Brand Barometer - Carlsberg scores a winner

by Sundip Chahal Media Week 01-Jul-08

Amateur football team's acrobatic antics drive beer brand's buzz score to six-month high.

The new Carlsberg ad first aired on 15 May and was screened again on 13 June.

Coinciding with the end of the football season and the start of Euro 2008, the ad has enabled the beer brand to achieve its highest buzz score on BrandIndex in six months.

The ad continues to follow the well-established approach and slogans used by Carlsberg of: "If Carlsberg made ..." and "Probably the best lager in the world."

The ad features an amateur football match, where a player steps up to take a penalty, scores and then proceeds to celebrate with his team-mates.

However, this is no ordinary celebration.

All 11 players begin to exhibit some impressive gymnastic abilities, cartwheeling and flipping towards each other, before they finally form a human tower.

The goal scorer stands on top of this formation (two players at the bottom, followed by three, four, one and the scorer on top), with his shirt pulled over his head and his arms aloft in celebration.

The launch of the new ad on 15 May aired in the build-up to the Euro 2008 Championships. Carlsberg's continued sponsorship of the sport and its football-related ads will continue to establish a link in consumers' minds.

Following the first phase of the campaign, Carlsberg's buzz scores reached 4% on 16 May - the highest buzz score for the brand in more than six months.

The second series of airings for the ad on 13 June caused a slower uplift than the initial airing, although the brand's buzz score still returned to 4% on 20 June.

The improved buzz scores for the brand are good news for Carlsberg, which had its takeover bid for Scottish & Newcastle approved by EU regulators earlier this year.

While the beer brand profits from its association with football, Carlsberg will hope that its scores remain high when the Euro 2008 Championship ends.

BrandIndex will continue to monitor alcoholic brands' sponsorship of sporting events - for example, Pimms and Wimbledon - over the coming months.

METHODOLOGY:
YouGov interviews 2,000 people each weekday to form its BrandIndex, a daily measure of public perception of more than 1,100 consumer brands across 32 sectors. It is measured on a seven-point profile:
1 Buzz
2 General impression
3 Quality
4 Value
5 Satisfaction
6 Recommend
7 Corporate reputation.

In addition, we supply an index score.
www.brandindex.co.uk