Mansfield to build on its 'laddish' ad image

Mansfield is set to build on the success of its "Man's World, Man's Pint, Mansfield" campaign with a new burst of TV ads.

The commercials, which first appeared last May, helped buck the beer market trend and grow the brand by two per cent.

Mansfield says the standard bitter market is declining by 5.5 per cent.

Brands manager Katherine Moss said: "Our objective was to give Mansfield big brand status."As a brand it was classed as traditional, regional, northern and working class. We realised it was important to change attitudes to attract younger people."

With a target audience of young men, the brand turned its attention to two areas the potential customers are very keen on - sport and sex - and invested £2million in creating and screening the ad campaign.

Moss says: "We had to do this without being too sexist and we haven't had any negative feedback."The result was the creation of an ad about a satellite TV station.

"We featured talk shows, sports shows, even topless darts and the results were very good.

"We will be building on this with more ads this year, although we want to make them slightly more Fast Show. Our target market has told us that it doesn't like the humour being too obvious."

As well as a rise in sales, the campaign has also improved Mansfield's distribution in the Central and Yorkshire regions, particularly Leeds. It has also had a positive impact with both awareness and perception of the brand heightened among the target market.

The whole Mansfield brand has benefited, including sales of the cask ale variant, although Mansfield Smooth, the mixed gas version, now accounts for 55 per cent of sales.

With Mansfield's leading brand back on track, the brewer says it will be looking at Mild and Redeye next year.