Scotland’s big can energy drink market has a new entrant, with the introduction of Barr Soft Drinks’ Pwr-Bru.
The Pwr-Bru range is made up of Origin (the Original Irn-Bru flavour), Diablo (Cherry), Maverick (Berry) and Dropkick (Tropical). Non-HFSS and levy free, Pwr-Bru will be available in plain and price-marked (£1.19) 500ml cans.
A £3m launch investment will target 18-24s, the next generation of energy drinkers, using social media, brand influencers, sampling and outdoor posters and will also include point of sale and a field sales drive, to create in-store theatre. The firm will also be supporting the launch with a consumer campaign across August before the product even hits the shelves, getting a limited amount of product into consumers hands and creating demand before it’s available to buy.
While Irn-Bru has already delivered growth within the energy market, Barr claims that its research highlighted the potential for something ”bigger and bolder”. The new drink is said to combine the personality of Irn-Bru with Pwr-Bru’s ”secret flavour essence”.
Jonathan Kemp, commercial director at Barr Soft Drinks, said: “Pwr-Bru is, without a doubt, the biggest launch of the year for the energy market. The energy market in Scotland is a fast-growing sector, delivering one third of total soft drinks category growth [Circana], however only 25% of shoppers currently buy energy brands [Kantar] so there is still huge growth potential.
“Irn-Bru Energy delivered +£8.5m in category growth [Circana], and all our research was telling us that shoppers loved the unique BRU essence in an energy format, but they wanted us to go one step further with flavour and appearance [Scott]. Pwr-Bru is the brand to unlock incremental growth by offering something truly different, delivering an energy drink like no other brand can.”
In consumer testing, 98% of big can energy drinkers said they would buy Pwr-Bru and more than 85% said they would make a repeat purchase of all flavours (JVA).
Barr Soft Drinks will be using its field sales team to support over 4,000 Scottish retailers in the first few weeks of launch with attention-grabbing Pwr-Bru POS to support retailers by creating unmissable impact at launch.
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