Carlsberg UK has launched its most ambitious and honest consumer-facing campaign and in a surprise move, the brewer has admitted that Carlsberg is 'probably not the best beer in the world,’ adding; ‘so we’ve changed it’.
Expected to reach 97% of the UK, Carlsberg UK invested £20 million in the campaign, conceived in collaboration with agency partners Fold7, Clifford French and Initiative.
Poor Lager Sales
The group hopes to push its new Pilsner beer, which it introduced to help save the brand from poor larger sales as a result of poor interest in the category.
By inverting the brand’s ‘probably’ slogan, Carlsberg UK hopes to ‘instigate conversation and ensure drinkers are left in no doubt that there has been a change for the better’.
“Drinker's interest in mainstream lager has waned because, though the world has moved on, the mainstream category hasn’t,” says Carlsberg UK's VP marketing, Liam Newton.
“At Carlsberg UK, we lost our way. We focused on brewing quantity, not quality; we became one of the cheapest, not the best. In order to live up to our promise of being ‘probably the best beer in the world’, we had to start again. We’ve completely rebrewed Carlsberg from head to hop.”
Initial research indicates that 59% of UK lager drinkers prefer the taste of the new Carlsberg Danish Pilsner over the current top UK lager.
The new Pilsner, which sources confirmed will be a UK exclusive, has been available since March, with the new Pursuit of Better campaign having only kicked off earlier this month.
© 2019 Checkout – your source for the latest Irish retail news. Article by Aidan O’Sullivan. Click sign-up to subscribe to Checkout.
