To prove that Old Irish is a real deal, we demonstrated true meaning behind these words, and made our promise 100% real. We offered ordinary people to take a virtual tour of Ireland, and while they were busy exploring Irish nature, streets of Dublin and a typical Irish bar virtually, we brought it all alive by building an actual pop-up bar packed with Irish stereotypes around them.
Execution
We filmed the experiment in the streets of Tbilisi - we offered ordinary people to take a virtual tour of Ireland and go to a typical Irish pub in Virtual Reality, while in a matter of seconds our crew built a real Irish pub around unsuspecting “victims”. The real pub was full of actors impersonating how Georgians perceive Ireland and lots of beer.The video of the stunt was posted on Old Irish Facebook page on March 18 with modest placement budget.
Thousands of excited comments flooded our Facebook page: “If I drink beer, it’s gotta be Old Irish”“ This ad is so cool I’m going to start drinking beer!”“Aww, this is so awesome ^^! It makes me want to run down to the store and get Old Irish.”“This ad deserves I try the beer too ”“Genius PR works fine, now I wanna try the beer…”“Oh, what a sweet sweet ad I want to try Old Irish”The video reached more than 500’000 Georgians organically in the first evening. 1 million views in a record 72 hours covered more than a half of all Internet users in Georgia. 1’559’141 total views with 114’600 positive reactions. Story was instantly picked up by international media.A totally unknown craft beer sold 515’698 liters during the first month after launch is 205% of the planned amount.
The Situation
Blatant beer marketing rises a lot of trust concerns among Georgian beer lovers. The ingredients and production processes come under heavy public criticism after exaggerated adverts fail to meet consumer’s expectations. We decided to stress the element of truth in advertising and create an experience that would prove Old Irish really means what it promises - discovering a real taste of Ireland.
The Strategy
Our core mission was convince the audience to give Old Irish a try, since first trial is critical in adopting a new craft beer.It turned out that Ireland is closely associated with intense drinking experiences and overly masculine ideas of fun. As a result we tried to keep our representation of the country close to audience expectations.Majority of beer lovers are active on social media in direct contact with viral content, that’s why we needed a powerful story to arouse interest in the brand. We engaged ordinary people during the experiment, and used their reactions to reach out to beer lovers