Schweppes Launches Surely It's Schweppes Brand Platform Across Australia

Schweppes has unveiled a new brand platform in Australia called Surely It's Schweppes, developed with the independent creative agency Kerfuffle. The drinks brand, part of Asahi Beverages, said the campaign aims to give it a more confident and sophisticated position with local consumers. The work began rolling out nationally this week, with the launch reported on 9 November 2026.

The push builds on a long history. Schweppes was founded in 1783 by the German-Swiss watchmaker Jacob Schweppe, who developed a way to carbonate water at scale, and its fizz later found favor among royalty, dukes and aristocrats. The campaign uses that 243-year heritage as its starting point rather than reinventing the brand, according to the agency.

Heritage as the creative anchor

Kerfuffle's executive creative directors, Hugh Gurney and Joe Sibley, said the team looked back at what made Schweppes distinctive in the first place, citing the history, character and personality already attached to the name. They described the task as bringing more of that back rather than starting over, and said the aim is to change how Australians think about the brand.

The lead spot opens poolside as a glass is filled with Schweppes blood orange, then cuts to a man named Carlo floating in the water with a drink in hand. In the scene, Carlo uses a handheld fan to steer his pool float back into the sun, before the ad closes on a family sharing a poolside toast with glasses of Schweppes raised. The integrated campaign was directed and photographed by Sarah Adamson of Photoplay and will be supported by a national outdoor rollout.

Sarah Wilcox, head of non-alcoholic brands at Asahi Beverages, said the brand has always carried a certain confidence and that the new platform was designed to embrace it. She described the intent as an elevated and unmistakably Schweppes expression that still has fun with itself. The work spans film, outdoor and static assets, with Mindshare handling media.

What it means for brand and agency roles

The launch illustrates how established consumer brands are using brand building to defend shelf presence in a crowded drinks market. Rather than competing only on price or novelty in the non-alcoholic segment, Schweppes is investing in a consistent identity that can run across television-style film, outdoor sites and still imagery. For marketing teams, that means demand for people who can hold a long-running brand idea together across many channels, from creative direction and art direction to media planning and production management.

Agency-side roles are also in view. The campaign credit list includes a director and photographer, an executive producer, an offline editor, a colorist, online and visual effects work, and a sound studio, showing how a single platform launch draws on production and post-production skills alongside strategy. The brand managers named on the account, Tessa Whittaker and Danielle Hadwin, sit within Asahi Beverages, underlining that client-side marketers now manage agency relationships, asset pipelines and measurement in parallel.

What to watch next

The test will be whether the platform shifts how Australian shoppers describe Schweppes beyond its mixers role and into everyday occasions. The national outdoor rollout will show how far the campaign extends beyond film and into high-frequency touchpoints such as transit and roadside sites. Analysts will also watch whether the heritage-led approach becomes a template for other drinks brands in the Asahi portfolio as they look to stand out in the non-alcoholic category.