Your Shot: Heineken's 007 Live Event

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier or Spy? As the launch date of James Bond Skyfall approaches, Heineken and Wieden + Kennedy Amsterdam head to London to find out if any of the locals have what it takes to be a secret agent. LBB sent our head researcher, and Man with a Golden Pen, Addison Capper, on a classified mission.  

 

Heineken and Wieden + Kennedy Amsterdam continue to evolve their James Bond ‘Crack the Case’ campaign with a live exhibition at London’s Victoria train station. Beginning this Tuesday and ending on Saturday, passers-by can take part in the event to see whether they have the power to save the world. 

 

 

AC> It’s an odd venue. You wouldn’t expect to be interviewed for the role of a spy at a pop-up recruitment office in one of London’s busiest stations, but I had my orders from our Editor. And orders, after all, are orders. I nervously scurried down to Victoria to let the guys from MI6 put me through my paces - And put me through my paces, they did. 

 

I perched nervously on a bare metal chair for a few moments whilst waiting to be called in. A slick-suited man poked out his head and invited me to step into his office. I stated my name and the reason for my visit and accepted his offer to share the experience on Facebook using a digital card (yes kids, you can even social pimp your MI6 interview these days). 

 

 

Eventually, feeling oh-so-shaken-not-stirred, I was invited to step thorough a secret doorway/bookcase. A chirpy-looking waiter greeted me and an unsettling woman, decked in Russian army gear, kept her eyes firmly on me. I was asked to choose a disguise – and after overcoming the initial disappointment of not being immediately handed a gun, tux, Aston Martin and Martini, I chose to imitate a Russian soldier from a choice that also included a cowboy and rock-star.

 

Don’t think this was private. Nope, thanks to the large window in the assessment room, this top secret interview was pretty public. The test of my charm, guile and intelligence all occurred in front of an audience of passers-by.

 

 

The lie detector test came first. “Where are you from? You have a perfect English accent for a Russian, how? Have you seen this dog? Why would you have? This is my dog!” After the interrogation, my examiner declared that she believed I was telling the truth. “The dog ate my homework” was the only response I could think of and it appears to have paid off…

 

Then there was a reaction test, designed to measure my hand-eye coordination, and a task to check the steadiness of my hand. A bottle of crisp Heineken was hidden behind a wall of alarmed lasers and my mission was to access it without tripping off the sensors…. A little worrying, as we all know from playing Goldeneye what happens when the guards are alerted.

 

 

London’s M16 recruitment centre is the first of eight events that are set to appear globally in the coming weeks, ahead of the imminent release of Skyfall. Budapest, Madrid, Rio de Janeiro, Bangkok, Bucharest, Ho Chi Minh and Shanghai are all set for a visit. Read more of the plans here. 

 

 

The live events feed into the TV and digital elements of Heineken’s ‘Crack the Case’ campaign. There’s a 60-second TVC set on a train carriage inspired by the classic Bond sets of Ken Adam and that features replica props from previous movies. Wannabe secret agents who can’t make the offline events can test their mettle online with through a digital campaign, created by Irresistible Films and MediaMonks. Users are invited to help ‘Crack the Case’ through an online game..  

 

From ‘London’ with Love to Heloise Hooton and her team at Wieden + Kennedy Amsterdam for inviting me to the event.