St Patrick’s Day is meant to be Ireland’s day of national pride. Most often it is a day of great shame. In fact 69% of Irish adults believe that excessive drinking during St. Patrick’s Day celebrations contributes negatively to stereotypes about the Irish people.

As the brand most associated with St Patrick’s day, Guinness wanted to launch their most ambitious responsible drinking campaign ever. On the biggest weekend for Guinness, Guinness wanted to ask people to do the outrageous - stop drinking Guinness. Go non-alcoholic. And instead drink a Guinness 0.0.

The objectives were not sales and profit, but rather to encourage people to make a great switcher0.0 by choosing 0.0 and moderation, drive behaviour change and help restore a bit of pride. And make it a St Patrick’s day to remember.

Our creative thought was: Make it a St Pat’s to remember.

It was an idea that could be both an ad and an act.

An idea that spoke to how we could turn a day of shame into a day worthy of pride.

And also a humorous but literal way of describing the benefits of moderation versus the results of excessive drinking.

Under our creative idea we were able to have the most ambitious brand giveaway of Guinness 0.0 ever for “€0.0.” Run a promotion with Ireland’s largest supermarket offering “buy 1 get 0.0 free” promotion. But also rebrand iconic O’ named pubs into 0’0 pubs and get Guinness0.0 singing.

Guinness is a huge brand in Ireland and most adults celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, whether at home or out with friends and family. So the audience for the campaign was very broad.

As the national beer brand, Guinness had both the credibility and the responsibility to change the conversation around St. Patrick’s Day and, ultimately, to change behaviour. But we wanted to do it in a Guinness way. Not by lecturing people in a serious tone, but by making them smile. With Guinness 0.0, we had the perfect product for the job. A beer that was 100% Guinness, but 0% alcohol.

The intent was to show that moderation didn’t have to mean having less fun. Quite the opposite. We wanted Guinness 0.0 to be the most visible beer brand on St. Patrick’s Day and the campaign to be ground-breaking in its scale and spirit.

There is nothing as Irish as an O’ named pub. So we made them beacons of moderation by physically renaming them 0’0. And giving away Guinness0.0’s for €0.0.

We extended this into a National 0.0h campaign for 150 pubs across the country offering free Guinness0.0.

We rebranded supermarket giant Tesco’s into Tesc0.0 with a promotion offering buy 1 get 0.0 free.

On social, we showed moderation could be joyous by turning Guinness 0.0’s into hero’s, and showing singing pints to be the her0.0 you needed to make a St Pats to remember, which also aired across the UK. We turned the singing pints into a interactive game on TikTok.

We rebranded the Guinness storehouse Europe’s busiest tourist attraction as Guinness0.0. Made Guinness0.0 the first pint people received at airports and rebranded Guinness’s presence at the Aviva stadium to 0.0.

It has truly been a St Pats to remember. What started out as the biggest Guinness0.0 giveaway turned into the biggest Guinness0.0 sale weekend too.

In all 110,000 pints of Guinness 0.0 were consumed on St. Patrick’s weekend across the country.

2,5 million impressions for the campaign, more than half of the population of Ireland.

People felt more proud to order a non-alcoholic drink on St. Patrick’s Day by +8%

In supermarkets, there was a 50% increase in Guinness 0.0 sales.

412% increase in Guinness 0.0 volumes in the Aviva during the weekend

150 more pubs decided to carry Guinness 0.0 permanently than before.

Guinness 0.0 became the most talked about non-alcoholic beer during the campaign

A record increase in Social Media Mentions by +74%

Orders of 0.0 Kegs Increased by 160%

#Guinness00 was No. 3 Hashtag after #StPatricksDay & #Ireland