Speaking at the PMA’s Beer Innovation Summit last week, the campaign’s newly appointed director, ex-Guinness marketer David Cunningham, said: “The challenge for us now is to prove we are taking the campaign in a new direction”
Four other industry representatives sat on the panel alongside Cunningham to discuss the campaign at the event: CAMRA’s Mike Benner; Jonathan Neame of Shepherd Neame; Emma Reynolds of AB InBev and Simon Cox of Molson Coors.
Cox scored the first year of the campaign a “seven out of 10” but emphasised there was a minimum of a three year commitment to the initiative.
'Big plans'
A new “A to Z of Beer” was unveiled at the event and the panel vowed there would be more focus on a wider range of beers going forward.
“We will have over 1,000 beers listed on the website by the end of the year, at a rate of about 100 each month, and are currently working on finalising some big plans for the second quarter of this year onwards,” said Cunningham.
“The main proposition will be ‘there’s more to beer’ and we’ll be looking to appeal more to women, as well.”
The initiative ran into controversy when it first launched for concentrating too much on lager brands.
In December, its TV ad fell foul of ASA regulations after the body upheld four complaints including that it implied alcohol could contribute to an individual’s popularity and that alcohol had therapeutic qualities