Brief
O’Neill’s briefed us to help generate excitement and buzz for their pubs in the lead up to St Patrick’s Day 2022.
Aiming to target both traditional and online media consumer outlets, the objective of the campaign was to generate competition entrants to position the pub as the go-to spot for St Patrick’s Day.
Action
Ahead of St Patrick’s Day, we liaised with each O’Neill’s pub across the country to get them ready for the celebrations.
The first activity scheduled was to have green telephones in all sites that would ring in the week lead up to St Patrick’s Day. The first guest to answer the call would win a mystery prize – prizes included free pints of Guinness, signed Rugby World Cup merch and the big giveaway prize, a weekend trip to Dublin!
To execute this, we liaised with a telephone supplier to arrange for green telephones to be delivered to all sites and we sourced sim cards for the retro telephones too. As part of this preparation, we also issued how-to guides to all sites and maintained frequent client liaisons to ensure sites had the relevant equipment and were ready for the event.
When the activity kicked off, we utilised a carefully crafted schedule to call sites three times a day for four days and liaised with relevant personnel to ensure guests would receive their prizes.
Selected O’Neill’s pubs also had a Ripples ‘STOUTie’ machine to allow guests to enjoy a picture-perfect pint of the famous black stuff with their own selfie printed onto the head. And that’s not all, guests called Patrick or Patricia were also able to claim a free pint, and all guests were also able to enjoy a bottomless St. Patrick’s Day brunch, limited edition ‘Pot of Gold’ bomb and £2 pints of Guinness via the O’Neill’s app.
High-end photography was also created as part of the campaign to maintain a professional brand image across all communications. Showcasing the mystery phone boxes, ‘STOUTie’ machine and Pot of Gold shooters.
As part of the multifaceted campaign, we developed the concept and T&Cs, before utilising our extensive network of media contacts and consumer PR to get the message out on the activities to national and regional press.
Results
We achieved a combined audience reach of over 138, 418, 156 from regional and national coverage. This included 19 pieces of coverage with a splash in The Sun.
The campaign successfully generated a buzz with customers eager to be one of the first to claim a prize when the telephones rang.
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