Guinness

Background: Guinness, St. Patrick’s Day, pubs, friends – they all go together brilliantly. And to reinforce the association, and make the black stuff the only possible drink-of-choice, Guinness set out to make March 17th the 'friendliest day of the year'.
What we did: We created something to share virtually among friends, to enhance anticipation of the big day, before pints were poured and shared for real. It needed to be deeply rooted in friendship, so Facebook was the natural choice – a platform with friends at the very heart of its functionality.
How we did it: Our audience being web-natives, a simple game, or graphic app wouldn't be enough to make them want to share, so we developed an Augmented Reality app (a first for Facebook) that let you send a personalized pint to a friend, which they could pour for themselves. Apart from a pint of the real thing, what better way to treat your friends?
Results: The app was hugely engaging. In fact, 20% of those who tried it shared it with friends. Despite launching in EMEA, where Guinness drinking is still in its infancy, and only being live for four days prior to St Patrick's Day, a whopping 36,701 pints were poured, and over 180,000 comments generated.

When the pints appeared on Facebook, they spread across more than 20 countries, as distant as Brazil, Canada, Israel and the USA. And to top it all, our innovative campaign went on to win Best Innovation at the Social Buzz Awards.