Absolut Wins Webby Award for Automated Drink Recipe Videos

Absolut has just been announced as the winner of the 2014 Webby Award for How-To & DIY Online Film and Video for ‘Drinks in Motion’, an innovative program that uses a bit of movie magic and a lot of code to automatically, and instantly, create drink recipe videos.

When users search for a cocktail recipe on AbsolutDrinks.com or on the Drinkspiration app, they will find recipes for nearly 3,500 cocktails in addition to step-by-step videos for every drink.  These easy to follow clips are the perfect helper for any home-mixologist. Rather than force one exhausted bartender to make all 3,500 drinks, Absolut developed a creative solution that could provide videos for as many recipes as they could ever want  -- instantly.

To make it happen, Absolut filmed approximately 700 clips of every pour, muddle, shake, stir, strain and garnish that they could think of, and then cataloged each action into a custom build piece of software dubbed Drinks In Motion. With all the ingredients indexed into their system, the engine is then able to read the recipe and seamlessly cut together tutorials for any cocktail imaginable. The results are so convincing it’s nearly impossible to tell the drinks aren’t being made individually.

According to Absolut Digital Director Fredrik Thorsén, “In creating Drinks in Motion, we wanted to bring the fun of making drinks at home to everyone. With this incredible piece of software, we were able to create thousands of videos at a quality and cost that would have been impossible any other way.”

Drinks in Motion will power recipe videos on AbsolutDrinks.com, YouTube.com/absolut, and the Drinkspiration App available for Android and iPhone.

To learn more about the award and to see a video on how Absolut made Drinks in Motion, visit WebbyAwards.com.