The first game of the tournament was taking place on a Friday, an unusual day for an international match, which normally takes place on a Saturday. We knew if we missed the first game fans were less likely to engage throughout the whole tournament. We needed to capture attention in the week leading up to the game.

The brief:

Create a fame-driving moment to kickstart the 2024 Guinness Six Nations Championship, bringing Guinness’ brand values of the power and goodness of communion to life. This would be measured contagious talkability & driving impact for the on trade.

Objectives:

 Increase in fan sentiment, bringing it back to pre Rugby World Cup hype (+56%)

 Increase sales in the on trade from negative to positive (+10%)

 Increase brand vibrancy scores

In an act no one would have expected, Guinness tapped into one of the most contagious and humorous rugby moments of 2023, Ronan O’Gara’s, Irish Rugby legend, turned French Coach rousing dressing room talk in.. well Frenchish, I guess?? With 46 million impressions, it captured the attention and WhatsApp groups of fans and casual fans alike.

Just in time for the first match facing France, who had defeated Ireland in the Rugby World Cup only four months before; Guinness convinced Ronan O’Gara to ditch his French alliance.

Together we made an ‘inspired’ version of his rousing viral dressing room talk.

The twist?

This time he was talking directly to Irish fans not our rivals, creating a unifying moment that got fans reengaged with the tournament.

L’0.0pportunité

Because the l’opportunité for socialising C’est f****** énorme.

We understood that one in five people in Ireland are rugby fans, but when we delved deeper we uncovered that 65% could be classified as casual fans. All in for the big matches when Ireland is #1 in the world, but now they were experiencing rugby burnout, disillusioned and disengaged after a crushing defeat and an emotional exit from the 2023 Rugby World Cup.

We needed an intervention for our rugby fans, something that would invite them back into the rugby conversation. The answer? Culturally relevant humour! 90% of people were more likely to take notice if a brand message was funny.

Acknowledging their heartbreak, without reliving it. Talking directly to them and their feelings…

…Then, hit 'em with our best humour and charm to put a big smile back on their face, and get them back to the pub.

The ultimate pep-talk.

As a direct result of the activity, with no supporting occasion OOH.

L’0.0pportunité reached 1 in 3 Irish adults with zero paid media.

L’0.0pportunité broke previous recorded content benchmarks by 3.4 times.

From a negative base, anticipation the first game surged by 169%.

Increasing the overall brand strength scores in cultural vibrancy (3.6%) and leadership (2.4%).

But the most important measure was the real business result delivered to pubs as the Irish fans returned to watch the games.

+3.1% value share across the Island of Ireland year on year.

An increase of a whopping 13% from January.

Beating all campaign objectives. Cheers Ronan!