Carlsberg to throw wedding bash

Adventurous couples who don’t mind a beer-branded wedding have a chance to win an all-expenses-paid party on their special day in a new campaign from Carlsberg.

Carlsberg’s ‘Big Wedding Bash,’ organized by Toronto-based Launch! Brand Marketing with digital components developed by Espresso in Toronto, is worth $100,000 and includes both bachelor and bachelorette parties, the venue (Capitol Event Theatre in Toronto), the band and all other elements, from dress to stationery. In order to win, couples must submit a profile on the Carlsberg Big Wedding Bash microsite and promote their participation through their own social networks try to gather as many votes as possible. The field will be narrowed to three finalists in the last week of August, and the winner will be decided Aug. 31 based on the total votes received by each contestant couple.

Print ads promoting the campaign will run through next month in Toronto’s alt weeklies, on radio stations like Edge 102.1, and via a Facebook ad buy, with media handled internally by the brand. Carlsberg will also organize a PR stunt on Aug. 7 at a Toronto FC game, where 10 brides will chase one groom across the soccer field.

Carlsberg is hoping its ‘Big Wedding Bash’ will raise brand awareness among a younger, male target, Becky Kwiatkowski, brand marketing manager for Carlsberg Canada, says. She explains that the Danish beer wants to move away from an image as a ‘dad’s drink’ and instead develop its image as a premium import, comparable to Heineken.

In total, Kwiatkowski expects about 150 couples to enter, and is aiming to generate more than a million impressions from media support, PR, the voting process and, of course, the winning couple’s 1,000 wedding guests.