In the UK and Ireland, the biggest drinking event of the year is the Six Nations

Rugby Tournament, which lasts for six weeks.

We sponsored the entire tournament, and launched our campaign on the first day.

The team captains and legendary figures from the game endorsed Guinness Clear in social media

and on film, in a brand partnership with the UK and Ireland’s most popular media outlet, The Sun.

Nobody wants to order water in a pub. Even though it is good for them. People think it’s uncool. So to encourage behaviour change and responsible drinking we rebranded boring old tap water into something special (and something people might like to order). A brand new Guinnes product. Called Guinness Clear. Made from 100% H20.

And we treated it like a genuine Guinness drink, with all the reverence you would expect.

And then we promoted it just like a beer. With all the beery clichés thrown at it. And the Guinness clichés too.

Our film advertising had all the high production values you’d expect

from a beer ad – and parodied the clichés of Guinness advertising. From letting it settle to the 45 degree pour. We had master brewer gazing lovingly at their creation, and groups of men taking big lip-smacking sips of water, just like in beer ads.

Irresponsible binge drinking is a very real problem in the United Kingdom. However, most beer advertisers do the bare minimum to promote responsible drinking.

They simply add a title to their end of ads: Please drink responsibly.

Guinness wanted to do more. They wanted to encourage real behavior change by giving consumers practical, useful advice about how to drink responsibly.

Water is a great way can help you moderate your drinking.

But we knew that people in the UK didn’t like ordering water in a pub.

Beer-drinking culture is strong and people feel embarrassed asking for uncool water in front of their friends.

We needed to take something people hated doing, and turn it into something they might like.

So - we turned water into something people would be happy to order.

A cool new product.

Guinness Clear.

By making it light-hearted people took it seriously.

In the UK and Ireland, the biggest drinking event of the year is the Six Nations

Rugby Tournament, which lasts for six weeks.

We sponsored the entire tournament, and launched our campaign on the first day.

The team captains and legendary figures from the game endorsed Guinness Clear in social media

and on film, in a brand partnership with the UK and Ireland’s most popular media outlet, The Sun.

Film advertising appeared on national TV and social media.

Print advertising appeared in national newspapers.

Meanwhile, sampling at games and designated Hydration Stations enabled fans to get their first taste of Guinness Clear. On social media we teased world first stunts like turning the River Liffey into Guinness Clear.

When the aim of the campaign is to get people to drink more tap water – it’s difficult

to measure the results!

There are no sales figures we can consult.

But we do know that positive sentiment increased very significantly.

By 47% during the six weeks of the campaign.

We observed a huge positive reaction on social media.

Many people tweeted that Guinness Clear was being ordered in their local pub or bar.

You could walk into any pub in the UK and ask for Guinness Clear – and the staff would know exactly what you meant.

It turned out that the way to get more people to drink less Guinness, was to get them to drink more of it.

In the UK and Ireland, the biggest drinking event of the year is the Six Nations

Rugby Tournament, which lasts for six weeks.

We sponsored the entire tournament, and launched our campaign on the first day.

The team captains and legendary figures from the game endorsed Guinness Clear in social media

and on film, in a brand partnership with the UK and Ireland’s most popular media outlet, The Sun.