Salute! Arriba! Tchin-tchin! Why we're all thirsty for 'Mediterranean' lager

Carling lager, a brand whose advertising is probably more popular with beer aficionados than the beer itself (this being a classic of the genre), suffered the ignominy of seeing its position as the UK's best-selling beer snatched by the Italian brand Birra Moretti at the end of last year.

What's possibly even more galling for the resolutely British beer brand, owned by Molson Coors and brewed in Burton, is that Moretti, which heavily plays up to its Italian heritage, is brewed just 70 miles up the M6 away, at The Heineken brewery in Manchester.

It's little wonder that Molson Coors then sought to gain a foothold in this market with its launch of Madri which, despite its name, logo, and marketing imagery evoking a Spanish aesthetic, is mainly brewed in Tadcaster, Yorkshire.

It's clear, then, that providence counts for little - it's a 'lifestyle' that Heineken got right and others have followed, thereby developing a crowded and vibrant (if you like your ad cliches to be Mediterranean-themed) sub-sector of the beer market.

Neil Henderson, the CEO of St Luke's, was responsible for launching Moretti into the UK market - and therefore for the rise of the trend itself.

He says that the popularity of Mediterranean-style beers was borne of the rise in 'craft' real ales - a reaction itself to the increasingly homogenized real ale sector that was dominated by the so-called "Big Six" brewers from the 1960s to the 1990s. These were: Allied Breweries (which included Ind Coope, Ansells, and Tetley); Bass Charrington; Courage; Scottish & Newcastle; Watney Mann & Truman; and Whitbread.

"Craft ale came along and people realised beer should taste of something, and it became aspirational. But for most people they find craft hard to taste after a few pints," he says.

In the lager market, Birra Moretti, which had been established in Italy in 1859 and was acquired by Heineken in 1996, was able to benefit from this interest in craft. As opposed to 'traditional' and long-established UK lagers, like Carling, Foster's and Carlsberg. "It had all the cues of craft, had an interesting name, and had a taste. It had the perfect blend of 'I can drink this but I'm still getting crafty cues,'" says Henderson.

Similarly, its development as a lead brand in the Heineken stable coincided with a change in UK drinkers' pub-going habits. Whereas once 'wet' pubs were all about fruit machines, football on Sky and lads drinking cheap lager, and indeed the ads of the time played up to those stereotypes [see Hofmeister's 1984 ad below], pubs began to change to become more unisex areas, and became increasingly dependent on food sales.

According to Henderson, Mediterranean-style beers (as well as ciders, which also enjoyed a renaissance) were more suited to his environment and shared experience than the laddish lagers that went before. Men and women who might have traditionally been split between beer and wine, could enjoy the same drink of Mediterranean-themed lager over a pub meal.

Mark Sng, chief strategy officer at Pablo, agrees with Henderson's assessment and says that people drinking less has also helped. He adds: "Mediterranean beers have benefitted from a larger, long term trend in the wider drinks category. People are drinking less. So when they do have a tipple, they are opting for more elevated experiences; by trading up to more premium brands, or choosing more novel, interesting brands.

"In lager, this has led to the explosion in the popularity of 'world beers' - offering the irresistible opportunity to travel the world with their tastebuds. This has taken the category from relatively niche to arguably being the mainstream now."

So if the reason behind the appeal is apparent, what about the creative strategies each of the numerous brands has adopted?

In April, Pablo produced its first campaign for Birrificio Angelo Poretti (owned by Carlsberg and brewed in Wolverhampton). The director of the 'Welcome to the lake' spot Jeff Low said unlike most beer ads it "wasn't awful" - instead it took a quirkier look at Italian life, eschewing the images of young Mediterranean-types larking around on mopeds in a sunny marketplace that we're probably all familiar with.

Shot in black and white to give it a cinematic loot, the ad includes surreal elements such as a doubles tennis match played by a string quartet, swinging violins rather than rackets; a garden party where all the guests are classical statues, sipping Poretti and chatting away; a goldfish being taken for a walk along the banks of the lake.

Speaking to Creative Salon earlier this year, Poretti's head of marketing Sam Johnson acknowledged that the category had played into cliches and tropes and that his approach was to create a brand world that was different.

Sng adds: "With the pressures exerted on people by what's going on in the world, or more broadly modern life, Mediterranean beers in particular remind us of more carefree times and warmer climes (current heatwave notwithstanding). I suspect they represent the perfect balance of the exotic with the familiar. A simplicity that is seductive in a complex world.

"For Poretti, we wanted to give people the chance to step out of the oppressiveness of the everyday, not just by creating the expected postcard imagery of the Med' - but to give their minds a holiday from the expected. To create an eccentric and surprising place that they'd like to explore. Hence, a harmonica playing fox"

In comparison, market leader Moretti's latest campaign from Lucky Generals feels like it is ploughing a familiar furrow.

Broadly (and away from the surreal), advertising for Mediterranean-themed beers can be split into two tropes: rural and rustic; or urban, sporting and chic. Both remain premium, and Moretti falls into the former category.

Peroni, owned by Asahi Brewery since 2016, is firmly in the latter. Its advertising has traditionally had a strong focus upon the sea and sailing world.

This sporting theme continued this year in its debut campaign from McCann London for its Nastro Azzurro 0.0 per cent variant. The 'The Italian Way’ campaign celebrates the traits of Italian culture and style, in collaboration with F1 team Scuderia Ferrari HP. The first spot 'The Welcome Present' features Ferrari F1 drivers Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc.

Peroni is also unique in a market that also includes Sagres, Cruzcampo and San Miguel (among many others) in that it can claim to be brewed in Italy - at least for now.

The ascendancy and primacy of Mediterranean-style beers is an advertising success stories; a victory of image over reality - the selling of a lifestyle - and of brands and agencies successfully identifying an emerging market gap, and innovating appropriately.

As to whether the market is sustainable - or another beer trend will eventually come along to supplant it - is another question. However the fact that these brands are able to charge a price premium, at a time when consumers are cutting back on other areas of their expenditure, suggests they'll be lifting pints of mainly British-brewed 'Mediterranean' lagers and dreaming of the Med (even if they can't afford to go there) for some time yet. Salute to that.