Guinness is going all-out for this St. Patrick’s Day with a month-long campaign that includes rewarding $1 million in cash as part of the Guinness St. Patrick’s Day Toast contest.
To promote community and togetherness, Guinness will be awarding the most memorable toasts that “celebrate friends and family and embody the spirit and joy of St. Patrick’s Day.” The beer brand is awarding $10,000 cash prizes to 100+ winners nationwide.
The St. Patty’s day campaign doesn’t end there. Following the toast competition, which will surely generate share-worthy user-generated content for social marketing channels, Guinness will also promote a new commercial, charity initiatives and in-person activations.
The new TV commercial and digital film will feature former football quarterback Joe Montana and chef Kwame Onwuachi, both Guinness brand partners and will air throughout March.
Guinness will also return as the official sponsor of the Chicago River dyeing and iconic St. Patrick’s Day parade on March 11. As a celebratory ode to the event, the company will use the parade to improve the environment. Using energy-harnessing technology, Guinness will “collect” steps of parade participants to collect power. The power collected will be matched by donation hours in service of the Guinness Gives Back 1M Hours Pledge.
In an effort to focus on local community spirit, in-person activations by the Guinness Open Gate Brewery will be launched in Boston, Georgia, Savannah and Baltimore. The month-long celebrations will include limited-edition Guinness beers, merchandise and live music experiences.
Additionally, Guinness will use this opportunity to promote its alcoholic alternative, Guinness 0, one of the most popular non-alcoholic beers nationwide.
“After the last few years, we’re all tired of staying put – of settling. This is our moment to start surging together again, as Guinness has for centuries,” stated Mark Phillips, Head of Beer and Hard Seltzer at Diageo North America.
