Cains gets serious with lager promotion

August 1, 2005: Cains is taking on the continental lager giants with its biggest ever trade advertising campaign. The six-figure spend is aimed at establishing the challenge of its Finest Lager in the run up to tomorrow's Great British Beer Festival at London’s Olympia.

A series of print ads has been designed by advertising agency McCann Erickson which show the UK physically linked to Europe with the strapline: "Continental Lager - all the way from Liverpool”.

The ads deliver the message that Cains lager is a match for anything brewed by the Czechs or Germans by outlining a brewing recipe which includes the world’s finest barley malt – Maris Otter – and a three-month cold maturation process.

Joint managing director Sudarghara Dusanj said: “When we decided to launch a lager we didn’t want to do it by half -our target has always been to have Cains Finest Lager considered a challenger to the respected continental brands.

“We have already achieved that in Liverpool by winning CAMRA’s Merseyside Beer of the Festival with our hand-pulled version of Cains Finest Lager. Now we want to step up the awareness of the quality of the brand.

“Many of the continent’s quality lagers started out as niche brands for discerning drinkers rather than as challengers to the mass-produced, bland lagers that the British palate was used to. That is why our advertising creative has focused on establishing Cains as a ‘continental’ lager. We want to show how Cains Finest stands out from the conventional big brewery brands that haven’t been brewed with the same passion, care and attention."

The advertising campaign includes front and back pages and special wraps in major licensed trade magazines.