Spanish beer eyes UK growth with TV push

Spanish beer brand Estrella Damm is launching its first TV spot in the UK as part of a £2.5m marketing strategy to take on premium international rivals such as Peroni and Staropramen.

Estrella

The TV spot follows a group of friends visiting a beach town in Formentera and take part in a variety of situations such as attending a concert at night and drinking and spending time on a boat.

It is being shown primarily on Channel 4 and will run until September. A version of the ad launched in Spain last month as part of a summer-long marketing campaign.

The brand, which is marketed as ‘The Beer of Barcelona’, first launched in the UK in 2009 and has used outdoor marketing, cinema advertising and sponsorship of Spanish independent films to target younger and “trendier” adults.

Last year the company spent £1m on cinema sponsorship activity around movies such as The Skin I Live In and in 2010 it invested £500,000 in both outdoor promotions and running its Spanish adverts in front of cinema releases.

Wells & Youngs Brewing Company, the company that markets Estralla Damm in the UK, aims to broaden the brand’s appeal.

Kate Harrison, brand manager of Estrella Damm in the UK, says: “Without investing heavily in above-the-line activity we’ve been able to build a strong brand in the UK. Estrella Damm is the fastest growing premium lager in the UK in terms of on-trade sales and we feel the time is right to not only expand our distribution offering but also really get in front of consumers and promote our ties to cinema, music and Spanish culture.

A competition to win tickets to the Sonar Music Festival in June will run alongside the TV spot.

The beer is the fastest growing premium lager in the on-trade in the UK with growth of 282% year-on-year, according to the latest data from CGA strategy.

Brewers such as Molson Coors and Carlsberg are looking to exploit the growth of the World Beer category, which is predicted to grow at 2.5% this year according to research firm Plato Logic, in a bid to widen their revenue streams.

In March Cobra Beer, a joint partnership between Molson Coors and the brand’s founder Lord Karan Bilimoria, launched a multimillion pound campaign in the UK, while Carlsberg is currently running a campaign for San Miguel Fresca, the brand’s first extension in the UK.

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