The Two Eejits wins marketing award for CalMac

A FUN promotional campaign called The Two Eejits has won a prestigious Travel Marketing Award for Scots ferry firm CalMac.

The Two Eejits in the award-winning CalMac campaign. Picture: Contributed

Caledonian MacBrayne, together with Edinburgh-based The Lane Agency, won the digital marketing campaign of the year category.

The company and agency were recognised at the UK-wide event in London for The Two Eejits series of short films – CalMac’s first campaign aimed specifically at the millennials sector.

The Lane Agency developed the fun and innovative film series for CalMac to appeal to a younger audience, showing that travel to the islands is inexpensive and easy to plan.

Called ‘The Two Eejits’, it also sought to face head-on perceived issues of bad weather and the lack of anything to do, with plenty ideas for great adventures regardless of rain, hail, sleet, snow or anything else the notoriously fickle west coast weather gods can dredge up.

Exploring everything from sporting opportunities through to pampering possibilities and taking in cultural treasures along the way, the four episodes featuring the loveable eejits also included CalMac’s very own representative – along for the ride to keep an eye on proceedings.

That company mandarin – a Harris Tweed clad puppet, one Brian (with an ‘i’) Ferry – endures a long-suffering voyage alongside the eejits, as they get to grips with Scotland’s west coast.

The two ‘eejits’ are, in fact, anything but and are the BAFTA Scotland nominated Something Something duo of Ian Greenhill and Jordan Laird. And their well-crafted antics accompanied by Brian did make an impact, generating both online chatter profile and a rise in customers deciding to jump on board.

The company was aware from the outset that the series would not appeal to everyone, but was satisfied that the change in approach with its sometimes irreverent humour would strike a chord with its target demographic.

“We were already proud of simply being shortlisted for this award,” said CalMac’s marketing manager Peter Griffiths. “To be announced as winners was unexpected and we couldn’t be more thrilled.

“The Lane Agency developed The Two Eejits brief for us – it was a change from our more traditional approach, but we were committed to it and excited to do something completely different.

“We are delighted the capers of our unconventional pair captured the imagination of the judges and our target audience, and we have had some great feedback.”

“The Eejits campaign is our second award-winning campaign with CalMac,” said Ali Findlay, managing director of The Lane Agency. “The notoriously hard to reach millennial audience, and a tough budget and ROI target made it a challenging brief that called for brave creativity that would also deliver results.

“We knew it wouldn’t be for everyone, but then it wasn’t for everyone; it was for millennials and in delivering a 4:1 return on investment for CalMac, it more than made its mark with the audience.”

She added:  “CalMac is one of Scotland’s best known but less celebrated brands, and everything we do with CalMac is about positioning it where we believe it ought to be, one of our country’s most loved travel and tourism brands – a modern brand with traditional values.”

Areas which featured in the Two Eejits campaign included the islands of both Bute and Arran, as well as Glasgow and Cowal. Catch up with their stories at https://www.calmac.co.uk/twoeejits