Taking a creative approach

Rosie Davenport reviews what's been hot and what to look out for in 2008

It's with a sense of collective trepidation that the trade waves goodbye to this year and ushers in the new one, unsure how gloomy predictions of a recession will play out.

Just last week, a survey revealed that banks are advertising less - and when you can't even give money away, you know there must be a problem.

But as the final countdown begins, a look at the activity across various categories suggests suppliers have been battening down the hatches, preparing for this moment for some time. This year's launches have been cautious affairs, particularly among the main lager brewers, who, even before the disastrous summer, were introducing cutbacks - as their global owners moved to insulate themselves from the slowing demand for beer.

Bold tactics

It takes a bold player to step into the lager ring right now, but Carlsberg kicked off the year by rolling out 4.2% abv Tuborg.

Given the sector's worrying decline, down 5% at AC Nielsen's last count (MAT to September 2007) the debate over whether Carlsberg was bringing something sufficiently new or cluttering the bar raged among operators.

Either way, the brewer has been very tactical in its spending, impressively stretching its £2m launch budget and bagging some high-profile music tie-ups.

As a sign of its ambitions, next year Tuborg will take over from Carlsberg in sponsorship of Glastonbury Festival - arguably the most valuable music property, especially as Carling has bowed out of its Reading and Leeds deal.

Sponsorship changes have featured strongly this year, with Stella Artois grabbing headlines for moving away from its Film4 association. The decision came as the brand was given a radical overhaul in the face of declining sales. The lager has been forced to share the limelight on the bar with other beers in the Artois family range - initially Peeterman Artois and Artois Bock. In June, senior figures told the MA to expect more beers to migrate from Belgium onto the Brasserie Artois font - including a possible ale.

On the marketing front, InBev's activity this year has focused on repositioning itself as the world's local brewer - an approach that has served regional brewers for years. They have responded by encroaching on lager's space.

In April, Greene King brought out IPA Chilled - a keg version of its flagship brew - also seizing sponsorship of the England rugby union team. Marston's similarly aligned itself with the England cricket squad and no doubt more associations of this type will follow next year.

Another example of the big boys deciding to change tack this year is Budweiser brewer Anheuser Busch, which has added two imported beers to its range - China's Harbin and Spain's Estrella Damm. It also stunned the trade by signing a deal with arch-rival Budvar to distribute the beer in the US.

Its new direction also saw Bud Silver bite the bullet in May. At 4.1% abv, this bucked the trend for mid-gravity lagers, which have been a key feature of the year, championed by Amstel and Beck's Vier.

In September, Coors tried to make a move into this arena by rebranding its Coors Fine Light as a 4.5% abv lager to sit alongside C2, which has also gained some momentum

during the year.

There's groundswell around another new entrant - Diageo's Guinness Red, a smooth, sweeter version of the original, which is being rolled out following a successful trial.

Polishing off the competition

The big news in spirits has been the £5m launch of Russian Standard - by businessman Roustam Tariko through First Drinks Brands. Its official unveiling in October came as Pernod Ricard made a concerted effort to emphasise Stolly's Russian roots and a raft of Polish vodkas - encouraged by the swelling migrant community - also made their way to the UK.

Given Smirnoff's market stronghold, it's unlikely that Diageo's reign is going to be dented too much, but it's been interesting to watch the drinks giant move away from promoting the brand as Russian, and opting to big-up the

spirit's purity instead.

While the scale of the vodka market allows space for new entrants to come in and chip away at the leader's market share, it's a different matter in RTDs. It's been a tough year all round, and two Diageo products - Quinn's and Slate 20 - hit the rocks in 2007.

But several posh RTDs coming through could make in-roads in some pubs, although opportunities are now much thinner on the ground than in RTDs' 1990s heyday.

Muddlers - from independent Muddler Drinks - burst onto the scene in September, aiming for the top-end market with a fruit, rum and apple juice blend. Red Bull is also having a stab at the sector with Sabai, a wine spritzer.

It's not the only company to be crusading for the return of the spritzer, with Constellation Europe promoting Stowells as a long serve. It's by no means ground-breaking, but is at least an attempt by a brand owner to bring to younger consumers, who haven't been exposed to spritzers yet, something new.

Cider is the only category where innovation has really taken hold. In the mainstream bun-fight, S&NUK stole a march on Magners,

introducing Bulmers Ice in the summer. But the speciality part of the category is where most excitement is coming from. The likes of

Aspall and Weston's have injected spice with fruit versions, as has Maguire's and newcomer Kopparberg, which led the way with pear variants - and promise to add more next year.

Category-bending

While the number of product launches has slowed, what has been interesting in 2007 is the way suppliers have borrowed ideas from different categories, muscling in on new

territory.

This year saw some unlikely cross-overs, with ales masquerading as lagers by getting into sports sponsorships; beer behaving like wine, seducing its way onto top-restaurant lists; wine thinking it's a cider with Gallo's rosé

being served over ice and - in the case of

Bulmers Ice - cider pretending it's a Slush Puppie.

Has all this category-bending actually confused consumers? It doesn't appear to have done so.

Yet only some of this will stand the test of time - and the pressures - if the credit crunch does bite.

What's going to be big in 2008

l A cynical pubco buyer shared his view of low and no-alcohol beers with the MA recently.He said: "No one actually wants to drink them, but suppliers are forced to make them because supermarkets say they want them. Really, supermarkets are just stocking them to make themselves look responsible." But the sales - in the off-trade at least - tell a different story. It's a small market, and even if it doesn't catch on in pubs (though there are plenty of social factors that suggest it might), the move towards more mid-strength beers will continue.

l All the signs point to a positive year for cask ale - if brewers are prepared to be different. At the start of the year, all eyes will be on Greene King's latest launch, St Edmund's ale, which is brewed to be served between 6°C and 7°C through a unique dispense system giving customers the choice of two pours -

a northern version with a creamy head,

or a southern version without a head. It is initially being rolled out across 100 outlets, where Greene King will review its progress ahead of a full launch next summer.

l As recently as five years ago, it would have been inconceivable to think of a time when more soft drinks were sold in pubs than ale, but this is exactly what the likes of Coca-Cola are expecting to see in 2008. In terms of product innovation, look out for healthy lines as the big suppliers try to capitalise on the growing trend of more families and females going to pubs.