Friendliest Pint Of The Year
Issue 21 | December 2011
Agency
Geronimo
Creative Team
Creative Directors: Jason Andrews; Copywriter: Duncan Mackness; Art Director: Wayne Jordan
Production Team
Facebook Developer: Neil Metson; Film: Gabor Eszenyi
Date
Spring 2011
Background
Guinness is intrinsically linked with the Irish spirit and the celebration of St Patrick's Day. They set out to promote the date as the 'friendliest day of the year' by creating something that could be shared virtually among friends before pints were poured and shared for real.
Idea
The pub is one of the social hubs for people’s lives. This idea tapped into the spirit of mate-ship in the build up to St Patrick’s Day.
In a first for Facebook, an Augmented Reality app was developed, which allowed Guinness fans to send a personalised pint to a friend, which they, in their turn, could then pour for themselves.
This was the first-ever personalised augmented reality app. Not only could you send a friend a pint to pour at home, it would also have their name on it.
The notion of friendship was brought to life in the online environment using the 'friends' functionality of Facebook to create the first ever Augmented Reality app to run on that platform. And the first ever 'personalisable' Augmented Reality app ever built.
Results
20% of those who tried the app. chose to share it with friends. Despite only being live for 4 days prior to St Patrick's Day (and launching in the micro-markets of the EMEA region where Guinness drinking is still in its infancy.), 36,701 pints were poured and over 180,000 comments were generated.
Once the pints appeared on Facebook, they spread across more than 20 countries, including Brazil, Canada, Israel and the US.
Our Thoughts
I like Ireland. I like beer. What’s not to like with this idea? If you’re young (well, younger than me) then this app would be a blast. even though Augmented Reality is old news (and this idea doesn’t quite top the technological innovation of our very own Earth In Your Hands A/R, Directory Issue 14, 2010), it’s fun, to-the-point, and makes me thirsty. The other thing about going social with this is that it gets people talking about the black stuff in the run-up to St. Pat’s Day even in those parts of the world where Match 17th hasn’t become a green institution. 20 countries, they say.
I’ll drink to that.