Carling back on the box for first time in two years

Molson Coors Beverage Company has launched a £6.6m marketing campaign for its flagship lager brand Carling.

The investment sees the UK’s best-selling lager’ back on TV screens with its first television advertisement in two years.

The new campaign is built around the concept that people’s friends – “mates” – make them who they are and champions everyday, relatable stories of “mateship”. Activations across TV, social and video-on-demand are tied together by the strapline “We’re Made by Our Mates”.

“We all know having mates, proper mates, is a powerful thing,” said Lee Willett, Carling Brand Director. “With this campaign we wanted to champion the relationships that make us who we are and bring those relatable moments with mates to life through a series of affectionate, authentic and character-driven ads.

“Staying true to our Carling roots in football, our first ad kicks off with a group of friends watching a game together – with a bit of Carling humour thrown in. And like our Made Local campaign, we even have some of our Carling teammates in the ads, which we loved being able to do again.”

The campaign is a continuation of Carling’s “Made Local” campaign which championed people who make a difference in their hometown and highlighted Carling’s integral relationship with the brewing town of Burton-on-Trent in Staffordshire. The latest series in the campaign welcomes mates back together after the impact of the Covid pandemic.

“While the original ‘Made Local’ campaign shone a light on the neighbourhoods, communities and initiatives that make our society what it is, this new execution celebrates those simple moments of friendship that mean the world and deserve to be cherished,” Willett added.

The “We’re Made by Our Mates” campaign launches from the beginning of September, with ads airing on TV, including Sky Pubs, alongside sport and other high-reach programming throughout the rest of 2022. A second phase of football-related ads will launch on ITV in November.

The campaign launches shortly after Carling’s most recent collaboration with mental health charity the Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM). The campaign – “More than a game” – saw Carling team up with CALM and ex-footballers Darren Bent and Marvin Sordell to champion the power of grassroots football to bring people together, on and off the pitch. The campaign raised awareness of an online mental health playbook, created by CALM and filled with advice on how teammates can help to look out for each other, for grassroots football teams across the UK.