Absolut Vodka

As Brand Strategy Director at BuzzFeed, I partnered with Absolut Vodka to develop a content-led campaign designed to inspire people to make more cocktails at home when entertaining. We created a fun, educational video format that challenged traditional recipe content: “Regular People vs Professional: Who Can Make the Best Cocktail?” .

This format pitted everyday hosts against a professional bartender in a series of playful challenges. By keeping the tone relatable and human, the film demystified cocktail-making, showing that great drinks don’t require expert skills—just confidence, creativity, and the right ingredients. The format is highly social-native, designed to fit naturally into feeds and encourage sharing, comparison, and conversation.

The video works because it uses a simple, instantly relatable challenge that creates natural tension and curiosity: can everyday people match a professional? This framing pulls viewers in without feeling like a traditional advert. The result was an entertaining, accessible piece of branded content that encouraged viewers to try making cocktails themselves.