Budweiser gift card scheme to rescue British boozers

bud460Craft beer snobs may be crying into their hops and barley but it has taken an American beer brand to come to the rescue of the Great British boozer with Budweiser launching a £1m gift card scheme for locked out guzzlers to pre-purchase drinks before pubs can re-open their doors once Covid-19 has done its worst.

The Save Pub Life campaign aims to give landlords some cheer, following last week’s Government edict that all pubs, clubs, bars and restaurants must shut up shop to prevent the spread of the virus.

Agency Lucky Generals was one of the first out of the blocks with a similar initiative to help its local pub, the Betsey Trotwood in Clerkenwell, London, two weeks ago.

Announcing the move on Twitter, the agency said: We’ve just put £1000 behind the bar at our amazing local pub @the_betsey. We’ll pop in to spend it (and then some…) when this is all over but in the meantime, we’re thinking of you and hope it helps a bit with cashflow. xxx #Buyyourpubaround.”

Now Budweiser, which just so happens to be one of Lucky Generals’ biggest clients, has gone one further and pledged to match all purchases up to a combined cap of £1m, helping to maintain cashflows through the shutdown period. It is not known whether the agency persuaded the brand to join in, but it does seem a rather bizarre coincidence if not.

Budweiser Brewing Group president Paula Lindenberg commented: ”We know that Brits are passionate about pubs, so we have launched our ‘Save Pub Life’ programme to help them support their local during this time.”

Budweiser has previously announced it will redirect sport and entertainment spend toward charitable organisations.

Last week, East London brewery Signature Brew launched a new delivery scheme, dubbed The Pub in a Box, which includes a selection of award-winning beers, with glassware, beer mats, snacks, a music quiz and exclusive playlists curated by music journalists to accompany the beers themselves.

The brewery, set up in 2011 by Tom Bott and Sam McGregor, specialises on “band collaboration beers” and has already brewed with Idles, Mogwai, Alt-J, Slaves, Mastodon, Frank Turner, Rodney P, Enter Shikari and many more. In addition, it also runs three London venues – Blackhorse Beer Mile brewery bar, The Collab in Walthamstow and Taproom in Haggerston.

Signature Brew is also selling tickets for what it brands “a proper piss up in a brewery”, as something for all customers to look forward to once the current crisis ends. The scheme will also help to ensure its staff get paid in the interim. Tickets are available from the Signature Brew website.

Related stories
Walthamstow brewery cracks open new ‘Pub in a Box’
Spooner on: It’s the end of the world as we know it
Deliveroo speeds up payments for cash-strapped outlets
Unilever steps up with $100m coronavirus war fund
Asda hands £5m to food bank charities to ease plight
Nine-point action plan for digital in the time of corona