Made in Leith – Dock

M & Co, one of the largest privately-owned fashion retailers in the UK, with nearly 300 stores nationwide, recently chose us to create a new TV campaign for their autumn and Christmas collection.

Andrew McGeoch, Director of Marketing and Business Development at M&Co said: “We’ve been talking to a number of agencies about creating a new campaign to promote M&Co over the key trading periods of autumn and Christmas. Leith created some ideas and have produced 2 commercials that will give a fresh new feel to our brand and give us a distinct position versus our competitors.”

Ed Brooke, Head of Leith said: “We’re delighted to be working with M&Co. They are one of the enduring success stories of the high street and we’re hoping that the work we’ve produced for them will help propel more people through their doors than ever before”.

The 30 second Autumn collection ad launched yesterday. It was directed by Hamish Allison and produced by Freakworks, Edinburgh.

It’s rare we have a vacancy at Leith. Most of the time when people phone us up looking for a job we have to put on our polite voice and tell them we’re not really looking at the moment.

But things are different right now. Because we do have an opening. A proper, bona fide, spare-desk-and-a-swivel-chair vacancy in the ideas garden known as The Leith Agency Creative Department. In fact, we’ve got two of them.

If you’re a middleweight team, that means you’re an Art Director and Copywriter who’ve been doing ads and stuff for about at least three years (it’s nothing to do with Chris Eubank). So if you want to work on some spanking-good briefs, email us at middleweightjob@leith.co.uk 

If you’re good, we’ll be in touch. If not… well, we’ll probably be in touch anyway, just to say thanks. In our polite voice, of course.

She’s the wastrel of the water, the nautical ne’er-do-well, the mischievous minx of yer’ marina. The Maid in Leith. For years she has lain her raven haired head down at the bottom of our fair Water o’ Leith biding her time, until now that is.

She’s about to become Leith’s most famous daughter and now that she is finally out the water she thinks it’s about time you were introduced to her golden hops not to mention her treasure chest.

Our Maid is a feisty little minx that stands for everything we know and love about Leith – she’s tough, she’s irresistible and she’s got mare charm than you can shake a Water of Leith fish at.

While it’s true she is a mucky mermaid that is used to swimming through the odd football and shopping trolley in our fair waters she’s decided she’s had more than enough, so she waddled over to us here at the Leith Agency and asked us to help her sell her wares. Together with Williams Brothers we’ve brewed up a fine golden hop that tastes glorious down by The Shore, especially when swallowed doon’ with a fish supper.

Now that her frothy hops are available for all to enjoy she’s asking that we pass over every penny we earn to The Water of Leith Conservation Trust so they can clean up her home as she says it’s starting tae nip her head. So any coin we do get we’ll fire right over to them who are gonna clean ‘er up fur her (and us.)

So, next time you’re out and about in the Leith locals grab yourself a bottle of our delicious ‘Maid in Leith’ brew and get yourself acquainted to the Maid’s treasure chest for yourself. You’ll be seeing it popping up in numerous reputable drinking establishments including The Wark, The Shore, Fishers, Roseleaf, Sofi’s, Beets and even Valvona & Crolla.

Sláinte. And don’t forget you can find out more on her very own website at MaidinLeith.com (artfully crafted by our friends over at Blonde), and keep up with the Maid’s saucy antics on Facebook and Twitter.

Just to show you how easy it is to enter our Mug Design Competition, here’s a stupidly simple entry from Jordan and Dominique, a creative team currently keep our desks warm.

The prize is dinner for two, somewhere posh, so worth a stab.

There’s a template below again. Send your scribbles here.

This is your last chance to enter our Mug Design Competition. Closing date is Thursday 28th April (that’s two days away). The prize is dinner for two, somewhere posh.

There’s a template below to make your life easy. Send your scribbles here.

It will cost more than any previous Royal Wedding but it will capture the hearts and minds of every Scot with even an ounce of romance in their soul. The bride and groom will be wearing authentic black and white panda fur. And instead of champagne and caviar canapés, the bridal buffet will consist of tender bamboo shoots.
We’re talking, of course, of the happy union of Prince Yang Guang and Lady Tian Tian, coming soon to a panda enclosure in Edinburgh Zoo, all the way from their home in China.

To commemorate what will be an unforgettable occasion, we’ve produced this stunning unofficial souvenir mug featuring the Royal Couple, er, ‘Peking’ out from their favourite foliage, looking the very image of marital bliss.

We’re mighty chuffed that our work is to be featured in the D&AD annual.

The Scottish Chamber Orchestra’s 2010 season launch needed a
promotional poster for their season of Mozart, played at Edinburgh’s
famous Usher Hall. Using Barbara Kraft’s famous image of Mozart as our reference, we noticed the seating plan for the grand circle perfectly reflected the shape of Mozart’s wig – something that would communicate the event and the place where it would take place.

This was part of a wider Leithal Thinking design brief to rebrand Scottish Chamber Orchestra – see the rest of the work here.

IRN-BRU’s phenomenal new campaign hits TV screens in Scotland on Friday 15th April, and in the north of England on 9th May.

The 60 second seaside escapade celebrates summer whether it rains, hails or shines, from a seaside soaking to a game of swingball and a muddy music festival. The dazzling mix of live action and animation is set to a soundtrack from Scottish music star Paolo Nutini and his fast-paced hit, ‘Pencil Full of Lead’.

The advert will be live on the IRN-BRU website from Thursday 14th April, and the campaign will run across TV, outdoor and digital formats, including the opportunity for fans to “Star in the Ad” themselves. For the first time ever, visitors to the IRN-BRU site will be given the opportunity to upload a photograph of their face which will then be transformed into one of the leading characters in the advert.

The ad was created by Mark Davies and Michael Kinlan at Leith and directed by Ruaraidh Gillies from Oscar nominated and Dundee based animation company Ink Digital.

Some more inspiration for our “Design a Mug” competition, to win a night for two in a posh Edinburgh restaurant.

This was hand crafted by the talented Matt Robinson, when he no doubt should have been working on something far more important.

If you’ve got any grand ideas yourself, scribble them onto the template below, and email them in here. You’d be a mug not to.

A few weeks back we launched a competition to ask people to design a new mug for our offices, with a chance to win some fine dining in a posh restaurant in Edinburgh.

Entries have been pouring in, but it’s still open for a couple of weeks, so still time to get your ideas in. There’s a cup-ple of mug templates for you to get creative on below.

Send them in here when you’re done.