Results and Effectiveness

Publicity value S$341,253 – 14% above target, and 227% the size of our original total budget. The event was picked up by 44 different titles, 13 of which are “traditional media” – these reached an estimated 1.5 million Singaporeans. Reverse declining marketshare of Guinness in on-trade, and achieve an uplift of 10% Had been declining by approximately 12% over the last 12 months. Sales of GDIB has increased monthly marketshare by 14%. Compared to a year ago, marketshare has increased by 29%, easily surpassing our objectives. The improvement in marketshare position is clearer down to the successful positioning of GDIB.

Creative Execution

Bus shelter advertising was developed and placed near key bus stops in the CBD district, showcasing the new premium black bottle. The bottle image in the poster was made from real velvet, so passers-by could interact with the poster and feel for themselves how smooth this new product would be. RADIO: Radio was used to publicise the event, including acoustic sound effects of the smooth sound of the bar slide. We teamed up with Lush 99.5 – a popular station with this audience - followed up with event live-feeds. ONLINE: We sent a call for entries to our 50,000-strong Facebook community of Guinness fans, inviting them to attempt the world record. Fueled by strategic Facebook ad buys, this announced the new Guinness Draught in a Bottle launch, and set the community alight with interest. Participants had to describe how smooth Guinness is and 5 winners were selected from this.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

The Guinness traditional adorer base are older blue collar Singaporeans who drink Guinness Foreign Extra Stout in hawker centres and coffee shops. Together with the “Guinness is black, strong and potent” imagery, this meant that young Singaporeans, our target audience, felt disconnected to the brand. The brand was struggling to gain traction in contemporary bars, clubs, pubs; where our target consumers hang out. To break through this quandary, we launched Guinness Draught in a Bottle, a more premium, smoother version of Guinness, for trendy bars and clubs. And to overcome consumer misgivings, we came up with the single-minded proposition “Guinness is now the smoothest beer in town”. A proposition anchored in the product truth and its smooth new look. To get our “Smooth” proposition talked about, our idea was to create a Guinness World Record for the longest bar slide, the ultimate achievement for the smoothest beer in the world.