Vimto – from strong regional player to overtaking Ribena as a successful national brand

In its North West heartland, Vimto is part of the cultural fabric; a staple found in almost every home. But the brand has always struggled to leverage this regional strength, and translate it into greater national success. Quiet Storm was appointed as lead strategic and creative agency on the Vimto business in 2017, still fulfilling that role today. Our task: to develop a potent new positioning for the brand, with cut-through creative that would deliver a step change in sales performance. And we succeeded! Our campaign helped Vimto reach its highest sales ever.

Challenge

The fundamental challenge facing Vimto was one of mental availability. Outside its heartland, despite a solid distribution network, Vimto was not a brand people elsewhere thought about or understood. At best, it was a bit old-fashioned and just for small kids. At worst, weird and strange tasting (what is that flavour?). Either way, ‘not for me’. Compound that with a low share of voice in its ‘fruit flavoured’ sub-sector (let alone taking colas into account), the challenge is apparent. We needed to reframe what this regional oddity stood for, connect it with real people on an emotional level, above and beyond being the flavoursome soft drink they didn’t realise it was. And do this with creativity that would punch about its weight. 

The 'Noise' + Insight

In looking for a consumer truth we could tap into - something that was as true for self-buying teens as it was for family-gatekeeper parents - one thing became clear to us: everyone feels pressured to conform - from society, media, friends, family, even ourselves - to look and behave in certain ways, to ‘be’ and ‘do’, to succeed and achieve, and feeling judged if we fall short of expectations. Whether that’s teens being questioned on the coolness of their clothes, or mums and dads on their parenting style. But we yearn to make our own choices and be accepted for who we are.

Brand Role

Being different, refreshingly so, is in Vimto’s DNA: the brand has always zigged where others zag. So this insight into the pressures people face to not be themselves resonated with us, and seemed an opportunity for the brand to have a role. Where society is telling people to look and be a certain way, we wanted to take a stand for being true to ‘you’. To say that Vimto doesn’t just believe the world is better with more ‘different’ in it, but that the potential of being different (whether big or small) is there in all of us. We called this potential the ‘Vimto Spirit’, with our role being to help people discover and embrace their own uniqueness, and to nurture it in others…even if it was simply love for a certain purple soft drink.

Big Idea

Given that Vimto is a multi-format brand, with a variety of different shoppers and consumers, it was important for us to have a flexible, overarching platform, aka a ‘big idea’, that would allow us to activate consistently in communications no matter who we were talking to and in what channel. That’s what the idea of ‘Embrace Your Different’ has given us: wherever we are, we champion, and celebrate the Vimto Spirit that’s in each of us.

Our initial ‘I See Vimto In You’ campaign targeted teens and young people wanting reassurance about doing their own thing. A highly focused media buy around Love Island delivered massive efficiencies on a limited budget. Supported with digital video, social media and experiential activity, we adopted an executional approach that played games with the media and environment, helping young people reveal their Vimto side, without us telling them how different we felt they were - a direct approach that was proven rejected.

Compounding the power of this big idea, in our second campaign, we shifted our focus to parents buying squash for the family. Although the executional idea was different, celebrating the difference and the ‘Vimto Spirit’ remained at its heart. This time, we encouraged parents to ‘Find Your Different’, whether their own or their kids. The idea being; sometimes it’s hard to know what it is that makes you ‘you’, so we encourage people to go on a journey of discovery, until they find out what defines them.

‘Embrace Your Difference’ carries all the way through from brand to activation. In 2025, we dared the nation ‘to deny its tastiness’, encouraging people to embrace the Vimto difference, and promising their money back if they didn’t fall in love with the taste.

Results

With TV delivering ROI more than twice the FMCG norm according to IRI econometrics, Snapchat share rates 72% above norms, digital engagement eight times higher than industry benchmarks, and 170% above norm VOD click-throughs, celebrating the Vimto Spirit has been hugely successful for the brand. Our recent ‘Dare You’ campaign continued this success, with short term ROI of; £2 per £1 spent, and long term of; £6 per £1 spent- we’ve also just been shortlisted for the 2025 Outdoor Media Awards! 

Not only did we help Vimto reach its highest sales ever, this was also the brand’s first time over £100m sales, its first appearance in the Grocer Top 100. In what was possibly the most rewarding achievement, it had overtaken Ribena to take the no.2 slot in its core squash market for the first time. The latest campaign continues to smash targets, with a long-term ROI delivering six-fold returns.