Gearing up for St Patrick's Day
Diageo and Pernod Ricard are putting their might behind St Patrick's Day with a range of advertising and on-trade campaigns.
Diageo-owned Guinness is upping its advertising spend by 30% to £1.5m for the event, which will see the launch of a national press advertising campaign, digital marketing and 16,000 point-of-sale kits sent to pubs.
The campaign will run under the straplines "Share a Smile, it's St Patrick's Day" and "17th March, the Friendliest Day of the Year".
Its advertising campaign will focus on the 25 to 35-year-old male target market as this represents 97% of Guinness drinkers.
Guinness marketing manager Paul Cornell said: "We are really excited for the potential for St Patrick's Day this year and will focus our campaign on getting guys out with their mates to have a chat over a Guinness."
Pernod Ricard's Jameson Irish Whiskey is launching a marketing campaign called True Irish Spirit. The activity will include distribution of branded PoS kits to nearly 3,000 outlets, plus an extensive in-bar sampling campaign, and will culminate in a bartender True Irish Spirit cocktail competition.
"As the number-one Irish whiskey, our vision is to give St Patrick's Day a premium makeover," said Patrick Venning, head of marketing for Jameson at Pernod Ricard UK. "Through our True Irish Spirit campaign, we're giving bartenders across the UK the tools and knowledge to maximise the St Patrick's Day sales opportunity in ways that deliver a premium in-bar experience for their consumers."
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