There's A Beer For That 'has done its job'
The campaign has "done its job" and beer duty is now the biggest threat to the industry, according to the There's A Beer For That programme director David Cunningham.
Cunningham told The MA that the barriers in the trade have changed since the conception of the campaign.
He said: "The key issues that the industry was facing then are no long the key issues we face now. The category is a lot more vibrant and a lot healthier than it was back then.
"At the end of each year, we always do a major strategic review of the campaign, not just to assess how effective it has been but also to see if it is still addressing the major issues that industry wants or needs to face. The view was, five years on, it has done its job."
However, Cunningham was keen to emphasise that the new campaign will have a beer element to it.
He said: "We will still be telling the positive stories of beer and pubs. We are not suddenly going to [stop] talking about all the great things that beer does and about the beer industry, about beer in consumers' lives and the role of the pub. That will be a major part of the new campaign as well."
Joining forces
He explained that by joining other trade bodies such as the British Beer & Pub Association and the Association of Licensed Multiple Retailers in lobbying against beer tax the industry was able to talk with one voice.
He added: "We are suggesting that there are elements we can build on and strengthen further. What There's A Beer For That has done very well in showing people that if the industry gets together and works collaboratively, there is a power in that and an ability to then reach millions of consumers with messages that connect and resonate."
Final details of the scope and funding of the new project will be announced in the first quarter of 2018.
Until then, Cunningham said There's A Beer For That will continue to have a "digital presence".
The campaign was originally called Let There Be Beer, before it was renamed There’s A Beer For That in 2014.
Five big global brewers came together and ploughed cash into the joint campaign to tackle the decline of the UK beer category in 2013.
Previous history
The campaign developed from a meeting between the CEOs of AB InBev, Heineken, Molson Coors, Carlsberg and SABMiller 18 months before the programme launched, in which they discussed how to reignite the beer category in key markets such as the UK.
The campaign ramped up its on-trade activity with the launch of food and beer-matching initiatives in partnership with three pubcos in 2015.
It teamed up with Mitchells & Butlers, Everards and Titanic Brewery in a bid to get more people drinking beer more often.
There’s A Beer For That is backed by Britain’s Beer Alliance, a group of brewers, industry bodies and associations.
It was designed to show consumers that there is a style of beer that suits a wide variety of people and occasions.
The campaign received a combined £5m investment from Heineken, Molson Coors, AB Inbev, SABMiller and Carlsberg in 2016.
In the same year, Admiral partnered with There’s A Beer For That to help its tenants and lessees boost beer sales in their pubs.
In 2015, Nicholson’s launched Dine With Beer, a way in which consumers could be encouraged t o consider pairing their food with beer rather than the more traditional wine matches.
Launched across its estate, the six-week promotion enabled consumers to choose a selection of meals that had been matched thanks to There’s A Beer For That and beer sommelier Jane Peyton.
