For many Scots there will be no more exciting time to head to the pub this summer than during the upcoming World Cup.
And with just days left before Scotland’s first World Cup game in Boston, the country’s biggest lager brand is gearing up for kick-off with a major new campaign.
A new TV ad for Tennent’s Lager, titled ‘Time to Dream’, features Scottish actor Rory McCann – who was once the legendary ‘Scott’s Porage Oats Man’ and more recently the much-loved character of The Hound in Game of Thrones.
Filmed in Glasgow pub The Rose Reilly, the ad sees McCann joining Tartan Army supporters as he talks about Scotland’s near 30-year exile from the World Cup and the nation’s dreams of ‘sitting on football’s greatest throne’ at the conclusion of the tournament.
It concludes with McCann telling America ‘we see your American dream and we’ve got one of our own’.
Speaking to SLTN Tennent’s senior brand manager, Hazel Alexander, said McCann was the ‘natural choice’ to front the campaign.
“Scotland’s got such great homegrown talent that is famous on a global stage,” she said.
“For us the premise of the idea is delivering a rallying cry for the nation and it was someone that could really lead that mood. So we needed someone with that stature, but also someone that is straight-talking, no fuss.
“He’s got that realness about him, so it was a really good fit. He was the natural choice for us.”
The Rose Reilly, too, was well suited to the new campaign, which revolves around Scotland’s passion for football. The pub, formerly the Hampden Bar, was renamed The Rose Reilly in 2023 in honour of the famous women’s footballer.
Alexander said the pub was chosen to match McCann’s personality as well as its football ties.
“It’s a well-established and well-loved pub,” she said.
“It’s also got that football legacy as well – being named after Rose Reilly, a huge icon of Scottish football – and it’s a fan favourite on matchdays at Hampden as well.
“There’s also the aesthetics of the pub – it’s very warm, very inviting, and has a very mixed crowd.”
In addition to the McCann-starring TV ad Tennent’s is also bringing the campaign to life in outlets across Scotland.
Point of sale kits are being distributed to Tennent’s-stocking pubs – which feature the Time to Dream strapline as well as, on the reverse, the line ‘No Scotland, Still Party’ to help outlets keep excitement up in the unthinkable event that Scotland doesn’t make it to the final of the tournament.
Alexander said it was important to the brand team that every part of the campaign contained the trademark Tennent’s personality as well as capturing the mood in the country – and the long journey it has been since Scotland’s last World Cup appearance.
“Scotland is at the heart of the Tennent’s brand. Before the qualification way back in November, I don’t think anyone expected Scotland to not just qualify, but also the style we qualified in.
“Having sat in the moment of how Scotland was feeling, not just in the minutes but the days and weeks after, we knew that this had to be about the fans, because that was the mood of the nation at that point.
“I think alongside that it was really honouring the emotion Scotland fans have had over the last 20 years and more.
“There have been hard times and challenging emotional moments. So for us it wasn’t about disregarding them, we had to really lean into what those emotions were. But also reminding everyone that we do have the chance to dream big here.
“Tennent’s has always been down to earth, optimistic and always up for a laugh.
“That’s at our core and I think starting to veer away from that is risky territory.”
The brand will also be working closely with eight designated ‘lighthouse’ accounts to bring the tournament to life.
Those are: Oran Mor, Clockwork and Malones Glasgow in Glasgow; The Three Sisters, Pear Tree and Malones Edinburgh in Edinburgh, Livehouse in Dundee and Casa Del Fuego in Aberdeen.
