This was our second year with this brand as a sponsor of the show, and we wanted to create content that would fit well within the world of Killing Eve. Our objective was to create two highly stylized pieces of creative that kept viewers in the world of Killing Eve during the commercial break while showcasing cocktails created with the client’s product. The client’s tagline is “Drink Marvelously,” and we knew we could easily tie this brand messaging into the more sensational and distinctive aspects of the show.

Our creative goal was to create two spots that incorporated the sponsor’s product into the intoxicating world of Killing Eve. We wanted to evoke a lush and elegant set – like a location you’d see in the show – and cast a cool, creative, and experienced mixologist as our star. It was important for the mixologist to bring their character and style into each cocktail while connecting them to the Killing Eve content our fans know and love. Lastly, we wanted the cocktails to be something aspirational but attainable for our fans – something luxurious they could recreate themselves as they settle in for a new episode of their favorite show.

Our strategy was to create content that would resonate with the Killing Eve audience. To retain the audience during the breaks, we knew we would need the spots to look like they existed in the world of Killing Eve while not infringing on the show’s IP. Killing Eve is proud to have a large LGBTQ+ following, so we were interested in finding a star who was both a skilled mixologist and appealed to our fanbase. Lastly, we knew the cocktails needed to feel lavish (to fit with star Villanelle’s over-the-top lifestyle) while still including ingredients our fans could easily source from home.

We wanted this vignette series to be more than simply listing ingredients for a cocktail. We met our mixologist, Fanny Chu, in a stylish bar where she painted a picture of her inspiration. She tied elements from the show into the cocktails, both more literal (a pink garnish as a nod to iconic pink items in Villanelle’s wardrobe) and more figurative (espresso to reference an adrenaline-filled scene in Rome). In post, we juxtaposed exciting, relevant scenes from the show with footage of Fanny creating the drink to craft a perfect vignette. Period from casting to air was February 3 to April 12, 2020.

Both our company and the client were extremely happy with these vignettes, but most importantly, they received positive feedback from our fans. After the first vignette aired during the premiere episode of the new season, fans on Twitter raved about everything from the casting to the cocktails. The fans praised our brands for correctly assessing the audience with the inclusion of an LGBTQ+ mixologist in a show that so masterfully details the cat-and-mouse attraction between two women that is traditionally reserved for opposite-sex couples on TV. The premiere airing of the vignette series reached 1.3MM A21+, and held 94% of the audience on AMC and 89% of the audience on BBC America. The vignettes continued to air throughout the season, which averaged 1.5MM viewers per episode. The vignettes aired 21x on AMC and 81x on BBC America from April 12 to May 31, 2020.