The Spirit
of 1926
The Macallan is a brand with an astounding heritage whose incalculable current market value is thanks to its longstanding motto: do the next right thing.
The Spirit
The
Macallan
1926
Janet “Nettie” Harbinson inherited The Macallan distillery after the death of her husband and decided to keep the business afloat rather than sell it. In doing so, she helped to rebuild the local community in the tough period between the two world wars. In 1926, Nettie crafted a whisky that became the most valuable wine or spirit ever sold at auction: The Macallan 1926.
The creative idea
The brand created a 8-minutes film – The Spirit of 1926 – featuring a stellar Hollywood cast and crew. We wanted to explore the complexity of the project by telling Janet Harbinson’s story, bringing another vision to every layer of the brand’s most important project to date.
With 150 people involved, the film was one of Scotland’s most important commercial films ever. We thought it merited a making-of to explain it in full detail.
Allan Scott
Allan Scott is one of the main characters in the whole project. Our film reveals that Allan is not only a famous Hollywood scriptwriter (The Adventures of Priscila, Queen of the Desert and Netflix series The Queen’s Gambit, among others), but he is also Allan Schiach, Nettie Harbinson’s great-nephew and Managing Director of The Macallan for 18 years. Allan explains how important Nettie’s decision was and talks about the brand heritage and value of The Macallan 1926.
The strategy
We created the strategy and film for a behind-the-scenes film with the main cast and crew and the world-renowned collaborators on this project, including defining the brand values we wanted to convey and a specific film focusing on each.
Hollywood director Mike Newell, scriptwriter Allan Scott, band Simple Minds, and The Macallan whisky makers and directors were just some of the people who made the making-of an even bigger project than the film itself. We did 15 interviews, two behind-the-scenes with full crew, a week-long shoot for every scene and location, and hundreds of hours of footage. It was a huge campaign to create a multimedia universe where The Spirit of 1926 communicates every facet of the project to every audience. As if that was not enough, we also delivered tons of exclusive new material.
Mike Newell
Director Mike Newell is one of our key characters. The English director has made a name for himself in Hollywood and is behind unforgettable films like Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Donnie Brasco, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Prince of Persia, and many more. Mike conveys how The Macallan brought together such a large, talented cast and crew to tell a story about love, community and heritage.
The characters
Additionally to Hollywood director Mike Newell and scriptwriter Allan Scott, Nettie’s movie brought together big names of the Hollywood industry and world-renowned collaborators. We interviewed and created a short movie with each one of them featuring exclusive footage and messaging.
Emily Mortimer
Emily is our lead actress. Born in Hammersmith, London, Emily is well-known as a star of Hollywood films, including Mary Poppins Returns, The Pink Panther, The Newsroom, and Woody Allen’s Match Point, among others. In our Emily behind-the-scenes film, the actress reveals little-known facts about the amazing Nettie and The Macallan with exclusive new footage.
Simple Minds
The world-famous band Simple Minds, led by Jim Kerr and Charlie Burchill, provide the soundtrack to the story. With six number one albums worldwide, they are one of Britain’s most successful bands. In our behind-the-scenes they go into the connection and profound values they share with the brand, such as Scottish provenance and craft. We also learn how they create the Solstice Kiss, the theme tune for the film that was also released on their last album.
Christopher Kane
Christopher is a successful Scottish fashion designer who has worked with Donatella Versace, Kylie Minogue and Manolo Blahnik, among others. In this film, he conveys the relationship between The Macallan and the fashion world. Cristopher designed all of Nettie’s dresses for the film and in our exclusive new footage he talks about key brand values such as craftsmanship, as well as the textiles and and inspirations behind Nettie’s character.
Bentley Motors
The luxury UK car brand has a long-term partnership with The Macallan. We worked with Mike Sayers, head of product communication, to talk about innovation as a value of Bentley and The Macallan. The key vehicle is the Bentley Speed Six, which Nettie drove in the 1920s and which defines The Macallan’s pioneering.
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