Madre, Arts & Letters and the Return of the Tito’s Spokescart

By Chandler Atton & Anthony Vagnoni

With SXSW turning the spotlight on Austin once again, we asked director Luisa Kracht of production company Madre and Creative Director Lill O’Connor of Arts & Letters about the making of the Spokescart 2.0 campaign, in which the plucky, self-propelled drinks cart from Tito’s Handmade Vodka (only the second most famous thing to come out of Austin) arrives in moments of tedium and boredom to bring fun and relaxation to the office, the beauty salon and a group of friends who’ve gathered to watch the game on TV. 

The campaign includes four spots: “After Hours,” set in a RTO workplace that’s clearly running on fumes; “New Neighbors,” in which the Spokescart, armed with much-needed hedge trimmers, breaks the ice on moving day; “Pregame,” in which the cart visits two women getting ready for a social event to bestow on them awesome nails and scrumptious Martinis; and “Watch Party,” in which the Spokescart literally smashes through the ceiling to save a dull gameday viewing experience. Each spot is accompanied by a marvelously kitschy music track that adds to the overall comedic effect. 

While this may be the Spokescart’s second iteration, it’s a repeat for the production company, too, which co-produced the first go-round, also created by Arts & Letters, as well as for the director. While The Howler has been known to enjoy an occasional mixed drink or three, we felt there was more to The Spokescart than met the eye, so we posed a few polite questions. Here are Luisa and Lill’s sober responses. 

What was the brief for the production company on this campaign? What was the most important angle you were going for in terms of the visual comedy and storytelling, and how did you achieve that (i.e., casting, set design, sight gags, music, etc.)?

Luisa Kracht: With this being the second round for the Spokescart, I think we were all on the same page that we wanted the cart to evolve towards something that had even more character and personality – more relatable, charming, fun, and expressive. From the first brief, we knew it was important that the cart felt alive; we didn’t want anything robotic, but rather truly organic. For example, it’s not perfect – it’s quite imperfect, actually. It shakes, its wheels squeak, and half the time it almost falls over (which it does a lot on set!). That's also one of the reasons we always wanted the cart to be practical, and to work with the actual physical mechanisms. 

How important is the music in achieving the desired effect of these spots? How did you track down these tracks?

Luisa: We discussed the music a lot. We wanted it to build the character of the campaign and the cart without overpowering the cart itself within the spots; that’s why we went for incidental and cinematic, not cliche, but classic to the genre of hero/adventure films. We always thought of the cart as a sort of savior—in my mind, it’s like James Bond or Indiana Jones coming to save the day. We also thought it would be a nice wink to the brand being so proudly Texan to incorporate music that had that Western feeling.

They say robots are coming for all our jobs. Any concerns about these oddly robotic drink carts replacing the age-old role of the wizened, ‘heard every story before’ bartender? 

Lill O’Connor, Arts & Letters Creative Co.: The Spokescart could never replace our bartenders, we love them. But if the robots are coming for us, I’m not going to lie, I would love it if all those robots came in the form of sentient bar carts whose only reason for existence was to bring us Tito’s Handmade Vodka and joy.

So if the cart could speak – which you seem to suggest – would it be a male voice? Female? Somewhat androgynous? And if you could land a famous celeb to supply the voice, who would it be? (Anyone but Morgan Freeman.)

Luisa: I don't know if it's male or female, or human at all. Sometimes when we pitch ideas, we hear it as a vintage digital squeaky R2-D2, or sometimes as a sexy Barry White. The fact that it doesn’t speak gives us room to explore all sorts of personalities depending on the setting and situation it finds itself rolling into. 

How did you come up with the Spokescart’s various customizations seen in each execution? For example, the office printer, the nail dryer, the hedge trimmers – did the scripts dictate? Or the design of the cart itself? 

Luisa: That was a collaboration between Tito’s, the agency and me. The agency sent some original ideas in the scripts, and then I sent back a few new ideas, trying to find what it could do in the situations that were presented. It's always been back and forth. For example, in “Pregame,” the original idea was a perfume bottle, and I came up with a nail polish machine. What I liked about that is that they had to put their hands inside it, which had this mysterious feeling, like “What's going to happen now?” I thought it would be a bit more magical, which we also discussed for this round—putting a little touch of magic in it.

Who fabricated the carts? Did they really use pieces of the carts from the previous campaign? Any plans to use the carts, or versions of them, in promotional or experiential installations? 

Luisa: We fabricated them. The heart of the cart is the pouring mechanism, and that’s the same one we used last year; the rest had to be reconstructed and adapted to fit the new mechanisms. The original cart from the first campaign was quite destroyed when it rolled out into the desert last year, parts falling and flying out at sunrise on the very last shot of the shoot—it was quite epic. For the next campaign, it’ll need a little heart surgery, but it still has many more rounds to go.

Almost all of the effects were done in camera. Why this approach? What challenges did it present on set? And how does an inanimate object like the cart reveal elements of its personality? 

Luisa: We always wanted to do it live, organic, imperfect; it just felt right. And it was a little bit like giving birth to something, and then letting it show you its true character—what it can and can’t do, and where it would need help or adaptations to do the thing we wanted it to do. 

It’s partly mechanized, remote-controlled, and partly puppeteered. The pouring mechanism is completely remote-controlled, as well as most of the surprise mechanisms and upgrades the cart brings to the situation. Its rolling, jumping, skidding, shaking, falling, etc., is mostly done with ropes and pulleys and harnesses, which luckily make the cart's movement more controllable without losing its imperfectness.

But the mechanisms take a lot of time to design, and they all actually fit inside the cart, so we had a size restriction. The carts presented all sorts of challenges because every time the trap door didn’t open properly or the mechanism got stuck, it took a lot of time during the shoot to get them working again. They have to be funny, on time, and on cue to fit the timing of the comedy, but we felt that it brought so much more personality to the cart. It even brings surprises. 

So might the Spokescart make an appearance at Burning Man? Coachella? The Sturgis rally? Just like ‘the world’s most interesting man,’ do you see the Spokescart having the same kind of legs? 

Lill: Where might the Spokescart show up next? Wherever our imagination takes us. We definitely see the Spokescart having the same kind of legs as ‘the world’s most interesting man.’ As long as we’re talking about metaphorical legs. The Spokescart with human legs is a terrifying thought.

Credits:

A&L
Founder, Executive Creative Director - Charles Hodges
Executive Creative Director - Molly Jamison
Creative Director - Lillian O’Connor
Creative Director - Brett Simone
Creative - Mindi Price
Creative - India Allen
Managing Director - Theo Abel 
Group Business Director - Molly Navalinski
Business Director - Jane Steinhoff
Business Manager - Daniella Ramirez
Head of Production - Lisa Setten
Executive Producer - Jason Sheldon
Executive Producer - Whitney Green
Sr. Producer - Andrea Rodriguez
Post-Producer - Ari Sneider
Editor - Ben Surber
Assistant Editor - Carl Simakoff 
Music Supervisor - Cam DiNunzio
Director of Business Affairs - Lenora Cushing 
Business Affairs Manager - Alex Asencio
Head of Strategy - Andy Grayson
Strategist - Joe Carr

Tito’s Handmade Vodka
VP,  Marketing - Taylor Berry
Sr. Director, Brand Marketing - Allie Wester
Creative Director, Content & Copywriting - Josie Fox
Marketing Project Manager - Aryan Douglas
Associate Producer - Christina Rhodes
Jr. Producer - Von Curtis

Madre (Production Company)
Director - Luisa Kracht
DP - Constanza Sandoval
Production Design - Cecilia Guerriero
Executive Producer - Jonathon Ker
Executive Producer - Paulina Zuluaga

Metanoia (Local Production Company)
Executive Producer - Lucho Valdés
Production Manager- Maria Noel Machado
Line Producer - Vero Berta

The Mill (VFX)
Senior Executive Producer: Mandy Harris
Producer: Hayley Savage
Shoot Supervisor: Nacho Mancebo
VFX Creative team on Hero Spots
Creative Director: Tom Mccullough
2D Lead Artist: Kieran Hanrahan
2D Finish Lead: Taylor Feld
2D Artist: Julien Aucouturier
2D Comp Supervisor: Nanda P V
Compositing Supervisor: Gopi Veeran

VFX Creative team on AfterHours :60
Creative Director: Tom Mccullough
Head of CG: Emily Meger
Animation Supervisor: Sukanta Chakraborty
Animation Lead: Aniruddhya Chang, Amit Ramkrishna Nandgaonkar
Lighting Supervisor: Aritra Sarkar
Lighting Lead: Vishwajeet Sideshwar Nandagawle
Matchmove Supervisor: Elangovan Ganeshan
Matchmove Lead: Borse Sainil Sunil
Asset Lead: Suman Mankala

The Mill (Color)
Senior Colorist: Mikey Pehanich
Executive Producer, Color: Alex Lubrano
Color Assist: Amonnie Nicolas

Mr. Bronx (Audio Post)
Sound design and mix: David Wolfe
Executive Producer: Zach Fortin
Producer: Maggie Norsworthy
Assistant Mixer: Michael Artuso

Music Credits
After Hours - APM
New Neighbor - Butter Music & Sound
Pre-Game - Warner Chappell Production Music
Living Room - Jingle Punks