Promotion

Past promotion policy

The distinct GUINNESS brand identity has evolved over time, but it is still linked to the company’s first ever packaging and advertising. In the beginning, bottles of GUINNESS were labelled with bottler’s own designs. As trade grew, the first official label was used. In 1862, a buff-colored oval label was trademarked and supplied to the bottlers. It is still famous today.

Three core elements of this label are still used in the brand identity

1. the HARP device – It is based on a famous 14th century Irish harp called the “O’Neill” or “Brian Boru” harp. This device was trademarked in 1876.  The harp still exists at Trinity College, Dublin. Here is the evolution of the harp:
   
   
2. the Arthur Guinness SIGNATURE – This is based on the very signature from Arthur’s signing of the lease at St. James’ Gate Brewery in 1759. The colour and quality of the mark has changed over the years as seen below:
   
   
3. the GUINNESS WORD – This is the name of the product and the family that ran the business. It has appeared on wooden-casks, horse-drawn drays, barges, ships, the Brewery’s gates, posters, tv commercials, merchandise and all forms of packaging and promotional material. It has had a variety of letter styling as shown below, but an official typeface ‘Hobbs’, developed by Bruce Hobbs, was introduced in the 1960s. It was replaced by ‘Design Group Hobbs’ in 1991 and by ‘Unified Hobbsian’ in 1997. In 2005, the font was converted to a wordmark:

Subtle style changes have been made over the years, but the three features always remain.

Advertising

The first advertising for GUINNESS was the famous Gilroy and Animals Campaign done by S.H.Benson’s advertising agency in 1928. Gilroy, an esteemed artist of the century, was recruited by the agency to illustrate for the campaign. He was involved with the “Guinness for Strength” and the “My Goodness, MY GUINNESS” campaigns that ran for nearly 30 years side by side. The former showed people drinking GUINNESS being able to perform feats of strength. The concept was that “Guinness is Good For You”. Some of the other icon phrases used for this were “Lovely Day for a Guinness”, “Guinness Makes You Strong,” and most famously, “Guinness is Good For You”

The“My Goodness, MY GUINNESS” campaign showed various zoo-animals interacting in funny ways with GUINNESS. At Christmas, the phrase changed to “My Goodness, My Christmas, It’s Guinness!”.

Words like timeless, world famous, unique, strong, creative, fun, enjoyable and iconic have been used to describe the advertising behind GUINNESS. The goal was to position the beer in line with these characteristics and qualities. TV ads were eventually added to the promotion of the product. Guinness have won many awards for their advertising campaigns.

Campaigns

Some of the most notable campaigns are listed here:

1. “Anticipation” (1994-1995) in Ireland featured Irish actor Joe McKinney dancing to “Guaglione” by Perez Prado. It put the song to number one in the charts for several weeks.
2. “Good things come to those who wait” was a slogan used to promote GUINNESS Draught in the UK.
   • “Surfer” (1999) – won for all time best TV commercial in the UK poll by The Sunday Times and Channel 4 in 2000.
   • “Bet on Black” (2000) – features a snail race  
   • “noitulovE” (Evolution backwards) (2006) – was the most awarded commercial world wide in 2006
3. “To Arthur” (2009) was released for Arthur Guinness Day, the worldwide celebration of 250 years of GUINNESS.
4. The “Made of More” brand line has been used in advertising in the UK and elsewhere since 2013. Many campaigns have been developed under this new brand positioning.
   • “Wheelchair Basketball” (2013) – made by BBDO’s New York office 
   • “In Pursuit of More”(2014) – emphasises the history, introduces the employees, and reveals the brewing process.
   • “Empty Chair” (2014) was released on the Fourth of July 
   • “Sapeurs” (2014) was the newest “Made of More” ad from Guinness.
   • “Made of Black” Guinness Africa (2014) – aired on MTV Base Africa (it builds on the brand line “Made of More”) It features a Kanye West song called ‘Black Skinhead’
5. “Barnes Sisters” (2014) – film advert featuring biathletes Tracy Barnes and Lanny Barnes was awarded a gold Clio award in 2015 – honouring excellence in sports marketing and advertising.
6. “Berbeda Batik tapi tetap Satu” for Guinness Indonesia (2015) –  made as an attempt to appeal to younger drinkers, 21-30 year old urban males and average light drinkers. A local street art legend is featured and a Facebook app allows customers to create their own batik styles.
7. “#TasteofBlack” for Korea (2015) –  an attempt to expand the brand in Korea and encourage new customers. The campaign is meant to show that the brand is inviting and overcome the perception of an overly strong taste. A hashtag #TASTEofBLACK is used to asks people to share their experience on social media. The advert stresses product features like: smooth, deep, creamy, bold, rich and amazing. It is targeted at men and women.

Themes

Like some of their beer competitors, GUINNESS is a sponsor of sport. They have sponsored various teams and tournaments over three decades. It is now the official beer of RBS 6 Nations and of Premiership Rugby. The beer is sold at the Home Nations stadia.

Guinness was also became the official sponsor for Rugby’s Pro12 league for the 2014-15 season.

New film adverts ran before and during the 2015 Rugby World Cup, that won the company a silver Clio Sports Award this year:

It involved a series of commercials showing historical footage of games past with narratives voiced-over about how people involved in rugby overcame the odds and triumphed.

• “David and Goliath”
• “Mind Over Matter”
• “Irresistible Spirit”
• “Merci”

The The Rugby World Cup poster campaign that GUINNESS ran alongside these commercials was unique and creative with Rugby themes forming the shape of a pint of GUINNESS. Post tournament analysis shows that people thought Guinness was the official sponsor of the games when really it was Heineken.