Inbetweeners Star Alex Macqueen Voices Wren Kitchen’s Latest UK Campaign

GuiltFree has teamed up with creative agency Big Al’s Creative Emporium to create Wren Kitchen’s latest campaign, featuring a voiceover from Inbetweeners star Alex Macqueen. 

With the client wanting something memorable, the Soho based music and audio post house worked in collaboration with Big Al’s to develop a number of TV and radio spots for the kitchen retailer. 

Macqueen is the star of the cross-media campaign which is centred upon his conversation with a wren, and GuiltFree were tasked with the campaign’s creative development, sound-design and voiceover. 

Chris Morris, Co-Founder of GuiltFree, explains: “We carried out all of the campaign’s audio and sound work, helping the client with music direction and consultation, as well as getting into the studio with Alex to record his conversations with the wren. Whilst the wren is only tweeting in the final TV ads, we recorded it in such a way that with the final voiceover Alex’s responses indicate what the wren just said, as if it were a full conversation.”

A continuation of GuiltFree’s longstanding partnership with Big Al’s and Wren, the campaign is split across a TVC and dozens of radio ads.

Morris adds: “When it came to the radio ads, there were a number of different variations involving different birds. We tried to subvert the hard-selling nature of the campaign with the clever characters that come from Alex’s voice. There’s no music on the radio ads, purely his exchanges with the birds, so it all boiled down to a well-executed succinct script. 

“It was a pleasure working with the guys at Big Al’s on what was a challenging project that had to tick so many boxes; you’ve got the classy images, the quirkiness Alex Macqueen’s voiceover in conversation with the cartoon wren over the top, and then the hard-sell of the kitchen.” 

Stef Jones, Executive Creative Director of Big Al’s Creative Emporium, comments: “We've worked with the boys for a number of years now. We love that when you work with GuiltFree, you are working with the founders. You don't just get their vast combined experience and creativity, but you get their enthusiasm and attention to detail - being the owners they care about every project, big or small. It matters to them and that matters to us. 

“Also, theirs is the coolest studio in town - proper old school Soho. There's still a hint of Brut in the air - not sure if it's a hangover from a 1970s Cat Stephens recording or a 1980s John Webster all nighter.”

The campaign is live now.