Our thoughts turn to beer, it must be Friday afternoon.
Steve Henry this week bemoaned the lack of creativity in Budweiser’s latest poster: “a corporate-guideliney visual” which demostrates that "‘selling’ doesn't sell. You have to stand out and you have to entertain.”
Creative it's not. But it does convey that it's a new beer that's 4% and less fizzy. Beer drinkers probably like the idea of a smoother lager (doesn't 'bag you up') and maybe know that 4 is the new 5 in ABV terms.
If you want creativity and entertainment, you might think Guinness was unbeatable. They have a new campaign out. It's such a shame.
Guinness ads used to be the best anywhere; creative, impactful and (surely) helping sales. Now they seem to have disappeared up their own black stuff. Their current ‘bring it to life’ campaign includes yet another epic, budget-busting production described as a ‘good point lost in lavish invention’. Wonderful to watch, but oddly forgettable and disconnected to anything.
Guinness ads used to tell terrific, watchable, enrolling stories, like Jonathan Glazer's Swim Black and of course the award-winning Surfer. But maybe these awards went to their head because then they abandoned narrative in favour of symbolism and spectacle. Which would be all very irrelevant had UK sales of Guinness not fallen by seven million pints in the last year or so.
What’s this, planning by thesaurus? The planning strategy was once famously described as an egg. Now maybe they’ve been through so many brand pyramids, brand onions and (who knows) brand potatoes that they’ve analysed themselves to a standstill.
If actions were really so important, why not make a pint of Guinness as good as it can be everywhere it is sold? They used to say, good things come to those who wait. As far as this campaign's concerned, they should have waited.
I love Guinness as a beer and Guinness as a brand. But I suspect too few people love Guinness as an icon. Or are prepared to buy into its vastly overblown sense of itself.
At the risk of sounding like Dave, it just doesn’t do it for me, and I really want to be sold a pint of Guinness.
Speaking of which …
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