Guinness is central to an Irish Christmas.

People come together over a pint of the black stuff to reconnect. However, not in 2020 due to the pandemic.

Guinness briefed us to use media to reignite the magic of Christmas in a year people were forced apart.

Our communications objective was to deliver the magical feeling of an Irish Christmas by using media to allow Guinness to connect people when they could not physically be together. This was particularly challenging with no new creative available to represent this exceptional year.

Our business objective was to contribute to increased sales for Guinness Draft in a can. This was challenging as Irish Guinness drinkers are OBSESSED with the perfectly poured pint in the pub - and proportionately buy less canned, drink-at-home Guinness than other markets. Before their pandemic closure, bars’ contribution to Irish sales was 87% (vs. 72% in the UK, for example).

Gogglebox Ireland – a show that features families in their living rooms watching, and talking about that week’s TV shows - is one of the highest rating shows for Guinness’ core 18-44 audience.

We would create a Gogglebox Guinness Christmas special that included the show’s familiar favourites PLUS a new variety of Irish people living abroad - all watching nostalgic Irish TV to remind them of Christmases gone by.

Included in the content they would watch was Guinness’ recurring, annual Christmas TVC – an ad that only airs in Ireland. It is a piece of cultural content so powerful that even the opening notes of its soundtrack can transport people to their perfect Irish Christmas.

We also created a surprise, within the content, for each of our Irish people abroad. This was a video message from their loved ones back home who they couldn’t physically be with this Christmas.

In collaboration with TV channel Virgin One and Gogglebox Ireland’s production company, we connected 4 Gogglebox production teams across the world, to deliver one special show.

We recruited 3 ‘units’ abroad – an Irish man married to a German woman in Berlin, two Irish COVID nurses in London and three Irish friends in New Zealand.

We also developed a multi-touchpoint campaign with Virgin Media, including:

- Guinness product placement, including families drinking pints of Guinness and cut-aways to images of Guinness’ iconic Storehouse brewery.

- Co-branded TV trailers to promote the show.

- ‘Watch along’ boxes of Guinness goodies being sent to popular Irish influencers.

- Specially filmed content with the regular Gogglebox families showing them pouring pints of Guinness at home to create engaging social media teasers.

This all culminated in The ‘Gogglebox Ireland Christmas Cracker – brought to you by Guinness’, broadcast at 9pm on Wednesday 9th December.

Over the Christmas period, Guinness sales outperformed the take-home market.

In the 2 weeks following the show, Guinness’ share jumped from 12.7% to 16.1%, a 5% point increase on the equivalent 2019 period.

The campaign’s reach and reaction demonstrated its scale and resonance with people:

- Our campaign was seen by 40% of the Irish population, with 347,000 watching the show itself (beating the live slot average by 32%)

- The show trended on Twitter with social media mentions jumping +784% and engagement levels increasing + 84% (vs. previous week when we were live with ATL advertising).

- Product placement was seamless, and the high level of Guinness mentions demonstrates the clear connection people made between the show and brand.

- #guinnessxgoggleboxIRL was a top term mentioned on Twitter. A Gogglebox family summed up the strength of reaction to the Guinness ad: ‘ads like this make me love being Irish’