BROTHER
Brother approached McGill Productions with a clear challenge: launch SKITCH, the brand’s first app-operated, single-needle embroidery machine, with a campaign that felt fresh, colourful, and built for a new generation of makers.
BRIEF
The goal was simple: create a product launch film that made SKITCH feel exciting, modern, and easy to use. Brother wanted to move away from a traditional embroidery machine launch and create something brighter, faster, and more visually distinctive. The campaign needed to appeal to younger creatives, especially millennials and Gen Z, while still feeling relevant to experienced makers already familiar with the Brother range.
The key product message had to stay clear throughout: Brother SKITCH is an app-operated, single needle embroidery machine powered by Artspira. It offers compact creativity, desktop customisation, easy embroidery, and a more approachable way to personalise clothing, accessories, and handmade items. The brief also required photography for the wider launch, plus ten-year global usage rights, giving Brother a flexible bank of assets for its European rollout.
01 // PRE-PRODUCTION
The team started in pre-production by shaping the creative around colour, movement, and precision.
SKITCH is a compact machine with a very different look from Brother’s wider embroidery range, so the campaign needed to make the product feel bold and accessible. Bright backdrops, clean product compositions, and energetic camera movement helped give the film a distinctive style while keeping the machine and app-led workflow at the centre of the story. The production method was designed to reflect the innovation of the product itself. The team used LiDAR scans and NeRFs through Luma AI to create a 3D model of the machine before the shoot. This allowed key camera movements to be tested in advance and gave Brother a clearer view of how the final film would come together. That pre-visualisation helped refine the creative before shoot day. It also gave the client space to review text, discuss graphics, and comment on the direction before the camera was turned on.
Production took place over two days in Leeds. The campaign was product-only, with no talent on screen. The film was shot on RED Scarlet-W cameras with cinema lenses to capture SKITCH cleanly and sharply, while a robotic arm was used to create controlled, dynamic movement around the machine.
Lighting was built carefully around the product using Aputure fixtures, with overhead key light, soft fill, and edge lighting to give SKITCH definition against the bright backdrops.
In post-production, McGill Productions followed the pre-visualised edit and used visual effects work to clean up, enhance, and refine the final film. Motion graphics were added to highlight key features and design details, while sound effects and music gave the piece a more playful, energetic tone without losing polish. The final campaign was delivered in five separate languages, making it accessible to Brother's audience across Europe.
The final campaign gave Brother a bright, product-led launch toolkit for SKITCH, built around a 33-second hero film, five campaign cutdowns, and 355 photographs.
The hero film introduced SKITCH as an app-operated, single needle embroidery machine powered by Artspira, showing the product as compact, creative, and easy to bring into a modern craft setup.
The video began launching in DE regions at the end of March 2024 and was later used across Brother’s product page and social channels. By localising the hero film into nine versions, the team helped Brother adapt the campaign for multiple markets while keeping the creative consistent across the rollout.
The photography gave Brother a broad bank of assets for retailer and dealer use, product detail pages, and social media activity.
The campaign went on to win a Gold Davey Award in 2024 in the General, Products & Services category, recognising the strength of the launch creative.
If you are looking for product video production that turns technical features into clear, visually distinctive storytelling, get in touch with the team at McGill Productions today.
Sound design also played an important role. Playful sound effects and an upbeat music track gave the film energy without making it feel childish. The final piece needed to feel fun, polished, and creative, showing SKITCH as a compact machine for makers who want to digitise, customise, and create.
.png)