Paint the town black
Guinness / Diageo
Issue 25 | December 2012
Agency
Saatchi & Saatchi London
Creative Team
Executive Creative Directors: Kate Stanners, Paul Silburn Copywriter: Gavin Torrance Art Director: Danny Hunt Planner: Charlie Finnigan
Production Team
Account Handler: Andy Bell/Miles Burton Producer: Rebecca Williams Production Company: Somesuch & Co Director: Daniel Wolfe Editor: Dominic Leung at Trim Producer: Dougal Meese: Somesuch &Co Post-production Company: Framestore Audio Post-Production Company: Wave Media Buying Agency: Carat Media Planner: Ian McGrath
Date
August 2012
Background
In 2009 Diageo celebrated Arthur’s Day on the last Thursday (get it?) of September to bang the drum for the 250th anniversary of Arthur Guinness’s signing of a 9,000-year lease on the Dublin brewery.
The idea has been rolled out every September since. In 2012 Arthur’s Day was Thursday 27th September and at 17.59pm exactly drinkers in 55 countries were asked to raise a glass to Arthur, 1759 being the year in which he signed the lease.
Idea
The creative vehicle in the UK and Ireland as well as other parts of the world) for 2012 was ‘Paint the town black’ and Saatchi & Saatchi were briefed to create the TV advertising that would create anticipation of the celebrations.
The ad showed a sleepy village preparing for an extraordinary celebration, painting everything black.
As an added incentive to drinkers to visit the pub on Arthur’s Day, huge international acts were booked to play in small pubs.
While people got to know that the likes of Tinie Tempah, Texas, Ellie Goulding, Example, Mika, Professor Green, Fatboy Slim, Mumford and Sons and Amy Macdonald would be playing, no-one knew where.
The locations were secret.
An iPhone app before the event included a countdown clock and a GPS-based friend-finder so drinkers could track where their mates were toasting Arthur.
In addition, for every ‘check-in’ to an Arthur’s Day Facebook event in any of the hundreds of the featured pubs, a €5 donation was made to the Arthur Guinness Foundation, which supported people with ideas that could change their communities for the better.
Results
Undeclared.
Our Thoughts
You know it’s a big idea when taxi drivers are talking about it. That’s what happened to me when I was in Dublin in October, weeks after Arthur’s Day. The cabbie was still on about what a great night it had been. “Feckin’ genius,” he said.
This isn’t a big idea, it’s a huge idea. And one not many brands could pull off. As one (rather cynical) journalist wrote, you can’t imagine World Nutella Day being celebrated in 55 countries.
In Ireland there was a tie-in with local radio, stations playing a song at 17.59pm from one of the bands playing in the city that night; a ‘Where’s Arthur’ competition to find a drinker in full 18th century costume to win various prizes. And more.
In both Ireland and the UK there was much criticism of the event by the chattering classes. ‘Having a day in homage to an alcoholic beverage is not going to help (our) social problems’.
In Malaysia the mullahs issued edicts to ban all muslims from taking part.
But rather than boycott the event, as some killjoys hoped, drinkers were out in force on the 27th.
Saatchi’s submitted only the TV commercial. But it was just one tiny part of a far larger and more impressive whole in which dozens of agencies would have played their part.