Scotland is known for its cold weather, but more importantly, it is known for its strong sense of humour and straight-talking people. A lot of successful marketing campaigns incorporate these two features, and the following are some of the best Scottish marketing campaigns possessing those attributes… There’s no doubt that you will recognise all of them!
Irn-Bru’s Snowman campaign
Irn-Bru, as a company, is well loved and well known this is because it has solidified itself as a trusted brand, as it saw a gap in the way advertising and marketing were being done for carbonated drinks. Other fizzy drinks, like Coca-Cola, for example, try to sell a certain lifestyle based on luxury, but Irn-Bru takes its focus to something else; the funny, unpredictable, and sometimes absurd parts of life, stating that ‘Irn-Bru gets you through’.
That slogan was first used in 2012 and features adverts with people trying to get through tough, but humorous, life situations. The broader marketing approach in identifying this gap in the advertising market helped push Irn-Bru apart from its competitors, remaining at the forefront of customers’ and potential customers’ minds.
The snowman campaign has become a seasonal favorite advert in Scotland, because it is based on a well-loved story, but adds to it in a humorous way. The ad is well known and holds strong brand recognition for consumers in Scotland.
Dino Labbate, chief commercial officer at brand owner AG Barr, said to Talking Retail: “Scottish shoppers readily associate Christmas with the Irn-Bru Snowman, with this much-loved campaign reaching 75% of adults in Scotland.”
The snowman Irn-Bru advert is done in the exact style of The Snowman book and film, depicting the little boy and Snowman going on an adventure, but always featuring a can of the orange liquid and famous Scottish landmarks. The song Walking In The Air is also parodied in an amusing but sweet way, endearing the public to the brand even more.
North Coast 500
The North Coast 500 was originally named this as part of a marketing campaign by the North Highland Initiative, which was partnered with VisitScotland to try and increase tourism along roads and regions in Scotland, which before this campaign, were largely unvisited and unused. The keys to its success were that it includes an easy-to-remember number, 500 sounds official, yet simple, and people will find it easy to remember its name. It also has a reminiscent feel in its name of the most famous driving route, Route 66, which gives it a familiar and trusted feel even when people first hear about it.
There has been a huge increase in the number of visitors to the region after introducing this as a road trip route. Just two years after its launch, the campaign had boosted visitor numbers to the Highlands by 29,000 and generated an additional £9 million for the regional economy. A digital PR agency could leverage statistics like these to craft compelling, data-driven stories for brands in related sectors, such as travel or motoring, helping them secure high-authority backlinks and meaningful media coverage.
Tenant’s Lager
Tenant’s has always had strong national roots and marketed itself as ‘Scotland’s Lager’, which, for a country with a lot of national pride, works very well because citizens wanted to support a Scottish brand when they bought a drink. In 2017, Tenants decided to have some fun with football fans from England and introduce them to their lager. They did this by launching a marketing campaign when the World Cup qualifiers were taking place in Glasgow, when Scotland and England played on the 10th June.
The campaign featured an opportunity for fans who were in Glasgow for the match to exchange their English currency for Scottish and receive a voucher for a free pint in the company’s pubs. This is a great, engaging, and funny campaign based on the experience of their main customer base trying to use their money in England. The further south you go and try to use Scottish money, people don’t recognise it as real money and try to refuse sales if you give it to them, despite Scottish notes being perfectly legal. This poked fun at the English and made light of the brotherly rivalry often displayed between the Scots and the English.
Edinburgh Festival Fringe
The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is the world’s largest arts festival and one of Scotland’s most powerful, well known and well loved cultural brands. It was founded in 1947 when independent performers staged shows alongside the official Edinburgh International Festival; the “Fringe” evolved into an open-access global platform for theatre, comedy, music, and performance.
The long-time marketing strategy for the festival fringe is to create a strong brand identity with bold font and bright, recognisable colours. The festival’s posters have become instantly recognisable on the streets and online, proving how synonymous the stylistic choices are with the festival.
Overall
There are some very strong marketing campaigns in this list, and all of their successes come down to knowing who they are and what they want to convey to their customers. Another vital point when brands start a campaign is that they must know who their customers are and who they want to attract, this is how they keep their existing customer base and build on it, making it bigger and stronger.
