The beer industry was in decline in Singapore and Guinness was losing its appeal with the critical younger age group who increasingly saw Guinness as a beer “for older drinkers”.

The strategy was to create experiences that allowed its core base to re-engage with Guinness as a beer with more soul, more authenticity, and more depth. The insight was that the core audience – Singaporean blue-collar workers of Chinese culture, young and old – who had seen so many changes in their country over the last 10 years.

And in the rush to become an iconic global, gleaming city-state, so many of their favourite pastimes had fallen by the wayside, including the popular practice of hanging out and listening to live musical renditions of favourite Chinese pop and folk songs. The idea was to rekindle the lost soul of live music in Singapore and to bring live Chinese music back to the people, in a modern and fresh way.

“Guinness Live” was an eight-week digital engagement campaign rooted in music. It brought together three music veterans and 12 amazing young performers divided into three teams who, under the mentorship of our music veterans, battled it out in a series of 54 live shows held in three of Singapore’s hottest clubs –  Dragonfly, Firefly, and Shanghai Dolly to see who would eventually “Rise to the Top”.

Through a specially built Facebook campaign site, each team and each singer was profiled. Followers were able to watch and track the singers’ progress, witness the rise of their favourite singers to the top.

The site carried details and times of shows which drove audience participation into the clubs where people enjoyed a Guinness night and voted for each act. To further gather support and brand engagement, the shows were live-streamed through the site for supporters to vote remotely.

The campaign was a totally immersive experience that drove brand engagement and brand consumption – all part of the Guinness success through Collaboration.

Results – The campaign energized the venues. The events drove traffic and interest to the venues, which we leveraged in terms of better merchandising, visibility and support for Guinness from the venues. It improved the brand image of Guinness dramatically among the key younger drinkers. By holding the events at times when Guinness was not typically considered and consumed –  early evenings, mid-week evenings, it created new drinking occasions and significant volume increase for Guinness.