Scotland’s other national drink remains top of the table thanks to its iconic taste and ad campaigns
THERE’S no doubting that Scots have a special connection with Irn-Bru.
That’s partly down to the unique taste and the fact that the brand has been developed to offer Irn-Bru in a variety of popular, modern formats.
But the soft drink also resonates so strongly with the Scottish public thanks to some brilliant advertising campaigns created by maker AG Barr over the years.
AG Barr commercial director Jonathan Kemp said: “I always joke that you can tell the age of somebody by asking them about our different campaigns, be that Scotland’s Other National Drink, Made in Scotland from Girders, See What Irn-Bru Can Do For You, the Phenomenal campaign or Irn-Bru Gets You Through up to the latest campaign – Let’s Just Agree, It Tastes…”
The newest series of telly ads began in 2021 with one that featured a fight in a Western movie-type setting. Using different film genres, the firm added to that in 2022 with an advert called Prom, which was a take-off of an American teen coming-of-age flick.
Kemp explained: “We had the prom scene where the girl walks down the stairs in the big house with the big balcony in her prom dress and the guy’s standing there with his Irn-Bru. But then they have a bit of a fallout about how it tastes.
“The other one was Mob, which is a great little advert in which Jimmy the Lip got the taste of Irn-Bru wrong and paid the ultimate price – it’s a bit of fun. And then in the middle of the year, we launched our first 100% rPET bottles on 500ml Bru.
“We ran the Virgin campaign for that with the immortal line ‘I lost my virginity in a factory in Cumbernauld’ – only Irn-Bru could get away with that.”
A key factor is that Irn-Bru is still made to this day by the Barr family, with Robin and Julie Barr locking themselves away every couple of weeks to make a batch of the secret essence that goes into every variant of the drink to give it the iconic taste.
And consumers now have far more choice when it comes to choosing their favourite Irn-Bru. Regular is the biggest seller but there are also sugar-free and the fast-growing Xtra.
Kemp added: “Xtra offers all the taste of regular Irn-Bru but with no sugar, and it has that bigger mouth feel and bigger flavour hit which is incredibly popular.”
And there are two newer formats – Irn-Bru Energy, which taps into this increasingly important soft drinks category, and 1901 that uses the original, historic recipe.
With the company approaching its 150th anniversary and Irn-Bru its 123rd birthday, Kemp pointed to the special long-standing relationships that AG Barr has with its customers, such as the retailers and Irn-Bru drinkers.
He said: “We’re absolutely delighted that, after all this time, the brands are still very much held in affection by Scottish retailers, as well as Scottish shoppers. It’s phenomenal – to use an Irn-Bru word.”
