World-class brand building: The year Guinness became Great Britain’s favourite pint

Great Britain loves Guinness. So much so, for the first time ever, in December 2022, Guinness became Britain’s number one beer in the on-trade.⁽¹⁾

Secrets to success

Guinness, which has been around for over two centuries, still manages to firmly embed itself in culture with its visual distinctiveness.  In Great Britain, ‘the black stuff’ is heavily associated with events like St Patrick’s Day and the Six Nations rugby – because of this, Guinness saw a record on-trade share of  12.1% in March 2023.⁽²⁾

But the brand is not only focussed on select moments or seasons. Guinness has been making its biggest marketing investment to date in celebrations around the calendar such as Christmas and summer – including launching the ‘Lovely Day For A Guinness’ campaign which truly captures the summer feeling.

Guinness also has an ability to spot trends and jump on new opportunities. This year, the brand partnered with the Women’s Six Nations and viral DJ, Fred Again.

Choosing authentic partners in Great Britain, who are both established and emerging in terms of recognition, has enabled the brand to increase +60bps to 3.6% among women and +80bps to 7.7% amongst 18-34 year olds.⁽³⁾

While the recipe remains relatively unchanged, the Guinness brand is continually evolving and we actively pursue innovation. In fact, we are currently sustaining our biggest innovation pipeline in the last 30 years.

This includes scaling up our alcohol-free option, Guinness 0.0, growing our distribution and introducing new packs in the off-trade and launching in the on-trade. In the off-trade, the Guinness 0.0 four-pack was recently the number one non-alcoholic item by value and volume in Great Britain.⁽⁴⁾

And, in support of our ‘Society 2030: Spirit of Progress’ ESG action plan to promote positive drinking, we put Guinness 0.0 at the heart of the Six Nations Championship.

New products have also been key. ‘Guinness Nitrosurge’, a first-of-its-kind device that allows Guinness fans to enjoy the two-part pour at home, was rolled out in Great Britain in fiscal 23, premiumising the Guinness  experience in new spaces.

These unique abilities are underpinned by world-class brand building. We are consistently leveraging our distinctive assets and deep understanding of our consumers, all powered by precision marketing.

This is the reason why in fiscal 23, more new consumers drank Guinness than ever before.

 

^{(1) CGA, 4 weeks to 3 December 2022
(2) Neilsen, 2023
(3) Kantar, 2023
(4) IWSR, 2022}

View Annual Report 2023