In a bold and brave move, Guinness sought to bring their brand values and their parent company Diageo’s 10-year vision to contribute to a more inclusive and sustainable world to life by leveraging their sponsorship of the Women’s Six Nations to promote inclusivity in rugby. The 2021 Women’s Six Nations for the first time had its own Championship window, but our critical insight revealed just 6% of sports coverage in Ireland is dedicated to the women’s game. Guinness pledged to ‘Never Settle’ and use their brand strength, marketing prowess and rugby heritage to increase visibility through real action, and in turn unlock a new occasion and deep emotional connection for Guinness and women’s rugby.
Guinness set out to make the Women’s Six Nations one of the most talked about sporting events in Q2 in Ireland by mobilising the rugby community, increasing awareness and changing the narrative. We leveraged Guinness’influence through our voice and allies within rugby. We delivered a multi-channel national awareness campaign flipping our rugby assets to support the women’s game. Consistent earned media engaged existing and potential fans. And we rewrote history creating innovative and first to market partnerships with Wikimedia and Twitter.
‘Never Settle’ has laid the foundations for the further development of support for the women’s game and resulted in a notable share uplift for the brand amongst women in Q2 2021. Media coverage soared and Guinness was voted the most loved sports sponsor in Ireland.
