IPA Chair for Scotland, Jim Kelly, celebrates the creativity and talent by showcasing the work of local member agencies.
On behalf of the IPA member agencies in Scotland, it’s my pleasure to share this creative showcase. It’s evident that strong strategic thinking, combined with powerful creativity, is delivering work that works for our agencies’ clients. Enjoy!
See the outstanding work
Ardbeg: Story
Back story
To celebrate 25 years of the worldwide, world-famous Ardbeg Committee, Ardbeg Distillery wanted to create a whisky that was ‘Designed by Committee’ – rewarding their loyal fans by making them feel truly involved in the brand.
Our brief
- Develop the strategy for involving Committee Members in the creation of a limited edition Ardbeg
- Bring back the hype! Use eCRM and social media channels to stoke conversation, desire and demand for the whisky
- Sell out of Ardbeg Eureka! in 2025
Strategy
We invited a select group of Committee Members to attend a top-secret whisky tasting called Operation Smokescreen. The results of that experiment led to the creation of a one-off whisky that encapsulated the ultimate Committee flavour profile. A bottling called Ardbeg Eureka!
Creative
For the launch campaign, we dialled up the humour and storytelling the Committee has always loved. Centre stage, a series of films with a quirky retro sci-fi vibe, designed to entertain, entice and reward the brand’s insanely committed following.
Results
The teaser campaign launched in early February. The whisky was released on 27 Feb. Before the day was out, Ardbeg Eureka! had sold out in Korea (10 mins), Japan (30 mins), Sweden (60 mins), Australia (60 mins), Germany (4 hours) and the UK (4 hours), with the Distillery online shop not far behind.
Fray Bentos: Guy & Co
The Challenge
How do you get lads – young and old – to fall back in love with a great British brand that’s gone a bit stale of late?
Tension
This audience likes banter, but they’re a sceptical bunch. And with Fray being off their radar for a while, we’ve not much social clout to convince them we’re still as relevant today as we’ve always been.
Our POV
If you can’t take our word for it, take it from someone you can trust – The Boshfather, Big John Fisher. BOSH!
Creative Approach & Execution
Famous for his viral takeaway videos, Big John is the perfect cultural fit for Fray Bentos as he’s authentic, down to earth and passionate about good food.
The campaign is all about reigniting love from loyal fans who grew up with the brand, while connecting with a new generation of hungry lads looking for bold, satisfying meals that deliver. Highlighting the full portfolio was key. Fray Bentos pies are legendary, meatballs deliver a quick and affordable family meal solution, while the new range of pouch meals offers protein-packed fuel for life on the go.
To showcase the quality and comfort of the products in a fun, relatable way, self-proclaimed food consultant The Boshfather can be seen in the ads mirroring his trademark sign-off ‘bosh’ with the campaign’s rallying slogan “Bish Bash Bentos”. The ads show how quick and easy dinner with Fray Bentos can be, while also aligning with Big John’s loyal foodie followers.
The campaign began rolling out in October across OOH (including lorry sides), social media, digital audio as well as in-store POS. In November, another activation will launch, where a branded Fray Bentos food van and boxing machine will go on tour across key cities and events in the North England, giving out hot Fray Bentos product samples.
Historic Environment Scotland: EssenceMediacom
Challenge & Creativity
HES’s Historic Sundays initiative aimed to make Scotland’s heritage accessible by offering free entry to ticketed sites during the off-season. Despite this, affluent visitors dominated uptake, leaving financially constrained families underserved. The creative breakthrough lay in precision targeting: using Mosaic data, the team identified 232,000 financially constrained households within a 30-minute drive of HES properties.
A multi-channel, discreet activation was executed
- Door Drops: Royal Mail delivered detailed offers and QR codes directly to target households.
- Digital Audio: Dynamic ads played on mobile, smart speakers, and car radios in relevant postcodes.
- Meta & YouTube Ads: Geo-fenced social and video ads built anticipation and drove conversions, ensuring messaging reached the right audience without alerting affluent groups.
Strategic adaptability ensured vulnerable groups were prioritised, preventing affluent visitors from dominating ticket availability.
Results
Early data shows a 17% increase in ticket uptake among financially constrained citizens, with a 55% year-on-year rise in tickets claimed by the least affluent decile. This demonstrates the campaign’s competitive advantage: precision activation, unlocking real social impact.
USP
A powerful example of how data-driven, creative media activation can break down barriers and deliver measurable change for underserved communities.
Lovehoney: The Leith Agency
The Challenge
Lovehoney had a bold ambition: to establish a brand platform that was long-lasting and fun, and to be known, globally, as the number one destination for sexual wellness. But there was a key challenge in this… With tightening advertising restrictions on explicit content, the brand’s bold and playful identity risked being muffled when trying to communicate confidently and creatively without crossing regulatory lines.
The Creative Solution
Enter Leith… Rather than tiptoe around the rules, we danced with them. The “Feel the Lovehoney” platform was born from mischief and wit. Our approach was to lean into humour, clever suggestion, playful innuendo, and the visual power of Lovehoney’s iconic heart. The heart became the cheeky hero of every execution, a wink to the audience that speaks volumes without saying too much.
Effectiveness
As a result, the campaign blended mischief and warmth to empower people to embrace pleasure with confidence and joy. The campaign’s debut was anything but shy: a bold TV launch across the UK and AU, paired with eye-catching out-of-home in Australia. By pushing creative boundaries, the campaign quickly attracted press coverage for its playful approach to sexual wellness. Navigating the fine line between restriction and expression, we didn’t just preserve Lovehoney’s personality; we amplified it. The result? A creative platform that feels instantly recognisable, liberating, and impossible to ignore in the sexual wellness space.
Pension Mirror: The Union
Challenge
People don’t care about pensions. If they don’t have one, they assume the State Pension will do. And if they happen to have one, they assume that’s job done.
Our challenge was to get the 82% of Scottish Widows’ members who had never logged into the app to download it, start checking in on their pension and take action to improve it.
Solution
When even the simple act of checking how much you’ve got feels like a step too far, there’s no point asking people to check their pension.
Instead, we asked them one simple question: Ever wondered how old you look?
Pension Mirror has the answer.
Just by looking, it tells you how old it thinks you are. But not only that, it gives you a peek into what other people have in their pot. So you can see how you compare when you download the app and find out what you have.
Results
It worked. Our simple idea drove a massive 193% increase in app registrations and a 39% increase in app logins for existing users in the first six weeks. Not only that, but people even started sharing their results on social platforms.
We’ve also taken Pension Mirror beyond the online world with an in-person stand. It’s been just as effective in the real world, and we even had commuters queuing to use it in Waterloo station, where we had one user every minute and 50 seconds.
To date, Pension Mirror has had over 900,000 interactions, won 16 industry awards, and we’re continuing to develop and iterate it for different audiences and brands within Lloyds Banking Group.
The solution to a tricky pensions problem? Creative thinking, technical know-how and a solid client relationship.
ScotRail: Republic of Media
The challenge:
Following the significant post-pandemic decline in passenger journeys (down 34% from pre-Covid levels) ScotRail launched the “Go By Train” campaign (April–June 2024) to reignite leisure travel across Scotland’s rail network. Recognising that hybrid working permanently reduced commuter travel, the campaign sought to reposition ScotRail as the natural facilitator of leisure, adventure, and cultural experiences across the country.
Targeting VisitScotland’s established audience segments (Adventure Seekers, Food-Loving Culturalists, Engaged Sightseers, and Curious Travellers), the campaign’s objectives were to increase journeys, strengthen brand consideration, and deliver an ROI of £2.40:1. The media strategy centered around two principles: Inspire (generate mass awareness through aspirational content) and Connect (link passion points with rail travel options).
The solution:
With a £1.1 million media budget, the campaign executed a broad, integrated plan. High-impact Inspire media included TV, BVOD, cinema, OOH, and digital placements across major Scottish cities. Connect tactics used precise targeting - such as proximity-based OOH near train-accessible destinations, partnerships with STV’s Scenic Scotland, Bauer radio personalities’ travel endorsements, and contextual digital placements on platforms like WalkHighlands and Tripadvisor. Print and native editorial content through Reach PLC further deepened audience engagement.
The results:
The campaign achieved striking results. Average weekly journeys increased by 10,140, with 79% of growth occurring Friday–Monday, reflecting more weekend leisure trips. Brand perception improved significantly: 76% of respondents viewed ScotRail as better value for money, 65% felt more likely to travel by train, and 65% found the brand more relevant. Visits to ScotRail’s Inspiration Hub rose 112%, with an 89% increase in new users. Ultimately, Go By Train surpassed expectations, contributing to a remarkable overall ROI of £4.86:1- cementing ScotRail’s recovery as Scotland’s go-to leisure travel provider.
Scottish Water: We Are Futures
The Challenge
Scottish Water wanted to build a nation of responsible “water citizens” - young people who understand, value and protect Scotland’s most precious natural resource.
The challenge was to inspire meaningful behaviour change at scale, reaching children, teachers and families across Scotland. The ambition went beyond simple awareness: it was about fostering pride, sparking action and empowering young people to act, to become advocates for water sustainability within their communities.
Our Creative Solution
We created Generation H2O, a nationwide education and engagement campaign designed to make protecting our water exciting, relevant and shareable. Our approach brought creativity to the classroom, transforming complex environmental messages into fun, tangible experiences in schools and homes across the country.
For primary pupils, we created ‘Droplet’, who has brought interactive sessions and playful challenges to life, make learning about the water cycle and water-saving behaviour memorable and inspiring. For secondary students, deeper, problem-solving tasks encourage them to design creative solutions to real-world issues while opening their eyes to STEM careers linked to sustainability.
The creativity lay in how we made the invisible visible turning something as everyday as water into a subject young people wanted to talk about from younger pupils engaging with Droplet online and at events, to teenagers taking part in debates and discussion about water conservation around the world, we’re inspiring students to take action and share their learning at home, multiplying the campaign’s impact through families and communities.
Effectiveness
Generation H2O builds genuine advocacy for Scottish Water, creating a growing movement of young “agents for change” across the nation.
- +24% of Scottish schools are now using Generation H2O resources.
- +13% increase in parental awareness in the first year alone.
- 100% of teachers surveyed said they were likely to recommend the programme to colleagues.
Generation H2O didn’t just educate Scotland’s young people, it empowered them to protect the water that shapes their future.
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Last updated 03 November 2025