Speaking to John Bensalhia, Niall Mckee, head of Guinness Stout Europe at Diageo, says the 260-year-old ruby red brewer is just getting started
Can a brand live forever?
That’s a question that will be discussed at this year’s ad:tech in Olympia, London. Addressing this session will be Niall Mckee, head of Guinness Stout Europe, Diageo.
“We will be talking about what has enabled Guinness as a brand to live for the last 260 years and why we believe it is just the start of the journey.’’
Discussing his background in technology, Niall comments: “I have some decent experience in digital brand marketing and before this role, worked in the global Diageo Futures Team working on our Tech Ventures platform building digital products and collaborating with tech start-ups.”
2019 has been a busy year for Guinness Stout Europe, Diageo – including the launch of the inaugural Guinness Six Nations Title Sponsorship with a 360 degree marketing campaign: “Notably a strong TVC campaign called ‘The Purse’ which celebrated the humanity and friendship of the tournament through a true story of the Rees Brothers supported by a killer cultural, digital and social campaign that smashed all benchmarks we had,” explains Niall.
“We also launched Guinness Clear, an Alcohol in Society Campaign which won a Cannes Gold, and most recently, we’ve just launched the next instalment of our Made of More campaign, Liberty Fields – a true story of the first female Japanese Rugby Team in the 1980s. So it’s been a busy year!”
The last two decades have seen a massive boost in the growth of social media channels and platforms. Niall explains that while there are challenges, the growth of social media provides a wealth of benefits.
“Social and digital are simply channels where our audience is spending their time, so like any other channel, we need to understand how they work and how best to communicate to our consumers within them. The explosion of channels and platforms in the last 20 years does come with its own challenges around content creation and resource, but these are vastly outweighed by the opportunity they present.”
With events like the Rugby World Cup and the Guinness Six Nations coming soon, there is much in the pipeline for the Guinness marketing team in Europe.
“Rugby is a huge platform for us and we have a massive nine months of rugby coming up which we are massively excited about,” concludes Niall.
