Norwegian Seafood Council

01 The brief

The brief

We'd been working on a brand film with Hansen & Lydersen, whose smoked salmon was served at tables from Alain Ducasse to Peter Gordon. We'd come into their orbit on the back of an earlier project for The Balvenie, and when the Norwegian Seafood Council wanted to mark the Skrei season, the same crowd reassembled for it.

Skrei is the "wandering cod," caught in a narrow winter window off northern Norway from the largest sustainable stock in the world. To celebrate it, the Council laid on a London feast outside Ole Hansen's smokehouse. Chefs, food writers and influencers assembled, and the night was co-hosted by Michel Roux Jr and Ole himself.

To win the wider work, we'd shown up to the pitch with salt we'd made from Brighton seawater. Astonishingly, no one got sick, though we also brought a jar of fleur de sel as a backup.

02 What we did

What we did

The Council had taken many of the guests to Norway first, to see how the catch was landed. Back in London, they flew in six Norwegian grandmothers (and two very capable grandchildren) to show the diners how cod cheeks, tongues and a proper Skrei molje are authentically prepared. We shot multicam across the night on Sony cinema kit, with Michel and Ole presenting, interviewing guests like Peter Gordon and wine wizard Luca Dusi before the night got too heavy and the akvavit had reached its conclusion.

03 The result

Two films and much akvavit later...

We made two films, plus a run of shorter, channel-optimised content that was released to feed the Council's wider push for Skrei season, targeting mainly restaurants and the London hospitality scene.

The work grew out of a broader creative relationship with Hansen & Lydersen - a brand film, identity and artwork we developed through (well-fed) workshop sessions in Stoke Newington before setting up a state-of-the-art smokehouse at their new home in Daylesford - somewhere we'd find ourselves again, for Zapp.