Guinness Time launches with 5m campaign

Diageo is launching a £5m campaign to introduce the idea of “Guinness Time” at home. It will include TV, print, on-pack promotion and a partnership with LoveFilm.com.

The campaign has the strapline, “17:59, It’s Guinness Time”, which is a play on the year that Arthur Guinness took over the St James Gate brewery and started promoting the drink as “a perfect accompaniment to an evening spent relaxing at home”.

In July, Diageo launched a 12-month sponsorship of network films on Channel 4, featuring idents of Guinness and Baileys. The new campaign intends to drive this further and put Guinness “at the heart” of the home evening drinking occasion.

The TV advert will run for six weeks from September and opens with a pint of Guinness, which turns into part of an acrobatic team that fly out of tubes and bounce against musical instruments.

As part of its on-pack promotion, the brand has signed a deal with LoveFilm to offer consumers a free Guinness Choice DVD box set featuring films such as The Godfather and the Bourne Trilogy.