By re-brewing a 133-year-old beer in the most authentic manner possible and giving consumers across the world the opportunity to taste the beer of their great-grandparents, we developed content that the target audience was eager to get involved with.

BACKGROUND
Carlsberg has a long proud history of contributing to beer quality and science. In fact, in 1883, Carlsberg revolutionized beer brewing when they discovered a method for purifying yeast. However, today few people associate beer quality with big beer brands like Carlsberg. We needed to find a way to improve Carlsberg’s quality-perception.

SOLUTION
In 2014, the scientists at the Carlsberg Laboratory succeeded in recreating the very first purified yeast from a few living yeast cells that quite surprisingly had survived 133 years in a Carlsberg bottle from 1883.

This gave us the idea to use these yeast cells to re-brew the original lager that founded the entire modern beer-industry. To get beer bloggers and other beer enthusiasts interested in the project, we knew we had to brew the beer in the most authentic manner. So we went into the brewery’s archive and found old, detailed descriptions of the original lager’s ingredients, recipes and techniques, and used this to brew the beer in the exact same way and with the exact same ingredients as in 1883.

When the brew was done, we kicked off the project by inviting international journalists, bloggers and beer experts to Copenhagen for the very first tasting. The making of the re-brew beer was documented through a short-film and still images, which was used as part of a broader PR outreach to news and lifestyle media after the event. On the campaign site, consumers could sign up for local tastings, watch taste testimonials from beer experts, watch content from the launch event, etc. In the weeks after the launch event, we gave the beer away to prominent figures like Steve Hawkins, which generated further buzz around the campaign. Throughout 2016, we held local tasting events across Carlsberg’s markets, engaging new consumers and media every time. Hereby, we managed to activate the brand and generate buzz around the campaign on a reoccurring basis. We also made a TV documentary about the re-brew project which will air on National Geographic in 2017.

RESULT
The story spread across the globe, generating a total of 700M+ impressions. But most importantly, the campaign generated a large number of in-depth articles about Carlsberg’s history and passion for quality.
The campaign got beer influencers and consumers across all of Carlsberg’s markets to talk about the quality of Carlsberg once again. As a result of the campaign, the brand’s quality perception grew by 200% and purchase preference grew by 107%.

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