In addition to being named Supplier of the Year and receiving the Category Management Award at this year's Australian Drinks Awards, Carlton & United Breweries also won a number of key Brand Awards across Beer, RTD, and Cider categories.
Drinks Trade reached out to CUB’s Head of Beer Marketing, Ben Eyles, to discuss the factors underpinning CUB beer brand wins for Victoria Bitter, Carlton Dry, and Asahi Super Dry. This includes Victoria Bitter once again being selected by consumers as the Fan Favourite Classic Beer for 2024.
“We’re very happy to take home that award!” said Eyres.
“We've done a study recently and VB is still the most iconic beer brand in Australia. It's actually one of the most iconic brands in Australia full stop. So Bunnings, Qantas, Vegemite… VB is up there with those amazing, iconic Aussie brands.”
Chris Papadimitriou, Director at Thrive Insights, added: “the Fan Favourite is Victoria Bitter, it has won it for the last three years. It fits into the ‘more established beers’ category, and they've just been doing so well as a classic beer given the category is ageing.”
Thrive Insights was responsible for compiling the data that was used to evaluate the 2024 ADA Brand Awards winners. After isolating the top 200 drinks brands via key retailer and wholesaler withdrawal data, it surveyed 4,000 legal drinking aged consumers about their recent alcohol purchases and reasons for their choices.
In this survey, consumers liked VB because of its “excellent crisp taste and [because it is] very refreshing;” “because it is a classic beer. I've been drinking it most of my life;” and because of its “great refreshing taste that has never changed.”
The next major win for Carlton & United Breweries was attained by Carlton Dry, this year’s Fan Favourite Contemporary Beer. Ben Eyles says Carlton Dry “is well positioned” to capitalise on the growing better-for-you trend in beer.
“The health and wellness trend is impacting beer very pointedly now and driving growth,” he said.
“Health and wellness shows up in beer in the form of moderation, so lower alcohol and then lower carbs and calories… and Dry has been a pioneer in this space. Dry has been lowering carbs and lowering calories since its inception in 1999... It would be the number one better-for-you beer in the country if you define health and wellness or better-for-you as low-carb, low-cal. It's easily the biggest brand in that space, which is underpinning its growth, both with young people and old people, and we've actually doubled down on that recently.”
When asked whether Carlton Dry is uniquely positioned to appeal to both traditional beer drinkers and to the better-for-you trend, Eyles said “Dry is quite a unique brand because Dry has a double bump in its demographic profile. Dry is actually the number one brand for Gen Z - or people aged 18 to 25 - but also a lot of people over 35 also drink Dry; and we are using it for both of those roles.”
Carlton Dry overtook fellow CUB brand Great Northern as the Australian Drinks Awards Fan Favourite Contemporary Beer winner for the first time in five years. Interestingly, Chris Papadimitriou attributes part of Carlton Dry’s triumph to its lower carb selling point. This is in spite of the fact that long-term category winner Great Northern has a slightly lower carbohydrate count by volume, with 1.7g/100ml (Great Norther Original) compared to 1.9 g/100ml.
“When you actually look at the carb content, they have roughly the same carb content as Great Northern, but they can market as lower in carbs,” said Papadimitriou.
“Their packaging highlights its lower carb status along with being ultra smooth; so it's hitting a lot of things that these consumers are seeking.”
Asahi Super Dry was the third CUB beer to attain a Brand Award in the 2024 Australian Drinks Awards, receiving the title of Premium Beer Gaining in Popularity.
“Japan is consistently in the top three travel destinations and cultural interests for Australia… so it's definitely on trend, which is part of the reason Asahi is growing,” Ben Eyles told Drinks Trade.
“Asahi is growing at 12% in the marketplace in value compared to 2.7% for total beer. So Asahi is flying.”
Ben Eyles partly attributes the success of Asahi Super Dry to its careful balance of modern technology with Japanese heritage: “it’s the blending of the legacy ancient history of Japanese culture, but also its modern tech,” he said.
“We're telling the historical story of Japan, but in a contemporary way, so you're kind of getting new and old Japan.”
For more insights from the 2024 Australian Drinks Awards, read the following articles:
Australian Drinks Awards 2024: Australia’s favourite brands, as voted by consumers
Interview: Why Lion won two Contribution to Industry awards at the Australian Drinks Awards 2024
Australian Drinks Awards 2024: the key trends shaping Australia’s leading brands
Australian Drinks Awards 2024: Two major wins in two days for the Blues
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