The Carlsberg UK brand will build on its German brewing heritage and well-recognised green and yellow image, with an oval label that gives more prominence to its Holsten Knight character.
The redesign by SiebertHead will form the first stage of a major marketing initiative this year, promoting both the taste of Holsten Pils and the fact that it has a lower carbohydrate content than some other lagers.
An advertising campaign highlighting the repositioning of the lager brand will begin later in the year, with the work likely to be handled by Carlsberg roster agency Saatchi & Saatchi.
The redesigned bottles and cans will appear in the on- and off-trade from this month, and will compete against premium packaged lagers including Inbev's Beck's and Stella Artois brands, as well as lower-carbohydrate rivals such as Coors Fine Light.
Holsten's most recent ad campaign, which ran last year, featured a cast of German brewers demonstrating their commitment to the beer's traditional standards. It introduced the strapline "Still brewed to the 16th-century purity law. Just water, barley, malt and hops".
A previous campaign, created by TBWA, which used the line "It's what's inside that counts", came under fire for using an image of a woman with a disfigured face.
Carlsberg announced plans last June to axe its Holsten UK operation and merge it with the group's Northampton headquarters.
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