Iris has been BRITA’s lead UK PR, Social & Partnerships agency since 2012. 

Our focus is on changing perceptions of BRITA from functional and outdated to relevant and engaging, whilst shouting about the brand’s sustainability benefits.

It's no secret that our planet is being destroyed by a plastic crisis, but whilst the UK has some of the best quality drinking water in the world, we've been brainwashing into thinking that bottled water is our best option.

With BRITA being the solution to great tasting water, without the single-use plastic waste, we saw a great opportunity to highlight the ludicrousness of taking a product which is so damaging to the environment and making it desirable.

Whilst we were researching the project for the project, we discovered there was a lack of hard facts, so whilst we knew there was a correlation, we wanted the numbers. Proof to drive change. So, we partnered with Retail Economics who produced a whitepaper, and provided the hero stat for the campaign: 413 more plastic water bottles will be sold by 2026 due to marketing campaigns.

The findings of the report landed us hero earned media coverage in both The Guardian and The Times. 

Recruiting actor, notably of Inbetweener's fame, James Buckley, we brought the hard facts to life, through a spoof advertising campaign where he's put through his paces on a big water campaign casting. Alongside the social first campaign videos, he also voiced a radio ad which catapulted the facts to a reach a wide audience. 

​Participation was kept at the heart of our social media community management, which poked fun at the tropes used by big water in their sponsorship of sporting events (mainly *ahem* a rather large tennis tournament), leading to the community proactively sending us tips to comment and engage with. 

Social first comedian, Josh Berry, was also put through his paces on the tennis court, creating his very own tennis player, to air the frustrations around a tennis tournament being sponsored by single-use plastic bottled water in 2023. 

Alongside Josh, a host of other comedic TikTok and Instagram influencers created their own spoofing content to bring the research findings to life in a social first format which resonated with the target audience.