Before you enter Johnnie Walker Princes Street in Edinburgh, if it’s exactly seven minutes past the hour, you might hear the tune “Scotland the Brave.”  A song really best played by bagpipes, you’d certainly know it if you heard it. 

The tune is played in tandem with a group of miniature kilted figures who fly out of the famous Binn’s Clock, a landmark of Princes Street, that is best known for being the perfect place for lovers to meet up before a date. It began in the 1960s and now lives on in the memories of Edinburgh residents. 

The clock was removed after Johnnie Walker took over the former department store on Princes Street's West End, but it was totally restored and replaced on Valentine’s Day 2021. The gesture was a nod to both the history of Princes Street, and the couples who value that piece of their own personal history. This is one of the keys to creating a successful brand experience, according to Chief Creative Officer of BRC, Christian Lachel. 

“Finding ways to make sure we’re respecting community, bringing those jobs, bringing people in — that was important,” Lachel told the Future of Storytelling podcast. 

Let’s dig into the details of Johnnie Walker Princes Street and the role interactivity, AI, and AV technology played in bringing the experience to life. 

What is Johnnie Walker Princes Street?

 In 2021, the 200-year-old whisky brand set out to create an immersive experience.  Johnnie Walker Princes Street is made up of bars, an archive, a basement maturation space, and a tasting experience called the Journey of Flavour tour. The lobby is open to the public, but the full experience reserved for ticket holders includes elements of tasting, theater, and immersion. For the true historians, there is a liquid library of two centuries’ worth of Scotch in the Johnnie Walker archives. And for those with a limited knowledge of what they like and dislike in the world of whisky, the Johnnie Walker Experience will figure it out for you, via a handy tablet as soon as you enter.

Working with BRC Imagination Arts, an agency that specializes in translating brands into powerful experiences, the brand's producer, Diageo, transformed 145 Princes Street into eight floors of a complete whisky experience. The Johnnie Walker story is brought to life through interactive elements ranging from the amazing audiovisual components to the personalized flavor profiles created for each visitor. 

Check out BRC's video on the Johnnie Walker Princes Street Experience on YouTube.

The AI and AV Touch

The Personal Tasting Experience

What starts the ball rolling on the whole experience is the personalized survey of your drink preference. From a collection of questions designed to pinpoint your flavor profile, you’re assigned one of six flavor profiles: Smoky, Fruity, Creamy, Spicy, Tropical, or Fresh. The questions range from “How often do you eat a banana?” to “Fancy a scoop of vanilla ice cream?” They are thoughtfully curated, via Diageo’s AI-fueled FlavorPrint™ technology, to help you discover your palate.

Once your taste buds are intrigued, you are given a properly colored wristband and your journey begins. There are a number of different serving points on the tour, and the personalized flavor profiles open up 800 different drink combinations you can experience. For those who agonize over drink decisions ( 🙋‍♀️), the wristband frees you from this burden and lets the experts create your ideal drinking experience.

The Interactive Work of dandelion + burdock

The Johnnie Walker experience would certainly be lacking without the incredible work of Nils Porrmann and his team. Porrmann is the Director of Creative Workflows at dandelion + burdock, where they create engaging real-world experiences, ranging from large-scale live events to lasting architectural installations. Porrmann spoke about his work with Johnnie Walker Princes Street at ISE 2025 in Barcelona, specifically about how before his team can start on any interactive project, the first step is figuring out the desired motives of the visitors. Porrmann made some interesting points about interactive content’s place in the creation of an immersive brand experience.

For their work on the Johnnie Walker world map in the welcome gallery, the purpose was regulating the flow of people from one room to the next so they can learn about the brand’s history. The purpose was not to serve the most interactive experience, but to ensure their work is achieving what the client desires.

“If they are not already, they’re supposed to fall in love with the brand, and we [dandelion + burdock] are in service to that,” Porrmann says. “Our interactivity takes the second seat. We’re service first and hardware second." The overall brand experience is always more important than showing how much interactivity they can cram into the space. 

"We've all seen a lot of examples of people interacting with an LED screen directly, but that's not necessarily the narrative. The motivation is more important for that interactivity," Porrmann explains.

Food & Drink: 1820 Bar and The Explorers’ Bothy

There are two bars in the building — as there should be at any respectable whisky experience. The 1820 Bar, commemorating the year of Johnnie Walker’s founding, can be found on the building’s rooftop. It is the more cocktail and food-focused of the two bars. The fare is locally sourced, and if the food and drinks weren’t impressive enough, you have a perfect view of Edinburgh Castle as you enjoy your personalized drink and food pairings. 

The second bar, The Explorers’ Bothy, is focused on the whisky drinking experience of the Four Corners of Scotland, but to ignore the food would be a serious oversight. Through STIR, a food and cocktail pairing exclusive to the bar, you will get the chance to taste the food of two Michelin-starred chefs. James and Maria Close put together small plates inspired by the regions that are home to Glenkinchie, Cardhu, Caol Ila, and Clynelish – Johnnie Walker’s four distilleries in Scotland.

📖 Recommended Reading: Projection Mapping a Michelin-Starred Meal

What Makes a Brand Experience ‘Authentic?’

There are a number of metrics BRC uses to measure the success of their experiences. The first is aligning their project with the community, and in this case, ensuring that the Johnnie Walker Experience was something a Princes Street local would want to enjoy. Restoring Binn’s Clock was a way of creating positive change for the city and showing that they understand the importance of this location — not just barging in with a marketing ploy. 

Another important aspect is how the experience sticks with people once they leave. “It has to be transformational,” Lachel says. “People have to come into the experience one way, and come out another way.” 

Immersive brand experiences are often fun in the moment, but how do they work to change a person’s understanding of the brand? Can the experience change a consumer’s perspective so the next time they see Johnnie Walker they think about the brand’s deep roots in Edinburgh’s history, rather than just the drink of choice on a Friday night? More and more brands are hoping to achieve this, and from BRC’s perspective, the desire from the audience is only growing after their 43 years as an agency. 

Lachel says, “If it becomes a sales ad, nobody is showing up. If you do it in an authentic way it can be very powerful.“

Special thanks to the Future of Storytelling Podcast (FoST) for their interview with Christian Lachel of BRC, Nils Porrmann for shining light on the contributions of dandelion + burdock, and Stephen Jeung for sharing the Johnnie Walker experience on his YouTube channel.

AV on the Menu is a series of articles that dive into the intersection of the culinary world and the AV industry. Whether it’s immersive dishes, projection-mapped tables, or digital menus, this series will not only have you drooling but learning about exciting new tech, too.  

To see the full list of articles click here.

Main image credit: Getty Images/THOMAS ORTEGA