Irn-Bru signs up to YouTube's TrueView ad format

TrueView offers users the option of skipping pre-roll advertising after five seconds. Advertisers don't have to pay for the slot if the user decides not to watch it.

If the viewer has already watched the Irn-Bru ad, they will have the option of watching the next spot in the series.

There are three 30-second in-stream Irn-Bru ads in total on YouTube – repurposed from TV ads by The Leith Agency for the brand's £2.5m campaign that launched this week.

The tongue-in-cheek ads illustrate how the drink give people the strength to get through the "most cringeworthy" of situations, such as walking in on your parents in the bedroom.

They are based around the strapline, "Irn-Bru gets you through" and will run for three months, across cinema and TV. PHD North handled the media and the ads were produced by MTP.

Michael Kinlan and Mark Davies, joint deputy creative directors at The Leigth Agency, were the lead creatives on the campaign. Blonde built the website and is handling the social media behind the campaign.

Dara Nasr, head of agency sales, YouTube and display, Google said the YouTube campaign is "a great use" of the TrueView ad format.

He said: "The viewer can experience the full brand narrative, taking 'viewer choice' advertising to the next level."

YouTube's TrueView format launched in December 2010. It puts greater impetus on advertisers to use good content for pre-roll advertising.

Last year, Google revealed that opted-in users who chose to watch the skippable ads are 75% more engaged than an average user on the video streaming site.

This article was first published on campaignlive.co.uk