Described as the younger brother of Carlsberg, the Tuborg brand is building a youthful, fun image through sponsorship of music and live festivals.
Roskilde festival
In Scandinavia, it’s a long standing association. The Roskilde Festival in Denmark, sponsored by Tuborg since 2002, is the largest rock festival in Northern Europe, attracting international performers and more than 75,000 spectators. In 2006, the 150 bands playing the festival’s seven stages included Guns N’ Roses, Bob Dylan and Franz Ferdinand.
Green concerts
Dating back even further is Tuborg’s involvement with the Green Concerts – a travelling music festival which visits seven cities across Denmark. The concerts were started in 1983 by the Muscular Dystrophy Foundation to raise awareness and funds for treating the disease. The 2006 event attracted more than 160,000 people, and the 25th anniversary tour in 2007 was even bigger.
First transnational campaign
More recently, the association has been spreading across Eastern Europe. The Tuborg sponsored Exit Festival in Serbia has become the biggest music festival in Eastern Europe, drawing crowds of 150,000 with some of the best known names in music.
In 2006, the first Tuborg Green Revolution Tour played open-air concerts in six major cities across the Ukraine. The 163,000 spectators substantially exceeded the Tuborg team’s expectations, and they’re now planning to make the tour an annual event.
2006 also saw the first transnational promotion, with winners of Tuborg promotions across Ukraine, Bulgaria, Serbia and Croatia being taken to rock festivals in Tuborg tour buses.
The show will go on
And there’s more to come, promises sponsorship director Keld Strudahl. “The promotion was very successful, achieving sales of 38% above budget,” he says. “So we’re looking to build on this with some very ambitious plans.”