GUINNESS® launches St Patrick's Day kits to support Licensees

Ahead of this year’s St Patrick’s Day (17th March), GUINNESS® is launching 10,000 new activation kits into outlets nationwide. With the big day falling on a Friday this year, the kit is designed to create pre-event awareness, drive footfall and encourage customers to buy GUINNESS® across the entire weekend.

GUINNESS® and St Patrick’s Day have a clear association in the on-trade, offering a significant sales opportunity for pubs and bars this March. Last year alone, outlets saw an uplift of +125 pints on average where a kit was activated, with 64% of pints being GUINNESS® Draught [1].

The GUINNESS® activation kits include a back bar flag, several metres of bunting and an unprecedented 20 branded hats, ensuring high levels of customer engagement from the entrance of the outlet right through to point of sale. They allow publicans to create a themed bar, so that consumers feel fully immersed in the St Patrick’s Day experience. All POS is branded with “St Patrick’s Weekend” and “Let’s Get Together”, highlighting the occasion for outlets to extend celebrations across the weekend and drive sales from Friday to Sunday.

Emma Rochford, Senior Commercial Planning Manager at Diageo, said: “St Patrick’s Day presents a golden opportunity for the on-trade as it encourages consumers to come together in celebration, especially as all three home nations are playing in the final day of the RBS 6 Nations on Saturday (18th March).

“The Irish origin and heritage of GUINNESS® also provides a unique selling point during this time of year. Last year, 37% of the sales uplift was attributed to the activation of kits in outlet[2].”

To maximise the profit potential of the day, GUINNESS® is recommending that publicans take advantage of the “weekend opportunity” by running different events on each day of the St Patrick’s weekend, and sharing a calendar of events with their customers.

Friday 17th March: Begin the weekend with the St Patrick’s Day celebration. Ensure the GUINNESS® St Patrick’s Day POS is used to its full capacity, consider using the GUINNESS® branded hats as a giveaway and run a GUINNESS® price promotion to drive rate of sale
Saturday 18th March: Publicans can take advantage of the final day of the RBS 6 Nations. There are three important matches between all of the home nations, kicking off at 12:30. Utilise the association of GUINNESS® as the official beer of the RBS 6 Nations
Sunday 19th March: With food occasions in steady growth across the UK on-trade[3], take advantage of this sales opportunity by providing customers with a themed menu, such as Irish beef stew with a complementary pint of GUINNESS®. The GUINNESS® Black Velvet cocktail also proves popular. It’s important to remember that GUINNESS® drinkers are more loyal to the on-trade than lager drinkers and are higher spenders across both food and drink[4]