The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo: advert-body-1 by The Leith Agency

The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo has unveiled its latest creative campaign: a mix of its iconic performers and ‘tartan paint’ splashes to pay homage to its theme this year, Splash of Tartan.

Fronted by two of the Tattoo’s most widely recognised performers; a beautiful Highland Dancer and a Senior Drum Major, who leads out the Massed Pipes and Drums each evening during the August showcase. The campaign captures the lively characteristics of the Tattoo in a bold way. Completing the trio is a Royal Marine Bugler, a sure reference to the Royal Navy’s leadership in the 2017 show.

Bearing the slogans ‘have a summer fling’, ‘never settle for humdrum’ and ‘break ranks with routine’, the campaign will look to encourage more visitors to book tickets for the yearly extravaganza at Edinburgh Castle and at the same time build on the Tattoo brand.

Produced by The Leith Agency and combining traditional photography with an intricate post-production process, real Tattoo performers were splashed with green paint which was then used to create a dynamic splash effect featuring the realistic Tattoo tartan pattern, displaced to match the flow and consistency of the paint. Shadows and highlights were then added, and a liquid effect was applied to create a slow motion reel, to emphasise the interaction between each performer and the ‘splash of tartan’.

The campaign, worth approximately £113,500, will appear on 19 outdoor spots across central London including Euston station’s media billboard, and a host of geotargeted digital spots in Germany, Norway, Switzerland and Australia. Above-the-line is supported by PR which has been led by Stripe Communications since 2016.