to age their beer. In recent years, we’ve traveled to Scotland, Ireland, Portugal, and France to create content that aligns with that year’s campaign.
SCOTLAND
2020
In these videos, we follow the process of beer aging in whisky barrels amidst the mystical Scottish landscape. Over months of maturation, the flavors seep from the wood into the beer, giving rise to Grand Prestige Vatgerijpt. With a small crew, we embarked on a two-week journey through the Scottish wilderness, accompanied by our partners from The Valley and NRC Media, as well as the brewers of Hertog Jan. This intriguing adventure resulted in creating 9 video’s: 4 teaser video, 4 region video’s and 1 compilation video.
Scroll down to see some of the results.
ISLAY - REGION VIDEO
HIGHLANDS - REGION VIDEO
To highlight the craftsmanship behind the barrel-aging process, the campaign’s slogan was: ‘Geduld is een schone taak’ (‘Patience is a virtue’). To reinforce this sentiment, we developed teaser videos. These videos emphasized the feeling of anticipation and included subtle hints about the specific region at the end, creating an interactive and engaging experience. The teasers were released online in the lead-up to the beer’s launch day. Saying people were excited would be an understatement—every bottle sold out within 30 minutes.
ISLAY - TEASER VIDEO
HIGHLANDS - TEASER VIDEO
Client - NRC, Hertog Jan
Agency - The Valley
Production Company - four creating
Director - Rik van der Kleij
DP & Post Production - Boris Marijn
Creative Director - Sheldon Bont
Client Lead - Rianne Govers
Photography - Pie Aerts
Copywriter - Natasja Adamse-Admiraal
PORTUGAL
2021
This year had a slightly different approach. We visited winemakers to uncover the secrets of Portuguese wines and explored the country and its islands together with brewers Gerard and Micha. This year’s campaign ‘Paradox of Zoet’ (Paradox of Sweet) focused more on longer formats and diving deeper in the origins of the liquids. We shot a teaser video to tempt the audience, several region video’s to get the viewers more engaged with the area and tasting video’s for the more in depth information about the taste.
Watch two examples below.
TEASER
TASTING VIDEO
Client - NRC, Hertog Jan
Agency - The Valley
Production Company - four creating
Director - Rik van der Kleij
Producer - Wiebe Beckman
DP - Boris Marijn & Maarten Brom
Post Production - David Widen & Max Brunott
Agency Lead - Wouter Koot
Creative Director - Sheldon Bont
Copywriter - Michelle Quekel
Client Lead - Rianne Govers
Photography - Renze Bemelmans
FRANCE
2022
We truly experienced ‘laissez-faire’ on this trip to France—a real challenge both logistically and production-wise, with temperatures often soaring above 37 degrees. The format features a top French chef creating dishes that pair perfectly with Hertog Jan’s four regionally barrel-aged beers. A delightful evening beer, best enjoyed during or after a meal.
In total we shot 26 video’s for this project, but I picked two favorites which you can see below: the teaser and the compilation.
TEASER
COMPILATION
Client - NRC, Hertog Jan
Agency - The Valley
Production Company - four creating
Director - Rik van der Kleij
Producer - Wiebe Beckman
DP - Boris Marijn & Maarten Brom
Post Production - David Widen & Max Brunott
Agency Lead - Wouter Koot
Creative Director - Sheldon Bont
Copywriter - Michelle Quekel
Client Lead - Rianne Govers
Photography - Renze Bemelmans
IRELAND
2024
For this edition, we once again immersed ourselves in the world of whisky-aged oak barrels. For the 2024 release of Hertog Jan’s Vatgerijpt series, we traveled to breathtaking Ireland to capture its wild landscapes, charming pubs, and renowned distilleries. This year, we took a different approach to our video strategy, producing a short social video for each bottle as well as a cinema ad which played in most cinema’s throughout The Netherlands—of course, all fully in line with Hertog Jan’s distinctive style.
Watch below for the cinema-ad and one of the social video’s.
CINEMA AD
SOCIAL VIDEO
Client - NRC, Hertog Jan
Agency - The Valley
Production Company - four creating
Talent - Micha Peute
Creative Director - Sheldon Bont
Director - Sander Beekman
DP - Jurriaan Kwakkel
Lead Editor - David Widen
1st AC & Gaffer - Boris Marijn
Producer - Sarah Maunsell, Location Fixer Ireland Ltd
Colorist - Bram Baas
Sound Mix - Vincent Witte, Bob Thole, BLURRED Audio
AbInBev - Britt Verbaenen, Caroline Klaassen
The Valley: Wouter Koot, Michelle Quekel
NRC: Charlotte Balder, Eline Dijkstra, Natasja Adamse-Admiraal
Fotografie: Daniëlle Siobhán