Good things come to those who wait

Andy Ball, managing director of Balls2 Marketing, talks beer with Guinness’s latest ad campaign.

With some of the best-known and recognisable advertising campaigns, Guinness is a real pioneer in both the beer and advertising world.

The early witty, engaging ads, a la ‘My Goodness, My Guinness’ and ‘Lovely Day for a Guinness’, through to the 90s fish on a bicycle (‘Not everything black and white makes sense’) and the more recent ‘Made of More’ inspirational stories, are all memorable, creative and, most importantly, on-brand, even though they are all very different.

The advertising and marketing of Guinness is such as huge part of the company’s heritage that a whole floor of the Guinness Storehouse in St James’ Gate, Dublin, is dedicated to its advertising campaigns; a real treat for marketing and branding geeks like us at Balls2 Marketing.

Looking back at Guinness advertising, one thing the company is very good at is creating advertising campaigns that are relatable to the audience of the time, and its latest effort is no different.

The ‘Guinness Clear’ campaign has been cleverly devised to encourage responsible drinking when they’re down the pub, or at home, watching the Six Nations, so it’s ‘a night you’ll remember’. Using the usual clichéd shots you see in beer advertising – slow-mo pours, a few lads taking that a first gulp of a fresh pint, and a brewer holding up a glass of the cold stuff – it’s a really clever piece of work.

Teamed with a social campaign using #GuinnessClear and a presence in rugby stadiums with branded water fountains and sampling teams giving out free water to fans – it’s the epitome of a good multi-channel campaign. It’s starting conversations, giving the brand a fantastic boost, practising great corporate social responsibility and, no doubt, driving sales too.

Multi-channel campaigns like this are effective for SMEs too, if you’ve got the message and your target audience right. That’s why we use PR principles to build our strategies and campaigns, so you’re saying the right things to the right people, through the right channels.