Marston's celebrates 175 years

Marston's is celebrating 175 years of brewing with a revamp of its flagship Pedigree ale and a £3m marketing campaign.

As part of the revamp the brewer has increased the abv of Pedigree in bottles to 5%. The move is an attempt to minimise the taste difference between the beer in cask and in bottles and the bottled ale is mow "more reflective of the body and flavour complexity of the cask version," it said.

Pedigree in cask will remain at 4.5% abv but will, along with the bottles, benefit from new branding, which sees a return to the original red and gold.

The £3m marketing campaign will centre around the brewer's cricket sponsorship programme and include visits to pubs by the brand's ambassadors, England cricket players Phil DeFreitas and Devon Malcolm. Throughout May and June pub customers will also be given the chance to win one of 40 to 50 pairs of tickets to an Ashes test match.

"Pedigree and cricket work together on many levels and our tracking of the sponsorship has proven its worth to us," said Des Gallagher, marketing manager. "At the simplest level it's the quintessential Englishness of both game and ale, the basics done perfectly and the acknowledgement that hard work is needed to appear effortless."

Marston's will also be bringing back the "Marston's Maidens" who will be giving away samples of Pedigree at a series of locations around the UK in a bid to pursuade people back into pubs.

The campaign will roll out at the end of April to coincide with the West Indies England tour.