Carling and Grolsch brewer Coors is to spearhead its Christmas campaign with a £10m ad push behind its key brands ­ doubling its spend on last year's festive period.
Coors, which is spending £80m this year on marketing in the UK, also plans to introduce new product and pack offerings which will start joining the portfolio from this autumn.
Among them is 1744, a premium cask ale spin-off from the brewer's successful Worthington's stable. Hitting the on-trade soon, the new beer, named after the year that brand founder William Worthington started brewing, is set to start rolling out to the off-trade in bottled form in December, said brand director Andy Cray.
"We are not sure how we will back it yet, but there will be money available for support in the off-trade," he added.
Also new will be gifting packs of bottled Grolsch and PPS Reef, with specially designed outers doubling up as ice buckets for parties.
Meanwhile, the brewer's flagship lager, Carling, is to get a new design on the bottled format in a bid to attract new consumers. The new bottles, coming in 275ml (for off-trade) and 330ml (on-trade) formats, are scheduled to start rolling out next month and feature a new easier-to-grip design.
Cray said that advertising would once again concentrate on TV with all Coors' big brands receiving widespread coverage.
Off-trade sales managing director Chris Edger warned retailers not to miss out on a big sales opportunity this Christmas by stocking the wrong products. We will be encouraging retailers to market the right pack for the right occasion and promote specific brands to suit different drinking occasions."

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