There’s a Beer for That campaign tackles new industry threat

The UK-based There’s a Beer for That (TABFT) campaign, launched in 2014 to promote the beer category, has been scrapped and replaced with a new mission, having shifted its focus toward fighting further increases to beer and pub duty.

There’s a Beer for that was founded in 2014

Five global brewers came together in 2014 to form the cross-industry consumer campaign, which sought to promote the beer category in the UK by highlighting the styles available and their versatility in pairing with different foods and occasions.

However five years on, the group has said that the TABFT campaign had run its course, and that momentum built by the organisation would now be better spent on campaigning against what it sees as the most urgent threats to the beer and pub industries – rising duties.

Announcing the change in direction, David Cunningham, programme director of TABFT said: “In our recent strategic review, we assessed the key issues identified when the campaign began and found they are no longer the major barriers to beer and pub growth.

“Four years on, the beer category is more vibrant and in better health. This is due to the renaissance the beer category has experienced over the last few years, helped by the campaign and driven by the whole industry getting people to think differently about beer.”

In March the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond, announced that alcohol duties will increase, with inflation, lifting a freeze on beer and spirits duties which had been imposed in 2015.

For beer, it meant that duty paid on a pint of beer increased by two pence, with the real increase in beer tax is about £130 million, according to stats provided by the British Beer and Pub Association.

Following campaigns by both Camra and the Wine and Spirit Trade Association, in his Autumn Budget in November 2017 Chancellor Philip Hammond announced that duty on beer, cider, wine and spirits would be frozen for the year, and would not rise with inflation, bringing slight relief to the industry.

Despite a tax freeze in the most recent Autumn budget, the organisation has said beer tax is still “prohibitively high”, standing at around 52p for every pint, with its new “singular mission” to stop the “devastating impact” of high beer duty because on the industry.

The new campaign, which is yet to be renamed but will continue to be funded by the industry, will include a number of consumer and trade facing initiatives to promote the beer and pub industry, while also raising awareness of the growing threat of beer duty. The organisation hopes it will be able to replicate the success of the TABFT campaign and galvanise beer drinkers, pub goers and industry staff to lobby their MP and support the trade.

Cunningham added: “There’s A Beer For That has demonstrated the power of working together and promoting a category wide message. We will continue with the same industry wide collaborative approach to develop and deliver a new campaign building on the BBPA and other industry bodies’ successful cut beer duty campaigns, but significantly up-weighting the focus and investment behind the consumer and trade initiatives. This will not only increase awareness but also drive real change in consumer and industry staff attitude and behaviour towards the impact of ever increasing duty on prices of beer in pubs.

“It is right that we react to the changing issues and threats the industry faces and, having reviewed the campaign objectives in the context of the historic and future planned duty increases that have devastated the beer and pub industry, we must turn our attention to addressing these threats.”

Final details of the project and its funding will be announced in the first quarter of 2018.