Scotland from Home is a first-of-its-kind, above-the-line branded advertising campaign that spans television, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. South African viewers can also see the webisodes on DSTV.

The campaign consists of five commercials, or webisodes, that follow the exploits of Bruce Campbell (played by Greg McHugh) as he visits various whiskey distilleries in the Speyside whiskey region of Scotland in his beaten-up panel van, conducting “interviews” with the whiskey makers, who have no idea that its a spoof.

Bruce, who figures he’s a master himself, attempts to make a cheaper, faster version of the premium whiskeys on offer, often with disastrous results.

One of the aims of the commercials is to engage a new, younger target market for the whiskey brands.

Brands represented include Johnny Walker Black Label, Johnny Walker Red Label, Bells Whiskey, J&B Rare, and The Singleton Whiskey.

The commercials were shot entirely on location in Scotland, but the campaign is a truly South African effort.

The team behind the scenes were Cape Town-based 2.0 Media, consisting of producer Peter Gird and director Jason Xenopoulos, who shot the spot for the Jupiter Drawing Room Cape Town on behalf of their client Brandhouse. Animations were provided by Meme’s Inka Kendzia. 

The commercials were edited in Final Cut Pro by Priest’s Eugenie Tancred, who says the highlight of working on the fun “mockumentary” commercials was also the challenge.

“The show is highly improvised and this provided the opportunity for me to mould the structure. I used a lot of extra footage to create structure which didn’t previously exist on paper,” says Eugenie.

Part of this included ensuring character consistency throughout. She explains, “His personality was refined in the editing process.”

Eugenie was challenged to balance the spoof element of the commercials with the high-end character of the whiskey brands being represented. “I used the edit to emphasise the dry humour of the edit, without taking anything away from the brands,” she says.

Top Gear cameraman Casper Lever shot the commercials in HD under Jason’s direction. Eugenie says, “Because it was filmed in HD, we finished everything on HD using Color and After Effects. Everything was done at Choirboy.”

The Scotland From Home campaign has been entered into the 2010 Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival in several categories.
Sally Fink