OLD PULTENEY
The Maritime Malt
Brand Strategy, Brand World, Campaign Platform, Brand Home
Old Pulteney has been distilled on the remote northern coast of Scotland for over two centuries. It's a whisky shaped by salty air, rough seas, and the resilient town of Wick.
The Challenge
As the flagship brand of International Beverage Group, Old Pulteney had big commerical ambitions. But there was an issue. Consumers knew Old Pulteney, but not what made it distinctive, so they weren't actively seeking it out. When choosing a premium single malt, they gravitated towards more obvious names in the category.
The challenge was to turn recognition into preference by establishing Old Pulteney as The Maritime Malt – a single malt consumers would instinctively reach for.
The Opportunity
Today’s premium spirits drinker has grown tired of disposable, throwaway brands that chase trends. What they want instead is something that stays true to itself, brands with integrity, with a raw, unfinished sense of beauty, and a story that’s been earned.
Old Pulteney had that in abundance. A distillery on the edge of the world, shaped by two centuries of harsh maritime conditions, strength of character and industrial craftsmanship. The opportunity was to make that visible and build a brand world around it.
Three truths have defined Old Pulteney since 1826.
The Conditions of Wick
The rugged northern coast, salt-laden winds, the unrelenting sea. The forces that shape the whisky and the people who make it.
The Craftsmanship
Two centuries of whisky-making know-how, passed down through generations and refined with a commitment to quality that never wavers.
The Character
The resilience to weather tough conditions and an ever-changing world, while remaining true to what it has always been.
Character Runs Deep.
The platform that emerged from these three truths – Character Runs Deep – is the vehicle through which Old Pulteney tells its story to the world.
It’s a long-term brand belief: one that connects the character of the liquid, the steadfast nature of the people of Wick, and 200 years of craft. In a world where some are quick to bow to trends, Old Pulteney celebrates those who remain true and hold the line. The rough seas shape them. They don’t change them.
That belief became the foundation for a new brand world and a campaign built to carry it to every market.
The new brand world takes its cues directly from Wick, its roughness, its industry, its unvarnished beauty. Not smoothed over, but seen through a considered, elevated lens.
A palette of stone black, salt-spray, and weathered copper. Photography seeks out the beauty within the industrial setting: rugged coastlines, sea-worn textures, the industry of the distillery floor, layered with windswept, gestural sketches that feel drawn quickly from life.
The layering is deliberate: conditions, craftsmanship and character all converging. Raw but refined. Honest and real. Built to last.
Recent enhancements to the Brand Home in Wick bring the same world into physical space, proof that the story holds up in person, not just on shelf and screen.
A brand world rooted in place
One world for every market
With the brand world in place, we built a campaign on top of it.
The Character Runs Deep campaign was built for Old Pulteney’s 200th year. Its central idea: connect the character of the whisky to the character of the people who drink it. A steady subject holds firm while the world moves and blurs around them, the same instinct that’s kept Old Pulteney unmistakably itself for two hundred years, made visible in a single frame.
It’s an emotional shift for the brand. Where Old Pulteney’s story was previously only told through product and heritage, this campaign places people at its centre, those who reject quick wins and throwaway culture, who stay true to their beliefs regardless of what’s around them. The whisky and the audience reflect each other.
Built to flex across OOH, film, social and digital, and by market. Photography leads where Old Pulteney is already known, brand world assets where it’s still finding its footing.
Old Pulteney has always known what it is, and now it has a brand world, creative platform and campaign built to match. Every market, channel, and touchpoint is telling the same story, with the same conviction. The tide turns, but character doesn’t.
200 years in, and Old Pulteney is just getting started.
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