Binge-Drink Battle Gets £12m Fund

A consortium of the UK’s biggest alcohol companies is backing a £12m marketing initiative to promote responsible drinking among consumers. The companies, which include John Smith’s-owner Scottish & Newcastle, Diageo, Carlsberg and Stella Artois-parent Inbev, are funding the initiative as members of industry body the Portman Group.

The advertising fund will be handled by the Drinkaware Trust that will be run by 12 trustees both from the alcohol industry and independent bodies. Members include the Scottish & Newcastle UK managing director, John Dunsmore, and the Alcohol Concern chief executive, Srabani Sen. The plan for the first three years’ funding has been mapped out.

The Portman Group’s eight member alcohol companies – which, according to Nielsen Media Research, spend well over £110m on advertising in the UK annually – will fund £2.1m each of the first three years. The remainder, it is hoped, will come from other companies involved in the alcohol industry with a budget goal in the first year of £3m;, £4m in year two and £5m in year three.

While the amount dedicated specifically to responsible drinking appears small, it should be noted that since late-2004 the Portman Group members have run the drinkaware.co.uk website address in their advertising as well as on 3bn drinks containers. Diageo also launched its own responsible drinking campaign last year.

At the end of last year the government launched a £4m campaign using the tagline “Know your limits”. The Portman Group previously handled the development of responsible drinking campaigns. This will now be handled separately by the Drinkaware Trust.

The move to clearly separate the trust from the industry body has been on the way since the government’s 2004 alcohol harm reduction strategy – which proposed a voluntary fund for alcohol education purposes.

“This means that the industry-funded alcohol education strategy is done through a transparent independent body,” said David Poley, the chief executive of the Portman Group. The Portman Group is bringing out the biggest overhaul of its code of practice in five years.

The new code has tackled areas of concern raised in recent years such as rapid drinking, website age verification, and issues around the production of replica football kit for kids that carry alcohol branding.

The Portman Group also runs an independent complaints panel that rules over potential breaches relating to naming, packaging and below the line promotion of alcoholic drinks.