COPENHAGEN: Carlsberg, the brewer, is looking to its social media fans for real-life stories it can share in wider ad campaigns, as it aims to become the "most talked about beer" on the internet.

The move is part of a restructuring of the company's social media marketing approach, which will enable it to manage campaigns for all 500 of its brands from a centralised platform.

"It's about us taking a step back from the regular product-orientated stories we've done in the past and trying to tap into real-life stories that our audiences can actually engage with," Martin Majlund, group digital platform manager, told Marketing Week.

"We're looking at how we can cascade this approach to our above-the-line activity," he added.

Majlund said that the group was trying to "develop a more consistent strategy across all our marketing channels". The centralised platform, which permits Carlsberg's marketers to create and distribute content to all social networks, is a part of this development.

"The platform provides a complete view of our campaigns and the rich conversations happening across geographies and social channels," said Jakob Kalkar, group media and digital director.

"It helps us to make sure we go out with the right messages at the right time, to make sense of analytics from digital and social channels and to gauge how our campaigns are performing in real-time," Kalkar added.

Social media is becoming an increasingly important battleground for beer brands. "All the big brewers are fighting for social media now," said Majlund. "We want the Carlsberg brand to be the most talked about beer brand on social media."

Data sourced from Marketing Week, Consumer Goods Technology; additional content by Warc staff