In the drink
December 21, 2007
Propping up the branded bar this Christmas
What?: Alcohol and music campaigns could really do with sobering up.
Maximo Park are launching their own beer brand Maximo Brown Ale, a renamed version of Newcastle Brown Ale.
Baileys is partnering up with John Legend on a new TV show. Baileys Entertainment Presents Get Together With John Legend will air on cable network TV One and feature live concerts and interviews.
Jack Daniels is jumping on the talent show bandwagon. The JD Set Unsigned is a search for the UK’s best student band.
Carling’s nine-year sponsorship of the Carling Weekender festival has come to an end. Coors Brewers is planning a “heavyweight expansion and investment” behind its chain of branded music venues.
So what?: It’s doubtful that the Carling beer brand will forgo its relationship with music, but it signals a marked change of tack for the struggling beer industry (currently at a 70- year low). With the drinks business towing a relatively undeveloped sponsorship line, either artist or event-led, the breakneck speed of invention in Internet-led music ventures is just not being replicated. The alcohol industry may just find itself under the table if it’s not careful.
“Beer and music is a no-brainer combination, yet the relationship – just like Amy Winehouse’s liver – is in need of a major overhaul. The £10B beer industry needs to develop its own social music activities instead of simply relying on labeling up the
products of others.”
Giles Fitzgerald, Deputy Editor, Five Eight
Its a great concept! My band The Pali Gap were chosen by Red Stripe Beer in the UK for their promotion 2007 which included free downloads of our music. Great marketing for music and beer!! http://www.myspace.com/thepaligap
I completely agree with Giles. I’m so bored of beer brands throwing money at acts or existing online stuff.
I’ve been working on a music thing with a pretty big beer brand for the past 5 years and it’s a struggle to see past the “blow a load of money on one big event” ideas. It’s an even bigger struggle to get them to realise what they could do with all that content they could be creating from those events and how it could be used locally as well as globally.