Reportedly, the pitch is being driven by the beer brand's desire to gear up for the upcoming Beijing Olympics.
Carlsberg is not an Olympics sponsor — those honours go to key rival Anheuser-Busch Budweiser in the international beer category and Yanjing and Tsingtao as domestic beer sponsors. For Carlsberg, though, the Olympics offers an opportunity to solidify its China presence.
In recent years, international brewers such as SAB Miller, Anheuser-Busch and Interbrew have flocked to the country, while Carlsberg has announced it will shut around half of its European breweries within a decade to focus on market growth in China.
At present beer consumption in China pales in comparison with Western markets, but analysts expect that to change.
The average Chinese person drinks around 23 litres of beer per year, compared to 42 litres in Japan, 85 litres in Denmark and 121 litres in Germany.
This discrepancy is even more pronounced in China's Western provinces, where Carlsberg houses the bulk of its investments in local breweries — accounting for 63 per cent of market share.
China's regionalised beer market favours domestic brands such as Tsingtao, Yanjing and Huarun Snow Beer, pitching Carlsberg's Green Label and Chill brands — which are brewed in Guangdong province — squarely at the international premium market.
At present, Carlsberg Green Label occupies a top-three position in most major cities, competing with the likes of Budweiser and Heineken. The Chill variant, launched in August 2004, meanwhile, supplements Green Label's 'authentic' positioning by targeting a younger audience.
However, premium brands have yet to make significant headway in China versus their local competitors. Carlsberg, it appears, is hoping that a shift in its marketing priorities may change all that.