Each year, the Marketer of the Year Award goes to a company that extraordinarily invests in and prioritizes commercial communications, and this year it went to the Carlsberg Group for the launch of its “Betterments” to the Carlsberg brand.

Global Brand Director Julian Marsili received the award together with Anders Bering, VP Corporate Affairs, Kasper Elbjørn, Director, External Communications, and Jeppe Boel, who has been in charge of rolling out the campaign in Denmark, for the commercial communications of a number of improvements to Carlsberg Pilsner’s packaging, launched in September 2018, which have since been introduced gradually across the Group’s many markets starting with Norway, UK and, in January 2019, in Denmark and most recently several Asian markets as well as Australia.

Among the improvements, the jury mentioned the Snap Pack used around Carlsberg’s six packs with a pioneering technology that glues the cans together, reducing plastic with up to 76%

Other improvements include:

• A switch to Cradle to Cradle™ Certified silver inks on its bottle labels to improve recyclability.
• A new coating on refillable glass bottles to extend their lifespan and therefore reduce their environmental footprint.
• New caps which remove oxygen to make the beer taste fresher for longer.
• Recycled material in the packaging where plastic is still needed.

The innovations represent the first of a series of consumer-facing manifestations of Carlsberg Group’s sustainability programme, Together Towards ZERO.

“Since 2016, we have worked hard to deliver on our ambitious sustainability agenda and to help tackle climate change. We have worked with some of the leading experts in the world and aligned our plans with the UN Sustainable Development Goals. All to set what we believe is a new standard for sustainability. With the Carlsberg Brand, being the name on the door, we had the opportunity to bring this to life,” says Julian Marsili.

“It is in our DNA to strive to do better, and together with all the markets and especially Norway, the UK and Denmark, where we first launched the Snap Pack, we have shown that we continue to live up to the values of our founders. We have been working together across functions, teams and markets to bring the betterments to life. This has been a truly coordinated effort with a strong sense of ownership and accountability for delivering on our promise to always pursue perfection,” says Julian Marsili.

The initiatives, communication and marketing around the improvements have been celebrated on several occasions both internationally and in Denmark - not least this summer at the Cannes Lions, and most recently at the Danish Grand Prix at Rambukken.

The Advertising Effectiveness Award is inspired by the IPA Effectiveness Award.