THE opening ceremony of the 2014 Commonwealth Games is less than six months away and excitement is building in Glasgow as the city prepares to welcome some of the world’s finest sports people.
And soft drinks company and Glasgow 2014 sponsor AG Barr reckons the £12m marketing programme it has planned for before, during and after the 11-day sports festival will help retailers make the most of games.
Barr says that during the London 2012 Olympic Games soft drinks out-performed every other category and helped retailers gain impulse sales.
Barr’s Strathmore bottled water brand has been named the official water of the Glasgow 2014 games.
Television coverage of the events is likely show bottles of Strathmore in the hands of spectators and, perhaps, competitors. So the firm will be encouraging retailers to display the Strathmore brand prominently while it has a high media profile.
The Barr and Irn Bru brands are official soft drinks brands of Glasgow 2014. The firm’s Rubicon brand will be the official juice drink.
And Barr reckons the exotic juice drinks range, which is said to be popular in many of Britain’s ethnic community areas, is likely also to prove popular with visitors attending the games.
There will also be several Irn-Bru promotions linked to Glasgow 2014.
Adrian Troy, Barr’s head of marketing, said the Irn-Bru activity will run in phases.
“There’ll be an introduction to the Games via our ‘Cheer We Go’ promotion where consumers can win tickets to the event,” he said.
“Tickets will be won in groups of four, as we’re very aware that this is a family event.
“Then there’ll be on-pack promotions during the games and thank-you packs after the event, because we know that Scotland is going to make it a success.”
