Marketing: a double-edged sword

Traditionally, speciality beers were not marketed because the small brewers didn't have the spare cash to throw at multi-million pound ad campaigns. There's also an element of not wanting to market the products, preferring to rely on word of mouth and the 'discovery route to consumers.

However, Interbrew changed all this when it launched a £1m Leffe campaign last August, which included a three-month press drive with the strapline 'Savour Life. Savour Leffe. And for 2005, the company has invested £7m behind its speciality beers portfolio, including a new blast of Leffe ads, with the same strapline, that were launched in April in The Financial Times and magazines including GQ, Elle, Esquire and The Observer Magazine, targeting sophisticated 30-something consumers.

Within this marketing spend, Interbrew UK has also launched an 'Urban Oasis campaign, a specially-designed open-air pub which will be available for public use from this week in London and Manchester. Hoegaarden has also just been named as the sponsor for the world's largest arts festival the Edinburgh Fringe, which takes place in August.

But the smaller companies are still not convinced that marketing campaigns are the way forward. As Adin Wener, Specialist Brand Development's national sales manager says: 'As a smaller player, we go for 'discovery', and certainly wouldn't look at marketing our brands [such as Fruli]. The sort of consumers who drink this beer experimental, media or advertising people don't like being marketed to.

However, Charles Wells' sales and marketing director Nigel McNally has mixed views about the situation: 'Although below-the-line marketing is generally more suitable for speciality beers, I think above-the-line marketing can be relevant, but people need to re-evaluate how they go about it. For example, a laddish image won't work. You need to take a more subtle approach.

'Experiencial marketing works especially well, giving people an occasion when they happen to be drinking that particular beer. Our Red Stripe brand was the sponsor for the British surfing events that was definitely a success.