Forrest Group Media

Back to the Future for Irn Bru
10 February 2004

Scotland’s favourite soft drink, Barr’s Irn Bru is to make a nostalgic return to the Glasgow advertising site that made it a city landmark.

From October, the soft drink giant will be advertising on the £1 million CityScreen, the UK’s first digital screen billboard, situated above Glasgow Central Station. This is the site that Barr’s famous logo occupied for many years and was featured in magazine and newspaper photographs. The 55 sq m screen uses the latest high resolution LED technology to display static images in a portrait format. It was switched on last December and since then has attracted some of the country’s leading advertisers.

BT has booked the site on a two week on two week off basis for six months and BMW cars used the site to publicise the launch of their new BMW series 1. Other major brands to feature include Sky Television, Coors Brewers, Sony and Renault. But the unique feature of the screen, equivalent in size to three 48 sheet billboards stacked on top of each other, is that space can be bought in a new way, giving clients access to one of six different time slots. This has allowed many local firms to take advantage of the high profile site including St Enoch Shopping Centre, The Pavilion Theatre, Braehead Shopping Centre, Habitat, Cardonald College, William Wilson Bathrooms, Reid Furniture and Langs Hotel amongst others. All were able to report an immediate awareness in either sales or product awareness, as in an average week the CityScreen will be seen by almost 1.8 million people. It is visible on Renfield Street and from the junctions with Renfrew Street, Sauchiehall Street, Bath Street, West Regent Street, West George Street and St Vincent Street.

Marc Keenan, Managing Director of Forrest Media, owners of CityScreen said:”We at Forrest are delighted to see Irn Bru back where they belong. Their advert stood on the site for so many years and became a famous city landmark. The wonders of new technology will make them stand out even more than before. We hope this is the start of a new and long running relationship with the company.” Booking for the site was made by Poster Publicity, the London based poster specialists.

For further information contact David Whitton on 0141 777 9297 or 07771 941170 or david@morganboy.fsnet.co.uk

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