A St. Patrick Day Message Sent by Guinness to Survival

The outbreak of this pandemic Covid-19 has forced a ton of business shut down. With uncertainty, marketers are experiencing unprecedented challenges to keep alive in front of the audience. Marketing during this period becomes vital for brand management since it is a direct way to communicate with customers online at this digital age. Then, let’s take a glance at Guinness, a dark Irish stout, and check how it responds to the Covid-19.

Evaluation
A Coronavirus-relate ad is a primary method that Guinness employs to maintain its engagement with the audience. The video, it recalls scenes that happened before in the S. Patrick Day and comforts viewers that it would always be with a human, ever.
As the article written by Ace Metrix indicates, “the advertisement is driven by relevance and information. A lousy ad by this time would cause an invocable effect of the brand image. But Guinness succeeds in making a video that gets resonated with viewers. With no words of Coronavirus, this ad transmits a powerful image to either the consumers or the entire society by presenting many people who attempt to get the life back and small group of workers who provides the help. It highlights the concept of unity, willingness, and courage, which is essential by this time, to combat the disease and fear. Yet, even though this ad has been posted on each social media platform, it only showed once. And the rest of the messages is relatively normal as the Guinness did before. So, it seems that the pandemic hasn’t changed the way the brand acts to a great extent.

Perspective
Several reasons contribute to its success. Firstly, the releasing time is appropriate. Announcing the video on Mar. 14 is authentic and formal. It complies with the celebration of the festival; in this case, it is easier to arouse the emotions of viewers as the brand seeks.

Meanwhile, it convinces more people to engage. Locked at home, consumers can only receive news from TV or social media. Therefore, the use of ads is useful to reach customers while at home. On the other aspect, the content is relevant, showing empathy but encouragement for viewers to be brave during the pandemic. And the purpose of this commercial is clear. It announces to pledge $500,000 to communities affected by the pandemic in the end. Such action proves a strong sense of social responsibility the brand has.
Overall, this “St. Patrick Day message” achieved a powerful voice that works to comfort people who have to be home and a high level of brand awareness, which might trigger increased purchase volumes in the future.