Think of it as your Great Great Great Irn-Bru

AG Barr, makers of the iconic IRN-BRU brand, asked us to concept and create the packaging for their new limited edition IRN-BRU 1901.

The challenge

Design the packaging for a limited edition IRN-BRU, communicating the authenticity of the original 1901 recipe and celebrating the brand’s rich heritage. (Dream brief or what?)

Our solution

To the envy of all our friends we enjoyed a sneaky preview taste and were able to confirm it was awesome.

We badged it ‘Old and Unimproved’ and clad the glass bottle in a premium label featuring its original Highland athlete iconography and AG Barr’s original signature.

The result

The bottled beverage flew off the shelves, garnering a huge amount of press and social media coverage. So successful was the launch that this niche drink went from limited edition in Scotland to UK-wide mass retail. Soon after, Barr’s tasked Story with transforming this popular bottle into a brand new can.

I never doubted that Story were the right people for this launch, but the quality of the thinking and the depth of the work they shared was superb. The final packaging we think, pays respect to the brand’s rich provenance but with the odd cheeky wee twist that makes it unmistakably IRN-BRU.

Grant Cuthill, Senior Brand Manager at AG Barr