75 years of the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo.
2025 was a big one for The Tattoo. A milestone year, which meant we had to put them on a pedestal. Or a plinth, to give each and every person involved their moment in the limelight to celebrate their achievements.
This was one of our most involved campaigns to date, with us producing not just the show creative, but also an outdoor exhibition and special edition print work to support this celebratory year. And it was the photography that made it such a powerful campaign.
Bringing the creative to life took a lot of thinking. We had many routes we could take, and as always, we wanted nothing to look artificial or clichéd. Presenting the cast and crew of The Tattoo in their best light on a plinth required a carefully planned photo and video shoot. The studio sessions involved various tattoo performers and army personnel. We knew the exact angles that we needed to capture. However, getting these wasn't that simple.
We wanted these to be powerful, real-life statuesque figures with their face, their outfit, and their instruments to be equally prominent, which takes a lot of balancing with lighting to get spot on.
The masterpiece shot had to be the Highland Dancer in flight, which Kerry, our photographer, absolutely nailed. The shot that was used is in its true, natural form, without manipulation. The dancer, Cerys Jones, told us this had never been achieved before, as usually they would take a screenshot from a video.
Once we had the photography and video content our video editing and design team got to work building up the campaign, producing the 100's of digital and print assets seen around the World.
