INSIGHT

CalMac Ferries Ltd is the UK’s largest ferry operator in terms of ships and destinations served. The brief was to drive ticket sales among the millennial audience, who CalMac had previously struggled to reach.

To do this, we knew the campaign had to be online, feature content that audience would want to engage with (entertaining and inspiring) and speak in a tone of voice they would respond to (informal and relaxed). We had to merge those audience requirements with CalMac’s brand and services offering.

IDEAS

We created two lead characters — our #TwoEejits — as well as a softened ‘brand ambassador’ character — the glove puppet Brian Ferry. We worked with CalMac to create the perfect trip itinerary to inspire millennial ticket buyers and we worked with Ian Greenhill and Jordan Laird of Something Something to bring the #TwoEejits to life by filming a series of short videos.

These videos received both paid and organic promotion through CalMac’s own social channels and through other audience-relevant channels such as Spotify.

IMPACT

Our series of online videos and accompanying media campaign hit exactly the right tone, being loved by their target audience and loathed by those outside of it. The effect? The campaign delivered an R.O.I. of 4:1 on CalMac’s original investment and won Best Digital Marketing Campaign at the 2017 Travel Marketing Awards. All that and it earned the client publicity from BBC News, The Daily Record, The Herald, The Drum and more.