Looking to become a top ten world beer brand by 2010, Pilsner Urquell from the Czech Republic is the subject of a global advertising and marketing campaign by owners South African Breweries, worth some US$10M in the first year. SAB acquired Pilsner Urquell in March 2000, believing that it had the potential to become the brewery's first truly global beer brand. Claimed to be the original golden beer, the campaign will centre around the theme of "inspiring originality" with the premise that numerous inventions created since the beer's birth in 1842 were to further consumers enjoyment of the beer. TV ads are currently underway in Poland where Pilsner Urquell is the number one imported beer, with Russia and Hungary to follow. UK, Canada, Sweden and Gemrany will follow.
