Tim Palmer Bass is turning the volume up on its music sponsorship programme for Carling with a £20m package of deals over the next three years. The brewer has been looking for an initiative since it backed away from supporting football's Premier League at the beginning of last year. Carling was the title sponsor for the last nine years and its last three-year deal cost £36m. Barclaycard has become the Premier League's main sponsor. To fill the gap in Carling's marketing activity Bass has created a raft of deals designed to build a link between Carling and great music experiences. Stuart Cain, head of sponsorship, said: "The football deal did a great job but now we want to move away from it. "We want to introduce the idea that Carling creates the opportunities for people to enjoy music in the way they want to. We want to tap into the emotion of music and get Carling associated with it." The core to the initiative is a partnership with ClearChannel Entertainment, which is the leading producer and marketer of live entertainment and tours by major bands. There are several strands to this, including Carling Homecomings, which takes major bands back to their roots for one-off shows, and Carling Select, which features bands making the news. There will also be sponsorship of major music venues and special deals on tickets and back stage passes. This is in addition to Carling's sponsorship of the NME Music awards which have been running for the last five years, and the Carling Weekend which incorporates the Reading and Leeds music festivals. Marketing director Mark Hunter said: "Carling moving the sponsorship model to new levels by creating content rather than just badging existing activity." {{DRINKS }}

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